Why are there so many new defibrillators popping up in the community?

Hint: not everything is always because of the vaccines

I’ve noticed a lot of defibrillators popping up in my city, as have many social media users in my network. Having also noted the increase in myocarditis and pericarditis rates in Western Australia in association with Covid vaccines, I wondered if there was a link. So I shared a photo and said as much. A number of people expressed similar suspicions.

dystopian down under @dystopian_DU

It's 2023 and we have defibrillators at train stations now.

Several others commented below my tweet that defibrillators had actually been popping up long before Covid vaccines came on the scene, and that it was a St Johns’s Ambulance first aid initiative.

Curious, I contacted St John’s and, in a stroke of luck, I connected with the media person who was actually willing to have a chat. I asked her about the proliferation of defibrillators in Perth and surrounds and she excitedly told me, yes! There are just over 7000 defibrillators distributed throughout the WA community. February this year was a “bumper month,” the spokesperson told me, with the addition of another 100 defibrillators.

As St John’s is a charity, the defibrillators are paid for by grants or by donation/private purchase. You can see where every St John’s registered defibrillator is located on this map.

Not a response to vaccine cardiac injury

In 1996, St John’s established a registry for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA), in partnership with Curtin University. St John’s has since partnered with Curtin University on research into OHCA events, and publishes reports annually.

St John’s soon identified that OHCA events were a leading cause of death in Western Australia.¹ It was clear to St John’s that too many lives were being lost during the wait time for the ambulance. OHCAs required immediate emergency care on site.

And so St John’s focused on bolstering its Community First Responder program to meet the problem.

St John’s Ambulance 2010-2011 Annual Report, page 30.

Community First Responders

“Studies show 9/10 people won’t survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The First Responder program aims to improve this statistic by increasing access to defibrillators in the community, with survival rates improving by 70% when a defibrillator is applied within three minutes,” explains the St John’s spokesperson.²

Any member of the public who has done a First Aid course can volunteer as a Community First Responder. If someone has a cardiac arrest and triple zero is called, the nearest First Responders will get a notification on the First Responder app about who is in trouble and where the nearest defibrillator can be accessed. Then it’s up to the First Responder to jump into action while the ambulance is still on its way.

St John attended 2,698 cases of OHCA in 2020 (the most recent reported year), and resuscitation was attempted in 1086 cases. Of those cases, 745 involved bystanders intervening with CPR (this is an estimate, as bystander participation cannot always be conclusively confirmed). 128 people survived as a result of resuscitation at the scene of the collapse.

Cardiac events on the rise

Though the increasing number of defibrillators in public places in WA is not in response to Covid vaccine injury, it is also true that cardiac events and deaths are on the rise, and that there is a strong association with Covid vaccines.

In January of this year, The Age reported that fatal heart attacks had surged in Australia by 17%. The article puts this unfortunate trend down to delayed care and effects of Covid, while dismissing the possibility that Covid vaccines might have any major impact.

However, we know that in healthy, young patients, the risks associated with Covid vaccination are greater than the risks associated with Covid infection. Australia’s vaccine advisory body now formally recognises the asymmetric risk-benefit profile for Covid vaccines in healthy young people, especially in relation to cardiac risk.

The 2021 WA vaccine safety surveillance data showed an increase in background rates of myocarditis and pericarditis of 35% and 25%, respectively, at a time when there was mass vaccination but next to no Covid infection in the community.

When I asked cardiologist and Covid expert Dr Peter McCullough about the increase in cardiac deaths in Australia, he stated that, based on the empirical evidence of both immediate and longer term cardiac damage associated with Covid vaccines, “the next person who dies unexpectedly with no antecedent illness and there’s no other explanation, it is the vaccine until proven otherwise.”³ This is why Dr McCullough is calling for governments to stop the shots. Watch a highlight reel of McCullough discussing vaccine cardiac damage below (3 mins 40 sec):

Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH™ @P_McCulloughMD

My thoughts. @dystopian_DU @umbrellanews_au @VigilantFox @redvoicenews @c_plushie @SpartaJustice @TexasLindsay_ @VacSafety @drcraigwax @goodfoodgal @MelissaProcter8 @MelissaProcter5 @DrAseemMalhotra @DrLoupis @dramerling @Jo_Bond @TheChiefNerd @DrKellyVictory @DrJamesOlsson

Watch the longer form interview via Umbrella News (20 mins).

