The preprint came out in July, from scientists and physicians at the University of Bristol, one of Britain’s top universities.
Naturally, it has received almost no attention, even after they presented it in August at the European Society of Cardiology Congress. Research that raises doubts about the safety of the Covid vaccines – even indirectly – rarely gets traction.
The preprint runs 26 pages and includes 56 footnotes. I am no expert on the structure and function of heart cells, but as far as I can tell it appears meticulously documented. And it paints a troubling picture: specialized blood vessel cells called pericytes have receptors called CD147s. The novel coronavirus itself (Sars-Cov-2) cannot attack these CD147s and damage the pericyte cells, potentially leading to clotting and heart attacks.
But free-floating spike protein – like the spike protein the vaccines make our bodies produce – can.
ORIGINAL PAPER: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.21.423721v2.full.pdf
The researchers didn’t specifically look at vaccine-generated spike proteins; they were looking instead at the potential for spike proteins in people infected with the virus itself to cause damage. But they were clear about the implications of their findings:
“Importantly, we show that the recombinant S protein alone elicits cellular signalling through the CD147 receptor in cardiac [cells], thereby inducing cell dysfunction and microvascular disruption in vitro.”
And the spike protein looks and functions essentially the same whether it is generated as part of the virus or through the vaccine. And a paper published in May showed that 11 of 13 people had measurable levels of spike proteins in their blood following vaccination.
Taken together, the papers provide at least a potential avenue through which the vaccines may cause myocarditis and other heart damage – spike proteins may be leaking into the blood after vaccinations and then damaging these crucial cells.
How frequently this off-target effect may be happening is unknown, but the real-world evidence shows the myocarditis link is real, as even the Centers for Disease Control now admits.
In a saner world, regulators and public health experts would make researching this potential link a top priority. Unfortunately, the fanaticism around vaccines has made honest discussion of the myocarditis link and other potential cardiac problems nearly impossible – and research into them even harder.
And so we continue to grope for answers to questions we are barely allowed to ask.
See pics here: https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/pay-no-attention-to-the-spike-proteins