Novavax is “probably” the safest COVID-19 vaccine compared to other brands, according to cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough who added that he still would not recommend the shot due to high cardiac risks posed by COVID jabs.
“Early in the COVID-19 vaccine campaign, people used to ask me ‘which vaccine is the safest?’” Dr. McCullough wrote in a Nov. 4 Substack post. He suggested Novavax, pointing to a February 2023 study published at the National Library of Medicine. The study “reported on 61,812 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, and myopericarditis in the WHO VigiBase and found all three major classes of vaccines have elevated risks, however the mRNA vaccines consistently are the most risky,” Dr. McCullough wrote.
“There were 61 cases of myocarditis/pericarditis with Novavax and none were fatal.”
The three major classes of COVID-19 vaccines are mRNA, vector, and protein subunit vaccines. The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines use mRNA technology, while AstraZeneca and Janssen come under the vector category. Novavax is a protein subunit vaccine.
In the February 2023 study, researchers identified 45 cases of pericarditis among Novavax recipients, 11 cases of myocarditis, four cases of myopericarditis, and one case of both myocarditis and pericarditis—for a total of 61 cases.
Pericarditis is the swelling and irritation of the sac-like tissue surrounding the heart called pericardium. Myocarditis is the inflammation of a heart muscle called myocardium. If both myocarditis and pericarditis were to occur, with the pericardium being more affected, the condition is called myopericarditis, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Out of the 61 heart issue cases among Novavax recipients, 24 were classified as serious; 19 cases either caused or prolonged hospitalization; three were life-threatening; one incident ended up creating a disability; and 11 were deemed to pose other medically important conditions. None of the cases proved fatal.
From the 61 cases, researchers had access to information on the outcome of the conditions in 32 patients. Among these individuals, 20 failed to recover from the adverse reaction at the time of the study. Eight people were still recovering while just four had fully recovered.
Even though Dr. McCullough cited Novavax as “probably the safest vaccine” overall, he pointed out that “cardiac risks are too high for any heart specialist to recommend COVID-19 vaccination.”
“For pericarditis alone, the Spike protein antigen vaccine from Novavax had the largest point-estimate” in the study, he noted.
In an Oct. 5 interview with Steve Deace of The Blaze, Dr. McCullough said he “called on the U.S. Senate and now the European Parliament, pull all COVID-19 vaccines off the market before anyone else is harmed.”
Cardiac Risks
Multiple studies have attested to Dr. McCullough’s warning of cardiac risks linked to COVID-19 vaccination.
One study from Japan compared 700 vaccinated individuals with 303 unvaccinated people. Researchers found that people who took a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine had higher levels of fluorodeoxyglucose F18 (FDG) in their heart, spleen, and liver than unvaccinated individuals. FDG is a marker of inflammation.
Higher FDG levels could represent heart inflammation, authors of the study wrote, while suggesting that this could indicate minor inflammation rather than any severe myocardial abnormalities.
A June 2023 study from South Korea found there were 1.08 cases of COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis (VRM) per 100,000 vaccinated individuals. The incidence of myocarditis was “significantly higher” among men than in women and among those who had taken mRNA vaccines.
Among all the VRM cases, 19.8 percent were found to be severe. It advised that sudden cardiac death “should be closely monitored as a potentially fatal complication of COVID-19 vaccination.”
A Danish study from 2021 found that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was four times more likely to cause myocarditis or pericarditis than Pfizer vaccines. The higher risk was “primarily driven by an increased risk among individuals aged 12–39 years,” the researchers said.
Conflict of Interest
In his Substack post, Dr. McCullough also raised questions about the U.S. government and its promotion of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination among Americans.
“The US CDC has pushed the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines because their marketing firm Weber Shandwick has a promotional unit inside the CDC vaccine office in Atlanta. The NIH (National Institutes of Health) is the co-owner of the Moderna mRNA patent.”
“The US government is among the top licensees of mRNA patents. This obvious corruption and conflict of interest has misled the country. Among Americans who took a vaccine, 94 percent received an mRNA vaccine.”
He pointed out that Americans have never been provided with an analysis that compares the safety levels of all available COVID-19 vaccines. Schools, corporations, the U.S. military, and other entities that mandated COVID-19 vaccinations “never cared which one was taken.”
“There was no interest in determining ‘the best’ COVID-19 vaccine. President Biden infamously said ‘just get vaccinated,’” Dr. McCullough wrote.
The Weber Shandwick issue was raised by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in October last year. In a letter to the CDC, Mr. Paul said there were “serious questions about potential conflicts of interest related to CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.”
“Weber embedded staff within CDC to promote vaccines and provide communications services related to COVID-19 while simultaneously representing the interests of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, two pharmaceutical companies actively seeking federal approval of their respective COVID-19 vaccine,” he wrote.
Weber was hired by the CDC in September 2020 to provide marketing consulting services for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD).
NCIRD is responsible for providing management and support services to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). And the ACIP is tasked with issuing recommendations to the CDC on COVID-19 vaccines.
It was ACIP that recommended the use of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines among the majority of Americans, including children as young as 6 months old, Mr. Paul said.
“Weber’s simultaneous work for the NCRID, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Moderna raises serious concerns about the independence of CDC and ACIP’s vaccine recommendations,” he wrote.
The Epoch Times reached out to the CDC for comment.
