Medical examiners’ emails reveal debate over COVID-19 vaccine-linked deaths

Medical examiners in New York and other jurisdictions sought professional guidance on cardiac abnormalities and deaths occurring after COVID-19 vaccination, including the case of a previously healthy 16-year-old boy who died four days after receiving his second Pfizer dose, according to emails obtained from the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME).

The correspondence, contained in 1,970 pages of records released under New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), covers October 2020 to July 2024 and documents discussions among forensic pathologists about investigating suspected vaccine-related deaths, evaluating heart abnormalities and interpreting emerging safety data.

The emails, obtained by attorney Jimmy Wagner and reviewed by The Defender, also reveal disagreements among medical professionals over how to assess vaccine safety concerns and respond to reports of possible adverse effects.

Wagner accused city officials of prioritising “their personal feelings ahead of sound scientific policies,” arguing that the private correspondence contradicted public assurances about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

On June 26, 2021, Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. James Gill, contacted members of the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) discussion group seeking information about autopsies involving adolescents who developed cardiac complications following their second COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Gill disclosed that his office was investigating the death of a 16-year-old boy found dead in bed four days after receiving his second Pfizer vaccination.

“His heart has striking ischemic changes (more of a stress cardiomyopathy picture than a myocarditis),” Gill wrote, adding that the teenager was otherwise healthy and had tested negative for COVID-19.

Ischemic changes indicate reduced blood flow or oxygen supply to heart tissue, while stress cardiomyopathy is a condition that affects the heart’s ability to pump blood. Although different from myocarditis, both conditions can cause serious cardiac complications.

Gill did not respond to questions about whether the findings were directly attributed to vaccination.

However, a 2022 study published in Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, co-authored by Gill and colleagues, examined autopsy findings in two adolescents who died shortly after receiving their second COVID-19 vaccine doses. The researchers reported cardiac abnormalities resembling stress-related heart injury rather than typical myocarditis.

Earlier, on June 4, 2021, Barbara Sampson, then New York City’s chief medical examiner, contacted Harvard-affiliated pathologists Richard Mitchell and Robert Padera Jr. to inquire about published evidence concerning tissue abnormalities in suspected vaccine-associated myocarditis.

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Sampson disclosed a case involving focal lymphocytic myocarditis diagnosed two months after vaccination, although she expressed doubt about a possible connection.

Mitchell said he had not encountered convincing pathological evidence linking tissue abnormalities to COVID-19 vaccination, while Padera cautioned against automatically attributing medical events occurring after vaccination to the vaccine itself.

Padera noted that millions of people were being vaccinated and that some would inevitably experience unrelated medical emergencies during the same period.

The records also show that OCME officials sought guidance on deaths occurring shortly after vaccination during the early months of the rollout.

On February 8, 2021, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Melissa Pasquale-Styles emailed Dr. Martha Iwamoto of the New York City Department of Health’s Bureau of Immunization with the subject line, “another death one day after vaccine.”

The message was redacted. Iwamoto responded with information from clinical trials and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), emphasising that reports submitted to the system did not establish causality.

“Short term mortality rates appear unrelated to vaccination,” she wrote.

Two days later, Pasquale-Styles sent another email seeking clarification about vaccine-associated anaphylaxis. That correspondence was also withheld.

In May 2021, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began investigating myocarditis among young vaccine recipients, forensic pathologist Dr. Ronald Wright dismissed the emerging reports as potentially inconclusive.

By December 2021, disagreements over vaccine safety had become increasingly pronounced within professional forensic pathology circles.

On December 13, Dr. Jay Stahl-Herz, a New York City medical examiner, criticised the circulation of reports by former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson concerning possible cardiac incidents among professional athletes.

“Please stop sharing misinformation from a non-medical source on NAME-L,” Stahl-Herz wrote.

Dr. Venus Azar challenged the position, arguing that information should be evaluated based on evidence rather than the professional background of the person presenting it.

“You cannot know what is misinformation until you have looked at the original reports,” Azar wrote.

Dr. Stephen Pustilnik, chief medical examiner of Fort Bend County, Texas, also criticised Berenson’s reporting, describing him as a “COVID crank” and accusing him of spreading misinformation.

Dr. William Oliver argued that professionals should focus on data and scientific arguments instead of discrediting individuals with whom they disagreed.

He also cautioned that it would take years before researchers could make definitive conclusions about certain figures and trends.

Oliver raised concerns about differences in the observation periods used in myocarditis studies, suggesting that shorter monitoring windows could fail to capture some cases.

The correspondence emerged as public health authorities were increasingly recognising myocarditis and pericarditis as potential adverse events associated with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, particularly among adolescent and young adult males.

On June 25, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced revisions to the fact sheets for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to include warnings about myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly following second doses.

Dr. Pauline Alakija called on colleagues to counter claims about vaccine-related deaths among Canadian doctors, while Dr. Eli Goodman cautioned against dismissing information prematurely.

Goodman observed that individuals who had confidently labelled information as misinformation had sometimes subsequently been proven wrong.

Attorney Sujata Gibson alleged that the correspondence showed medical professionals had access to early warnings about potential vaccine-related injuries but responded by downplaying concerns.

“The city had the warnings. Deaths within a day of vaccination. A teenager found dead days after his second dose. State alerts about myocarditis in young men,” Gibson said.

She further alleged that the medical discussions narrowly defined injuries and dismissed individuals raising concerns as sources of misinformation.

The CDC did not respond to a request for comment. Sampson also did not respond to inquiries.

The released correspondence highlights the challenges faced by forensic pathologists in determining causes of death, distinguishing temporal associations from causal relationships, and navigating scientific disagreements during a rapidly evolving public health emergency.

While the emails document internal discussions and concerns, establishing whether individual deaths were caused by vaccination requires evidence from comprehensive investigations, including clinical histories, autopsy findings and other relevant medical data.