Do flu and shingles vaccines cause pericarditis?

We can forgive someone used to the world of tech for being new to vaccines and medicine. Do we have evidence that anyone investigated flu or shingles vaccines in relation to pericarditis? Here is an article back from 2000 discussing the possibility of pericarditis after flu vaccination and additional case reports and articles from 2018. These case reports, of course, are not proof of causation, but they are proof that no one is hiding anything.

The tweet cites an article from the Epoch Times, a far-right media company rated “Unreliable, Problematic” and affiliated with the Falun Gong religious movement, the same religious movement connected to the Shen Yun dance troupe. The article is based on a reply from the CDC regarding an FOIA request by Epoch Times. The website does not supply the letter in their article, so it is difficult to know what the facts are.

It’s notable that in his next tweet, Kirsch claims that all cases of pericarditis are caused by COVID vaccines, so he does not seem to be too concerned about flu or shingles vaccines. His proof is VAERS, and we know that anyone can submit a report to VAERS. VAERS is helpful for keeping track of vaccine safety, but just because something is reported doesn’t mean the vaccine caused it.

The most pertinent warning on the website helps put the above claims into context: “VAERS reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. Reports to VAERS can also be biased. As a result, there are limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind.”