Norwegian study shows that 74% of new myocarditis cases were related to COVID-19 vaccination â only 4.2% were related to COVID-19 infection.
Myocarditis is lethal.
Myocarditis â inflammation of the heart muscle â is a âserious conditionâ and a frequent cause of sudden death in young, apparently healthy people, with a 50â60% mortality rate âafter five years.â The statement by Prof. Jan Erik Nordrehaug is somewhat outdated, but later research by Mi-Jeong Kim and colleagues shows the same trend with a mortality rate of approximately 40% after 10 years.
Approved for children, despite suspicion of myocarditis.
As early as April 2021, the European Medicines Agency suspected that the COVID-19 vaccine could cause myocarditis, but Pfizer/BioNTech still decided to approve it for children as young as 12 years old. This is despite the fact that the vaccine had not even been tested for transmission and that practically no children die from COVID-19 infection. Later research has strengthened the Agencyâs suspicions of an increased incidence of myocarditis among COVID-19 vaccine recipients, especially young men.
Dramatic numbers from Norway.
A recently published Norwegian study by Bendik Skinningsrud Hagen and colleagues also shows that COVID-19 vaccination is particularly associated with myocarditis in young men (see figure 2 below in the article, which shows the incidence in men and women). What is most surprising, however, is that the vaccine causes 74% of cases (the articleâs figure 1 shows 177 cases compared to 108 others, of which 42 are excluded because myocarditis occurred before vaccination and 4 are due to misdiagnosis). The authors claim that most were âmildâ â letâs hope so â but Nordrehaugâs statement that the mortality rate is 50-60% âafter five yearsâ, and the figure from Mi-Jeong Kim and colleagues showing low mortality in the first years that then increases, tells us that we do not yet have the full picture.
28% increase in the use of heart medication and high excess mortality among young people.
Although the number of myocardial infarction cases detected in the study by Hagen and colleagues is not a particularly high number in isolation, it may indicate that something is wrong with heart health, especially in young people. Other statistics from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, which show a 28% increase in the use of heart medication among those aged 15â45 years from 2020 to 2025, reinforce this assumption.
There was no increase in 2020 â a year of COVID-19 infection without a vaccine â but it increased from 2021, in parallel with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine to the younger population in the second half of the year.
Other factors that indicate that all is not well with the health of young people are high excess mortality. In 2023, it was 59.6% of diseases and 41.3% of all causes among those aged 1â40 years, and close to 37% of all causes in 2024 among those aged 1â19 years.
COVID-19 infection plays a minor role.
In parallel with the statistics from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health that showed no increase in the use of heart medication in 2020 among young people, the first year of COVID-19, but no vaccine, Hagen and colleagues identified only 10 cases (4.2%) that were related to the infection itself. From a French study, I have also calculated low numbers, and an Israeli study conducted before the rollout of the vaccine found no connection between COVID-19 infection and myocarditis.
Accordingly, there is substantial evidence that we can safely dismiss COVID-19 infection as the scapegoat for the negative development in young peopleâs heart health.
Biathlete Sivert Guttorm Bakken (1998-2025) â âmildâ myocarditis.
Biathlete Sivert Guttorm Bakken developed myocarditis after receiving his third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in May 2022. He described the pain âas if someone were squeezing his heart.â
Like most cases of myocarditis after vaccination in the study by Hagen and colleagues, Bakkenâs condition was also described as âmild,â but on the day before Christmas Eve last year, during a training stay in Italy, he was found dead in his hotel room, only 27 years old. The death occurred about two and a half years after the third dose with subsequent myocarditis, while Hagen and colleagues studied cases over a considerably shorter period.
I am not aware of any autopsy report being published after the death. I therefore have no certain information about whether the cause of death was cardiac fibrillation, an altitude mask he was wearing when he was found dead, myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination, or a combination of causes.
Who made the best vaccine choice?
Regardless of what contributed to Bakkenâs tragic death, I believe the empirical evidence clearly shows a negative COVID-19 vaccine effect on young peopleâs health in general and heart health in particular. As previously stated, I therefore continue to argue that young people who refused the COVID-19 vaccine made the best choice, and the study by Hagen and colleagues does not weaken this claim.
References and graphs on my Substack.