In February of this year, a macro-study confirmed that the risk of cardiovascular disease skyrockets after covid, even if it has been mild, for at least a year after the infection alters the ACE2 receptor, and that can cause “microthrombosis, aging of the blood vessels , vasculitis… that end up triggering a stroke or a heart attack””The mechanism of mRNA vaccines consists of generating the S protein and exposing yourself to it. It does not replicate or distribute itself to the organs where the blood vessels are””What The first thing to know is that there is evidence, before there were vaccines, that there were already deaths from cardiovascular or cerebrovascular accidents.” José Manuel Bautista, biochemist and professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, begins by explaining this, when he is told asks about the possible relationship between covid and sudden deaths -from heart attacks and strokes-, of whose increase doctors and neurologists warn, but Bautista alleges many more reasons s, more scientific arguments to explain this possible relationship, which he describes as “logical from the biological point of view.” And not so many to link it to covid vaccines. “Thrombi and thromboses, in covid, have been seen from the beginning, before there were vaccines,” recalls the scientist, “and that is what can end up triggering heart attacks and strokes. I am convinced that the cause is the infection, the deregulation that this infection produces”. And he explains why. The virus, ACE2 and thrombiBautista recalls the key role that the ACE2 receptor plays in covid, through which the virus manages to enter cells and infect them. “This receptor is in many cell types, it is present in many places, and its alteration by infection causes vascular damage.” He talks about “the omnipresence of ACE2 and its importance in maintaining factors related to the protection of the entire vascular system”. A few days ago, the neurologist Tomás Segura also referred to this when he explained that the ACE2 receptor “is highly expressed in the arteries”. And he warned: “It seems reasonable that if a virus enters the ACE2 receptor and takes it away, then it stops performing its function as a protector against thrombosis. It is easier for there to be thrombi.” Damage to vascularized organs “The wide variety of damage caused by covid, in many cases, the only thing they have in common is that all the organs where they occur are vascularized, that is, veins and arteries pass through them, blood passes through them. through them.” Bautista talks about the brain, the liver, the heart… “The only thing these organs have in common is that they have blood vessels and in those vessels there is ACE2, which greatly regulates the normal state of these vessels.” When the infection occurs, “the alteration of this ACE2 receptor causes a lot of reactivity in its environment, and can trigger microthrombosis, aging of the vessels, vasculitis (inflammation of the vessels), and all of this, in the end, can end up triggering a stroke or a heart attack”, explains the scientist. And this, in addition, has been demonstrated by doing autopsies of people who died of the flu and covid. “The difference is that in those killed by covid there is vascular damage, and in those of the flu there is not,” says Bautista. He explains that in the autopsies of people who have died from covid, for example, “many microthromboses (clogged microcapillary vessels) are seen, both in the lung and in many other organs, and those who have died from the flu do not.” And he recalls that there is plenty of scientific evidence on the vascular damage caused by covid. There are several published studies on the matter, before and after there were vaccines. Long-term vascular damage from covid: scientific evidence “There are many studies on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular damage from covid,” insists Bautista. In this, for example, October 2020, there were still no vaccines and sudden cardiac deaths were already being seen. In this other one, from April 2020, he reports strokes in young people as a result of covid. In March 2021, this other study on heart damage, specifically, caused by infection, was published. And in it, it was pointed out that “the majority of recovered patients continue to suffer from heart failure according to magnetic resonance imaging, indicating that the long-term cardiac sequelae of COVID-19 may not be limited to severe cases of infection.” In other words, having passed the covid, even if it is mild, becomes a risk factor at the cardiac level. From then until now, evidence has continued to appear on this relationship between the damage caused by covid infection and the increase in vascular risk in the medium and long term. Recently, in February of this year, a new study, published in Nature, confirmed it: the risk of cardiovascular disease skyrockets after covid, even if it has been mild, for at least a year afterwards. In that study, the