I Got Myocarditis From The Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccination

About 2 weeks ago, on a Thursday afternoon at around 4.30 pm, I was seated at the table doing some university work when I felt this chest pain come on. The pain wasn’t excruciating, although it was enough for me to need to lay down on the couch as I was too distracted by it and started to feel worried. The pain radiated to my jaw, and I knew from background knowledge that when the pain from the chest radiates to the jaw, it is a heart-related matter.

The next day I rushed to my GP to secure a referral with a cardiologist who couldn’t get me in until the 22nd of November. It was the 22nd of October, so I had a month to wait. I called the cardiologist and told them I needed an appointment for some chest and jaw pain, and they told me that those symptoms were severe ones. It was Friday at around 4.30 pm, 24 hours after I had experienced those 30 minutes of moderately intense pains in my chest and jaw. I figured, why not go to the hospital and get some scans done in the interim? I had nothing to do that night, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep in peace unless I had some closure.

I drove to the nearest hospital and entered the ED, and to my surprise, I was taken straight through the doors. I predicted before getting there that I would be in the waiting room for about 2 hours, and I would then get assessed for another 2 hours, with a total time of 4 hours spent in the hospital. I didn’t want to do it, but I knew I had to consider my genetic vulnerabilities. My grandfather died of a heart attack at 49 years old, and I didn’t want to take any chances.

Tests were run, and about 4 hours later, a doctor approached me and told me there were some concerns. After testing my blood, they found high levels of an enzyme called troponin in my blood — an enzyme present in the blood in high levels of people who suffer from heart attacks. The doctor told me I had to stay the night, and after I pleaded to go home and was persuaded to stay, I set myself up in the ED for a sleepover.

At around 3 am that night, I was woken by a couple of nurses who moved my bed. I was half asleep and didn’t understand what they were saying or doing. “What’s going on?” I said. “We are moving you to the cardiac department”, they said. “Oh, okay”, and back to sleep, I went.

It was only until the following day that I realised what had actually happened. I was moved to the cardiac department. “What the fuck am I doing in the cardiac department. What’s going on here?” It was Saturday morning, and the hospital’s cardiologist approached me and said, “we need to run some more scans, and our technicians aren’t available on the weekends, so you will be here till Monday”. “Monday?” I replied with concern and dread. “Can’t I just go home and come back on Monday to do the scans?”. The cardiologist responded, “Chris, your blood showed some concerning things and given your genetic vulnerabilities, there’s no way we are risking a healthy 30-year-old walking out these doors and dropping dead. You’re staying here”.

I was filthy more than anything, stuck in a hospital bed during a precious weekend. “Damn it, I just got out of a fucking lockdown, and now I’m locked down again?”. My inner child was feeling rebellious and angry, but my adult self was a little concerned and grateful for being taken good care of.

By Sunday, the nurses gave me a schedule for the Monday ahead. I was to have an ultrasound on my heart and then go in for a CT scan. The nurses told me that my heart rate had to be really low for the CT scan to work correctly. I said, “Yeah, good luck with that; I’m claustrophobic, I’m going to have a panic attack in that thing”. The nurses told me not to worry; they had all the right meds to calm me down. I protested, “Your valium is not going to calm me down, my heart rate will go through the roof, and you will have to cancel the scan”. They insisted that it would be fine and they would get me calm.

Monday came, and I was wheelchaired down to the CT scan. As soon as my ass hit the machine, I started hyperventilating. The technician said, “we need your heart rate low. We can’t run this test if it’s not low”. I said, “yeah, I’m on a cocktail of drugs to calm me down, but I’m still anxious as hell”. The scan was cancelled.

5pm Monday, and I told the nurses I was going home. Against their will, they signed away to let me go under the condition that I would see a cardiologist on the outside ASAP. I visited my cardiologist and was told that because I couldn’t do the CT scan, I had to take an alternative procedure called an angiogram, where they stick a 2mm catheter into the artery of your arm, which is 3mm in diameter and feed it all the way into your heart to check for any blockages. “Is it going to hurt?” I asked. “There is zero pain involved”, said my cardiologist. “Okay, here goes nothing”, as I signed away at the consent form.

