The Federal Aviation Administration revised its EKG standard in October 2022.[1]. Previously, the cut-off for the PR interval was 200 ms. Now, it is 300 ms. The change allowed some pilots with first-degree heart blocks to fly.
There’s a lot in that table. Let’s start with the PR interval.
The PR interval
The heart muscles need electrical stimuli to contract. The impulses are recorded by the electrocardiograph (ECG). Below is an example of a normal sinus rhythm ECG.
Each positive and negative wave is represented by letters (P, Q, R, S, T), and the intervals between the waves are measured.
We will focus on the PR interval. (see below) The P represents the time before the upper chamber or atrium contracts, and the R is the time before the lower and larger ventricles contract.
The P-R interval should not be too long. The normal PR interval is 200 milliseconds (ms). A first-degree heart block occurs when the PR interval is more than 200 ms.[2]
First Degree Heart Blocks
First-degree heart blocks can result from fibrotic changes in the cardiac conduction system. Fibrosis or scarring could be due to degeneration associated with old age. Another cause is a scar that forms after heart inflammation or myocarditis.
Other causes are coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, electrolyte abnormalities (low potassium and magnesium), inflammation, and infections. You don’t want your pilot to have these conditions as you fly the friendly skies. That’s why they include ECGs when testing pilots.
Pilots as a group are one of the healthiest. They are medically tested regularly.
Are first-degree heart blocks dangerous?
Typically, a person with a first-degree heart block will be reassured by their doctors, including the cardiologists, that there is nothing to worry about.
However, in a review by Holmqvist F and Daubert JP, extreme forms of first-degree AV blocks (typically an interval exceeding 0.30 s) can cause symptoms due to inadequate atrial and ventricular contractions timing.[3]
That is why the FAA disposition for those with a PR interval of 300 ms or MORE says DEFER. (as seen in the first image on top.) Item 60 means the examiner should give more information to the FAA.
One study involved 37 with first-degree heart block. An insertable cardiac monitor (ICM) was placed in all of them. The ICM monitored the electrical activity of their heart all the time. It is like having an ECG inside your chest while doing your everyday activity.[4]
The subjects were observed for an average of 12.2 months. Here is what they found.
Fifteen patients (40.5%) received an Implantable Pulse Generator during the follow-up, and in 93.3% of the cases, the implant was needed to treat a now detected more severe bradycardia or progression of the conduction disease.
When used in the heart, an Implantable Pulse Generator (IPG) is called a cardiac pacemaker. Pacemakers take over the electrical control of the heart.
It detects abnormalities in heart rates and rhythms and corrects them by firing electrical stimuli to maintain a coordinated heart contraction to maintain adequate blood flow.
Severe bradycardia is when the heart rate is too slow. Type II Wenkebach syndrome and Complete Heart Block or Atrio Ventricular block are conduction problems where the heart beats too slowly, causing insufficient blood to go to the brain. It leads to cause loss of consciousness.
Why is this a problem if you fly?
CBS News reported that the largest pilots association and most major carriers — United, American, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, and Hawaiian Airlines followed the Biden administration’s COVID shot mandates.
Vaccine mandates have consequences. Captain Robert “Bob” Snow, one of its pilots, had a heart attack and cardiac arrest. The Era of Light reported,
American Airlines Captain Bob Snow, coerced to vax (jab or job), suffered a heart attack 6 mins after landing in Dallas, April 9th. He speaks out.
All Canadian airline pilots were coerced exactly the same. Contact Cdn Airline execs & Transport Canada if you have concerns. pic.twitter.com/nJhCqhAuIz
— Free to Fly (@freetoflycanada) April 19, 2022
He is not the only one with a heart condition. The Gateway pundit regularly has many reports of pilots dying. One is a pilot who suddenly died after takeoff from Chicago airport. Another is flying a Boeing Aircraft while flying in Russia.
Jet2 has a pilot who fainted at 30,000 feet, prompting an emergency landing.
Wealthy people demand Unvaxxed Pilots
In another article by Gateway Pundit, Wealthy Businessmen Have Reached Out and Want UNVACCINATED PILOTS To Fly Their Jets.
On Monday The Gateway Pundit spoke with Josh Yoder, President of US Freedom Flyers.
Josh told The Gateway Pundit that wealthy businessmen have reached to the organization and are looking for healthy unvaccinated flyers.
The US Freedom Flyers is a group of transportation industry employees who oppose the vaccine mandates and have filed several lawsuits to stop the jab.
COVID jabs and Myocarditis
It is always said that myocarditis after the jabs is “rare.” Correctly done prospective studies disagree.
If researchers want to know how many people will develop myocarditis after COVID injections, they can do a prospective or retrospective study.
Prospective studies will test for myocarditis in all subjects who had the COVID shots. The tests are done before and after whether, regardless if they have myocarditis symptoms.
In contrast, retrospective studies examine those already diagnosed with myocarditis after the shots.