researchers found rates of heart disease (including heart attacks) or cerebrovascular accident (stroke) in people who had passed the covid than in similar people who had not had the disease. And it is a massive study, carried out with health data from more than 11 million people in the US. What the researchers saw is that, a year after passing the covid, vascular damage increased significantly. In the year after infection, patients were at increased risk of cardiovascular problems, especially. Which? Arrhythmias, inflammation of the heart muscle, blood clots, strokes, myocardial infarction and heart failure, among others. In addition, the increased risk was “evident even among those who were not hospitalized with covid.” “The results are “impressive… worse than I expected,” confessed Eric Topol, a cardiologist and researcher at Scripps Research. “If anyone ever thought that covid was like the flu, this study should be one of the most powerful datasets to point out that it is not.” Possible link to mRNA vaccines? that there are still people who doubt, who want to think that the cases of sudden deaths may be due to the vaccine, and not to covid. Among other things, because that hypothetical relationship has been studied less. Bautista explains that it is not easy to do it. “It is difficult to investigate it, because we have 90% infected and 90% vaccinated, it is very difficult to get groups to study it, to get a study done well,” he warns. And he provides arguments that would rule out that hypothetical relationship. “Studies of the effect of the vaccine have not been evaluated in such detail, that is true, but it is also true that the protein S that is inoculated in vaccines is a relatively small amount, and that it is also immediately recognized by the immune system. . In the vaccine, the protein does not multiply. It is simply exposed to the immune system and there all the immune reactions are triggered, both cellular and humoral.” Many of the criticisms from those who think that the vaccine may have something to do with it are directed at the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as they are mRNA vaccines, designed with new technology. But Bautista insists: “The mechanism of these vaccines consists of generating protein S and exposing yourself to it. This protein is only temporarily expressed, and also does not go to the vessels. It goes into a few muscle cells and it doesn’t replicate, nor does it distribute to the organs where those blood vessels are.” Covid and damage to the endotheliumBautista recalls that “only the replication of the virus can cause this vascular damage to spread and generate a loss of regulation of the endothelium. The virus does infect vessels, arteries and all the organs through which they pass. This is well known to Segura, who is head of Neurology at the Albacete Hospital. The neurologist and his team have studied the vascular damage caused by covid and those caused by vaccines. “In our laboratory we have studied what is the endothelial damage that covid produces and what is the vaccines. And we have seen that covid is much more aggressive ”, he assures. And he recalls that SARS-CoV-2 is a virus that is very damaging to the endothelium, the tissue that lines the arteries. In 2021, Segura and his team published a study in the journal Brain on the cerebrovascular impact of covid, and “when analyzing patient samples, we saw that the endothelium of the brain arteries was completely destroyed.”Bautista also adds , another argument. If what we are seeing was attributable to vaccines, and not to covid, we would have seen it a long time ago with other vaccines. “Many other vaccines could have produced something similar. Exposure to an antigen through a vaccine would have previously produced a thrombosis effect, and that has not been seen. Investigate the deaths, do autopsies The UCM professor has it clear. It is no longer just the scientific evidence in this regard, but also his experience as a molecular biologist. And “common sense”. Everything points, he says, to the fact that “it is more likely that an infection from a virus that can remain hidden, which has altered the damage to the blood vessels, could be the cause of this long-term vascular damage.” And he adds: “In addition, we must not forget that there are many viruses that cause long-term damage.” In this sense, Bautista joins the request made by several scientists to investigate the sudden deaths that are taking place. Not all, but yes in the cases of young people. To see if, indeed, they are increasing and why. A few days ago, the doctor specializing in cardiovascular diseases, José Luis Carrasco, raised the need to perform autopsies in these cases. Bautista signs it. “In cases of sudden death in young people, it would be convenient to carry out autopsies on those who die from this type of cause, to see if there is the presence of viruses, inflammatory processes… I am in favor of investigating all of this,” he says. investigator.