Quote:
An early report that set in motion fears of a Covid-heart disease connection was published in JAMA Cardiology on July 27, 2020. German researchers claimed that 78% of recently recovered Covid-19 patients had “abnormal” signs on their cardiac magnetic resonance scans and 60% showed signs of inflamed heart muscle, a condition known as myocarditis. Those astonishing numbers were covered in nearly 400 news outlets. The report has so far received been viewed more than 900,000 times — a rarity for academic papers.
Soon after its publication, however, the paper was criticized for statistical and methodologic errors. It eventually underwent a long but much quieter correction that indicated that many of the abnormalities were only marginally more common among those recovering from Covid-19 than among similar control individuals who had not had Covid-19.
A few weeks later, on Sept. 11, 2020, a study out of Ohio State University showed that 15% of competitive athletes who had recovered from Covid-19 had abnormalities on cardiac magnetic resonance scans. This study, of just 26 athletes, was entirely lacking in controls. What’s more, earlier and contemporary studies had found similar abnormalities among elite athletes without Covid-19. But the news coverage and social media posts continued at a frenzied pace. College sports nearly stopped. And people with mild or even asymptomatic disease sought out cardiac magnetic resonance scans, and some physicians even recommended having them.
Quote:
The broader lesson is that science communication in times of crisis must keep a level head. The public, and decision-makers, need properly controlled studies instead of early sensational reports. In a world where success is measured by clicks, the idea that even mild cases of Covid-19 could pose a new and unprecedented threat to the heart took off. That fear has largely been unsubstantiated, though news of it won’t spread nearly as quickly.
The story of “Covid heart” is not over. Future studies will undoubtedly provide more information. But people who have recovered from Covid-19 have no special reason to worry about their hearts. Instead, we should all worry about the incentives in the modern media world, and why we got so far ahead of ourselves.