British Indian medic warns of 'pandemic of misinformation' around COVID vaccines

London: A leading Indian-origin consultant cardiologist based in the UK on Monday issued a stark warning of what he fears is a "pandemic of misinformation" around the long-term side effects of some COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr Aseem Malhotra, a National Health Service (NHS) trained cardiologist who has had two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, has called for the suspension of government mandated mRNA vaccine rollout to fully investigate serious side effects.

Having observed a rise in out of hospital cardiac arrests and heart attacks, the medic also fears that an mRNA vaccine was the likely "contributory factor" in the sudden death last year of his father, leading UK-based general practitioner (GP) Dr Kailash Chand.

"Re-analysis of randomised controlled trials using the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology suggests a greater risk of serious adverse events from the vaccines than being hospitalised from COVID-19," writes Malhotra in peer-reviewed ‘Journal of Insulin Resistance’.

"Pharmacovigilance systems and real-world safety data, coupled with plausible mechanisms of harm, are deeply concerning, especially in relation to cardiovascular safety. Mirroring a potential signal from the Pfizer Phase 3 trial, a significant rise in cardiac arrest calls to ambulances in England was seen in 2021, with similar data emerging from Israel in the 16-39-year-old age group,” he writes.

The two-part paper, entitled ‘Curing the pandemic of misinformation on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines through real evidence-based medicine’ and based on months of research, calls for raw data from clinical trials to be released for independent scrutiny.

"It cannot be said that the consent to receive these agents was fully informed, as is required ethically and legally. A pause and reappraisal of global vaccination policies for COVID-19 is long overdue,” the paper concludes.

Malhotra's assessment has been backed by other leading members of the global medical community, including Jay Bhattacharya, Professor of Medicine at the University of Stanford, and Sherif Sultan, Professor of Vascular Surgery.

"Dr Malhotra’s paper calls for a pause in the use of the vaccine in younger people, such as the one recently adopted by Danish public health authorities and the Florida department of public health in the United States,” said Prof. Bhattacharya.

"He calls for investigation of side effect profiles of mRNA vaccines and for a halt to any vaccine mandate programs involving COVID vaccines. These papers should be considered carefully by all public health authorities who seek to adopt principles of evidence-based medicine in their recommendations to the public regarding the COVID mRNA vaccines,” he said.

Prof. Sultan said Malhotra’s analysis is a matter of global concern amid the lack of “long-term safety evaluation of mRNA vaccines”.

"These findings raise concerns regarding vaccine-induced undetected severe cardiovascular side effects and underscore the established causal relationship between vaccines and myocarditis, a frequent cause of unexpected cardiac arrest in young individuals,” said Sultan.

"Surveillance of potential vaccine side effects and COVID-19 outcomes to identify public health trends and promptly investigate potential underlying causes needs immediate attention,” he said.

“Given the declining virulence of the infection and mounting evidence of vaccine-related harms, there can be no justification to continued mass roll-out of booster programs given the short-term risks from the vaccine likely outweigh the benefits for the majority of the population and we remain ignorant of the long-term risk to health,” added Dr Bob Gill, a GP and documentary producer.