Did the Cleveland Clinic say widespread use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine will cause a wave of "mass deaths" within the next five years? No, that's not true: The medical center issued no such warning. A spokesperson for the Cleveland Clinic told Lead Stories there is no scientific basis for the claim that the COVID-19 vaccine will lead to myocarditis and mass deaths.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) by Slay News on November 10, 2024. Titled "Cleveland Clinic Warns Wave of Mass Deaths Will Wipe Out Covid-Vaxxed Within '5 Years,' the article opened:
The prestigious Cleveland Clinic has issued a chilling warning of an incoming wave of deaths that will kill off huge numbers of people who received Covid mRNA 'vaccines.'
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Cleveland Clinic Warns Wave of Mass Deaths Will Wipe Out Covid-Vaxxed Within '5 Years' - Slay News
The prestigious Cleveland Clinic has issued a chilling warning of an incoming wave of deaths that will kill off huge numbers of people who received Covid mRNA "vaccines."
Lead Stories contacted Cleveland Clinic to ask about the claim. In an email dated November 22, 2024, a spokesperson wrote:
Recent claims suggesting that the COVID-19 vaccine will lead to myocarditis and mass deaths are false and lack any scientific basis. Research has shown that contracting the COVID-19 virus is a greater risk factor for heart-related complications, including myocarditis, than the vaccine.
As alleged support for its claim, the Slay News article cites a page (archived here) on the Cleveland Clinic website that talks about myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart. The page says -- and the article reports: "The survival rate for myocarditis is 80% one year after having it and 50% five years later." Apparently, that statistic is what the author of the Slay News article is referencing when he talks about an incoming "wave of mass deaths [that] will wipe out [the] Covid-vaxxed" within the next five years.
The article reads:
According to Cleveland Clinic, mass mortality is expected to surge due to a ticking time bomb of myocarditis among the Covid-vaccinated.
Myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination is rare, but has happened, most frequently in adolescent and young adult males, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (archived here). Cleveland Clinic, on its page about myocarditis, says this about the connection:
In rare cases, myocarditis has happened in young people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech® or Moderna® vaccines for COVID-19. Symptoms can start during the first week after receiving the vaccine.
The page continues:
Most people who have this reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine recover quickly after treatment and can get back to their regular activities when they feel better. However, if you've had myocarditis, you should check with a cardiologist before exercising again.
It concludes:
The CDC considers COVID-19 a greater risk than the risk of rare side effects of the vaccine. They recommend the vaccines for young people.
In other words, there is no evidence -- and the Cleveland Clinic certainly did not issue a warning -- that the COVID vaccine is going to cause a wave of mass deaths in the next five years. Myocarditis is a rare condition and, according to the CDC, the risk of COVID-19 is greater than that risk, or any of the risks of rare side effects of the vaccine.
The Slay News article also alleged that the Cleveland Clinic intentionally tried to bury the "alarming" news. It wrote:
[R]ather than issuing a red alert to the public about the looming catastrophic death wave, the Ohio-based nonprofit academic medical center quietly dropped the bombshell in a recent update on its website.
In reality, the Cleveland Clinic did not recently update its page on myocarditis. The sentence about the survival rate for myocarditis has been on the page since at least November 2022, as can be seen here.
This is not the first time Lead Stories has fact checked an article posted by Slay News. In 2023, we debunked the claim that the COVID vaccine lowers male life expectancy by 24 years (archived here).
See here for other Lead Stories fact checks of claims concerning the COVID vaccine.