Prospective studies are much better than retrospective studies. That’s because they are more sensitive in finding the actual cases.
Two Prospective Studies on Myocarditis
Christian Eugen Mueller of Basel, Switzerland, presented a prospective study, “Myocardial Inflammation/Myocarditis After COVID-19 mRNA Booster Vaccination,” to the European Society of Cardiologists in 2022. Here is the bottom line.
- Prior to this study, there were no prospective data on post-vaccination myocardial lesions during vaccination with an mRNA vaccine. Only the most serious hospitalized myocarditis have been reported, mainly affecting men under 18 years of age.
- The actual incidence of post-vaccination myocardial lesions is 2.8% vs 0.0035% of myocarditis in retrospective studies
- Myocardial lesions affect women more contrary to what is described in previous studies.
- The possibility of repeated doses of vaccine in order to maintain effective vaccination coverage should lead to great caution regarding possible repeated myocardial lesions and their impact on possible cardiovascular complications.
2.8% of one million is 28,000. The Swiss study is consistent with another one from Thailand.
The peer-reviewed Thai prospective study found 2.33% (7/301) had cardiac side effects after receipt of the Pfizer gene therapy injection. One myopericarditis, four subclinical myocarditis, and two pericarditis.[5]
Additionally, cardiovascular manifestations were found in 29.24% of patients, ranging from rapid heart rate, and palpitations to myopericarditis. My comment on this study is that if they did cardiac MRI on everyone, they would have picked up more myocarditis.
How to Screen for Sudden Death
Bottom line: Myocarditis is much more common after the COVID injections based on two prospective studies than previously thought.
Myocarditis and Heart Blocks
Any inflammation can lead to scarring or fibrosis. Abnormal tissues lose their function.
If the myocarditis involves the small area in the heart where the signal from the sinoatrial (SA) node passes to the atrioventricular (AV) node, a heart block can happen. The degree of the block depends on how much scarring there is.
The figure below shows 1 as the SA and 2 as the AV. The tiny space between the two is where fibrosis can happen and cause a heart block.
The heart drawing illustrates that myocarditis does not have to involve the whole heart for a heart block to happen. This happened in a case report I discussed at — Complete Heart Block after the Pfizer COVID shot.
In the report, the patient went into cardiac arrest several times before he reached the hospital and the emergency room. Luckily, he survived.
Others are not that lucky.
- A professional athlete who died of fulminant myocarditis after the Moderna jab
- Did Lisa Marie Presley had a Complete Heart Block?
- Autopsy of a soldier who died of myocarditis after Pfizer COVID vaccination
Conclusion
The FAA’s relaxation of the PR interval criteria among pilots can potentially expose the flying public to a dangerous situation.
Do you know that the Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in the aircraft or anywhere else do not do anything for heart blocks? They are only suitable for ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation.
So if your pilot gets a complete heart block, he has to have effective chest compressions (CPR) until the plane lands.
Truth heals. Lies kill. Don’t Get Sick!
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Myocarditis Related:
- Israel study: No increased incidence of myocarditis with COVID-19
- Myocarditis by age, sex and COVID shot
- COVID shots cause a 25% increase in cardiac arrest and acute coronary syndrome in those under 40 years old
- Kaiser Permanente study shows myopericarditis is 43 times higher than VAERS reports.
- Higher blood pressure after COVID shots and why it happens
- Study shows spike proteins affect cardiac pericytes
- Circulation: Myocarditis related to COVID-19 shots in teenagers and young adults
- Anti-Idiotype Antibodies against the Spike Proteins may Explain Myocarditis
- Myocarditis after mRNA Vaccination in the Military
- Myocarditis and the COVID vaccine
References:
- Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners
- Oldroyd SH, Quintanilla Rodriguez BS, Makaryus AN. First Degree Heart Block. [Updated 2022 Sep 26]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK448164/
- Holmqvist F, Daubert JP. First-degree AV block-an entirely benign finding or a potentially curable cause of cardiac disease? Ann Noninvasive Electrocardiol. 2013 May;18(3):215-24. doi: 10.1111/anec.12062. PMID: 23714079; PMCID: PMC6932444.
- Lewalter T, Pürerfellner H, Ungar A, Rieger G, Mangoni L, Duru F; INSIGHT XT study investigators. “First-degree AV block-a benign entity?” Insertable cardiac monitor in patients with 1st-degree AV block reveals presence or progression to higher grade block or bradycardia requiring pacemaker implant. J Interv Card Electrophysiol. 2018 Aug;52(3):303-306. doi: 10.1007/s10840-018-0439-7. Epub 2018 Aug 13. PMID: 30105427.
- Mansanguan, S.; Charunwatthana, P.; Piyaphanee, W.; Dechkhajorn, W.; Poolcharoen, A.; Mansanguan, C. Cardiovascular Manifestation of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Adolescents. Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2022, 7, 196.
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