Former AFL stars wrongly suggest heart issues going 'through the roof' due to COVID jabs

^{By David Campbell}

Quotes and video clips of former AFL star claiming that COVID-19 vaccinations had fuelled a surge in heart problems among athletes have been shared widely on social media by vaccine sceptics.

On April 10, 2022, panellists on the Nine Network's AFL Sunday Footy Show discussed the benching of Port Adelaide player Ollie Wines due to dizziness and nausea that was later attributed to a heart arrhythmia.

The conversation quickly turned to potential vaccine side effects, with commentator Nathan Brown suggesting there was "a lot of this going on in world sport at the moment" following COVID-19 "booster shots".

"Heart issues and Bell's palsy [a type of facial paralysis] has gone through the roof since the boosters and COVID issues," added former player Matthew Lloyd.

Ollie Wines, the footballer who triggered the panel discussion, confirmed after the episode aired that his heart arrhythmia was not connected to his vaccination.

On April 11, Lloyd walked back his comments during an episode of Footy Classified, a different show on the same network, but his quotes have continued to circulate online, appearing in at least one global list of "athlete cardiac arrests [and] serious issues".

That particular list has been debunked by FactCheck.org for including people who had, for example, suffered from medical issues unrelated to the vaccines.

FactLab has also tackled similar lists purporting to show a wave of deaths among athletes from heart conditions such as sudden cardiac arrest, finding they were not supported by data out of projects in Australia or the US that specifically tracked these issues, nor by FIFA's Sudden Death Registry.

Heart problems such as arrhythmia and sudden cardiac arrest are not uncommon among athletes, and there have been several examples of AFL footballers collapsing on field or suffering symptoms before the advent of COVID-19.

Associate Professor Andre La Gerche, the head of sports cardiology with Melbourne’s Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, which maintains a detailed registry of sudden cardiac deaths (SCDs), told FactLab that Victoria was “yet to record a single case of SCD temporally related to vaccination”.

Moreover, he said, there was “no evidence of an increase in arrhythmias”.

Dr La Gerche added that although the sheer volume of vaccinated people in Australia meant such conditions would now be more likely in those who have been immunised, there was "nothing to support causation or even a temporal association” between COVID-19 vaccines and recent cases among high-profile Australian sportspeople.

Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, is a known side-effect of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines.

However, Australia’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), describes this as a “very rare side effect” that is “often mild, and cases usually resolve after a few days with treatment and rest”. 

According to a TGA vaccine safety report from May 5, 2022,  it is “reported in around 1-2 in every 100,000 people who receive Comirnaty (Pfizer) and 2-3 of those who receive Spikevax (Moderna)”.

“So far, reports after booster doses are very rare with myocarditis reported in less than 1 in every 100,000 people after they receive a booster dose,” it adds.

Nick Wood, an associate professor with the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), told FactLab that among the millions of doses administered in Australia, “a rare proportion” would have resulted in myocarditis cases, of which only some would present with arrhythmias.

He explained that if an athlete develops myocarditis after vaccination, they would be told to rest, as further stressing an inflamed heart could possibly lead to arrhythmia. 

“But the thing on the video about it going through the roof is rubbish,"  Dr Wood said.

As for the claimed increase in rates of Bell’s palsy, the picture is less clear.

Bell's palsy is a sudden onset condition that causes muscle weakness or paralysis on one side of the face and is typically short-lived.

Dr Wood told FactLab there had been reports of Bell's palsy submitted by individuals or their GPs in the weeks following vaccination, and that it was likely there would be some cases where no other cause was found.

"But that does not necessarily mean there's an increase in the total number, and it's not a causal link for all of them," he said, adding that the NCIRS was investigating cases to rule out other causes.

A spokesman for the TGA said "acute facial paralysis including Bell's palsy is a known but very rare side effect" of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that has been "reported in fewer than 1 in 1000 patients in clinical trials".

"Bell's Palsy occurs spontaneously in the community, at a yearly rate between 13 and 53 cases per 100,000 people," he said.

AAP Fact Check summarised the research on this in August 2021, finding a handful of international studies had suggested the possibility of a slightly elevated risk among people who had received mRNA vaccines, although an expert noted that the "big safety surveillance systems in the US have not detected a signal".

The cause of Bell's palsy is not known, though it may be linked to viral infections — including COVID-19 — and can be triggered by stress, trauma and minor illness, among other things.

By some estimates, 1 in 60 people will experience the condition in their lifetime.