“In an exclusive interview with The Defender, Emily Jo, Aiden’s mother, said before her son got the vaccine, she was led to believe his chance of suffering an adverse reaction was “one in a million.”
On June 10, several days after his second dose, Aiden woke his mother up at 4:30 a.m. because his chest hurt and he couldn’t breathe.
Jo said she was aware of the potential side effect of heart inflammation, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was very rare and mild.
“What they didn’t explain is that mild means hospital care and follow-up care indefinitely,” Jo said.
“The biggest problem is they [CDC] are not explaining what mild myocarditis means,” Jo said. “Aiden’s cardiologist told us no case of myocarditis is ‘mild.’ That’s like saying a heart attack is mild.”
Jo, who said she’s been the target of animosity from anti-vaxxers for vaccinating her son, and now from pro-vaxxers for telling her son’s story of vaccine injury, said the guilt is eating her up.
“I was one of those jerks who was like, ‘Oh it’s your fault. You’re the reason everybody needs to get vaccinated,’ so this has flipped everything for me upside down,” Jo said.
Jo said all her kids are fully vaccinated and she was one of the most trusting advocates of the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics (APA) — until her son experienced his vaccine injury.
“I know the Delta variant is serious. I take this all seriously. I have never been someone to downplay the virus. We masked, we distanced. We did online learning. I just don’t see enough … and the way that they’re pushing — the APA — pushing this through. This is just disgusting to me.”
Jo said prior to her son having the reaction, she was not aware vaccine makers were exempt from liability. She thinks parents need to know there is little recourse should their child get injured by a vaccine.
She said:
“I think another thing parents need to understand is that myocarditis is not covered under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, and the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program only covers if you’re incapacitated, wheel-chair bound or dead. We have incurred thousands and thousands of dollars in medical bills. We have insurance but they don’t pay all. It does not account for tests down the road that we still have to get.”
Jo said she knows the financial part is not the main concern, but she’s a teacher and doesn’t have thousands of dollars sitting around.
“I don’t feel I should have to pay for doing what I was told to do by the government,” Jo said. “Hey we are all in this together and then you get a vaccine injury and you’re just completely ignored..
“Why are these boys just shoved into a corner as collateral damage as if it doesn’t matter?” she asked.
According to the latest data from VAERS, there have been 2,018 U.S. reports of myocarditis and pericarditis following COVID vaccines, with 1,275 cases attributed to Pfizer, 667 cases to Moderna and 71 cases to J&J’s COVID vaccine.
Among 12- to 17-year-olds, there have been 406 reports of myocarditis and pericarditis, with 402 cases attributed to Pfizer’s vaccine.
According to the VAERS website, underreporting is one of the main limitations of a passive surveillance system like VAERS. The website states: “The term underreporting refers to the fact that VAERS receives reports for only a small fraction of actual adverse events.”
On June 25, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added a warning to patient and provider fact sheets for Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines suggesting an increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis — particularly following the second dose and with onset of symptoms within a few days after vaccination.”
Read the full article by Megan Redshaw at The Defender.