Written by Jack Applewhite

What’s happening: Uncovered emails revealed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ignored a paper casting doubt on the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine. A medical journal published by the CDC, along with five others, rejected the paper, which found an increased risk of myocarditis associated with the vaccine.

Why it matters: The CDC has largely ignored numerous studies finding that myocarditis rates are higher in people who have received the COVID vaccine, particularly in young males. The CDC is now recommending it for children as young as 6 months old.

What the data shows: The paper reports that one million doses of the vaccine given to young boys between ages 12 and 15 could cause up to 6.1 times more cardiac incidents than experienced by those who are unvaccinated. This contradicts CDC data suggesting the vaccine would prevent more COVID cases and hospitalizations than it would cause myocarditis.

• Dive deeper: The doctors who authored the paper were told by the CDC that their report did not contribute any new information to data already published by the agency.

Ignoring concerns: When the Biden administration sought final approval for the shot in 2021, an FDA public health officer advised that the risk of myocarditis needed to be examined further. She was eventually removed from her responsibilities related to the vaccine authorization process.