I had my angiogram last week, and it was a brilliant, seamless procedure. There were no blockages in my arteries.

So, what was the problem? I have a case of minor myocarditis. My chest pain came about 10 days after receiving the second dose of my Pfizer vaccine. Myocarditis is a rare side effect of the mRNA vaccines, which result in inflammation around the heart.

Would I get the vaccine again? Probably, although I personally would stay away from the mRNA. I won’t be getting a booster, either, and I can now get medical exemptions if it ever comes to that. I’m annoyed because I consulted with about 3 doctors before getting the vaccine, telling the doctors that I had a family history of heart issues and was concerned about myocardial issues. They each said to me that any vaccine is better than no vaccine. I probably would have said the same thing if I were in their shoes. This is a novel virus and a novel vaccine. There are no sure things.

While the risk of severe illness is a real possibility with the virus, I’m pro-vaccination for people who want it. I’m grateful that my parents, grandmother, and other older family and friends can get protection. I’m proud that the Cambodians who live in a third-world country could secure vaccines quicker than we were here in Australia. That alone signifies incredible leaps forward in terms of human progress on a global scale. I’m also grateful for the scientific triumph, as we got these vaccines rolled out in record-breaking times and the technology of the medicine in itself is an impressive piece of work.

One thing I’m concerned about, however, is this push for mandatory vaccinations. That, I’m not so happy about. You have the anti-vaxxers who are entirely opposed to the vaccine, but then you have the hesitant. Initially, I was excited to get the vaccine when there were talks about it being released earlier this year, but then I became hesitant when I noticed everything becoming politicised. The stringent lockdowns in Australia made me feel bitter and resistant to anything authority told me I had to do. I heard helicopters fly over my head every night while in bed, the military was deployed on our streets and I couldn’t go further than a 5km radius from my home for months. I became extremely opposed to these measures as I thought they were a stretch a little too far. I ended up getting vaccinated because I started to fall into depression being in lockdown for too long, and I needed to get back to work. Also, I know I will need the vaccine to travel.

I’m in training to be a scientist, and I’m aware of what is going on regarding the virus and the vaccine from a scientific standpoint. I understand the sentiment, but I think mandatory vaccines are a dangerous move in the political sphere. President Biden wants to make it compulsory for all companies in America that employ over 100 people to mandate vaccines or fire their employees. We are talking about 80–100 million Americans here, so good luck with that, Joe. Americans know how to hit the streets and rally, and they do so in big numbers with a whole lot of enthusiasm and energy. That’s going to cause an entire cascade of societal issues. When an anti-terrorism squad is deployed on the streets to fire rubber bullets at peaceful protestors who are opposing mandatory vaccinations and highly stringent lockdowns, it's safe to say that perhaps the cure is worse than the disease. From a social perspective, this was the case in the city of Melbourne.

Although justified, the vaccine propaganda has been done in such a poor manner. It has been cheesy and pushy, precisely what a vaccine-hesitant person would become more sceptical over. It's obvious that even prior to the pandemic there was a major breakdown of trust for our governments, media and other institutions and corporations. The pandemic has exposed that to a large extent. I believe it's the responsibility of these establishments to gain that trust back instead of placing the blame on conspiracy theorists and sceptics. These movements were originally bred from the already formed lack of trust. I am afraid that mandatory vaccinations will only make these matters worse.

I’ve looked at a lot of the data, I’ve listened to both sides of the debate, and I’ve had some of my own personal experiences. My stance remains like this — I’m pro-vax for people who want it, and I’m anti-vax for those who don’t. But making a vaccine-like an mRNA mandatory raises a lot of concern in my view.

I call for freedom of choice.