Recent ABS figures show that Australian total excess mortality for 2022 sits at 15%, or an extra 25,235 deaths above historical average. Covid-related deaths count for about 43% of the excess - the other 57% is unexplained.

Some commentators claim that Covid infection poses the greater cardiac risk compared to Covid vaccination. This is already established to be untrue for young healthy people (see above). However, it is also contested across entire populations. Dr McCullough pointed to a large population based study from Israel which found no perceivable increase in myocarditis or pericarditis from Covid infection against background rates.

Equipping ourselves to help in an emergency

Causes aside, Australian statistics show that cardiac events and deaths are on the rise. It is deeply unfortunate that we are at a place where humankind is undermining its own health so profoundly. What’s done is done. The focus going forward is on minimising harm and supporting wellbeing. One way we can do this is to equip ourselves to assist in an emergency.

If you have free time and spare change, you may consider learning first aid skills, and even signing up with St John’s as a First Responder. I’m adding this to my bucket list to be achieved within the next 12 months.

REGISTER FOR A FIRST AID COURSE WITH ST JOHN’S AMBULANCE

If you are a business owner or participate in a community group, you could also consider purchasing a defibrillator and registering it with the First Responder network.

PURCHASE A DEFIBRILLATOR

F*** around, find out

As we can see on the F*** Around Find Out Chart below, a certain amount of f***ing around is required in order to find things out. (Watch the one min video explainer here)

In this case, open discourse and institutional transparency allowed us to get to the bottom of the uptick in defibrillators in WA. We were able to rule out the conspiracy that defibrillators are being rolled out as a direct response to people collapsing all over Perth from vaccine injury.

At the same time, we established some salient facts (cardiac events were already on the rise, and Covid vaccines have likely accelerated the trend). We learned why defibrillators are so important (to save lives before the ambulance arrives) and how you can equip yourself to help your community (do a first aid course and volunteer are a First Responder).

Censorship disrupts the process

Imagine if my tweet had been censored, either by being taken down or by being hidden by an algorithm. The people who knew about the St John’s program might never have seen my tweet.

Imagine if the people who commented on my post had written me off as a ‘conspiracy theorist’ and reported my tweet or ignored it, rather than leaving a comment. I may never have learned about the St John’s initiative from them.

Imagine if the St John’s spokesperson had ignored or refused my request for information, based on prejudice against independent journalists or the Substack platform. People may have thought St John’s had something to hide. They may even have taken the lack of transparency as a sign that their speculative conclusions were correct. I may not have been able to pass on to you all the fantastic work that St John is doing, and the opportunity we have to volunteer as First Responders.

This is how freedom of speech online and transparency between institutions and the public helps us find out what is true, and puts the kibosh on speculation. These are the necessary conditions for the f***ing around that is required in order to find out.

1. The St John WA Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Report 2016 is the first of St John’s dedicated reports on OHCAs. On page 13, “Sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a leading cause of death in Western Australia.”

2. The St John’s spokesperson references research from the American Heart Association.

3. Autopsies: Gill et al., 2022; Verma et al., 2021; Choi et al., 2021; Chavez et al., 2022; Schwab, et al., 2022.

Subclinical damage: Mansanguan et al., 2022; Müller et al., 2022.

Medium term damage: Kracalik et al., 2022.

Hospitalisation of vaccine-induced myocarditis cases, CDC report 2021.

Re-entry: Dr McCullough explains, “The concern is that severe enough inflammation of the heart or a large enough area results in a scar. And then when the scar is there, the electricity can go through the scar and around it and cause what’s a called ‘reentry.’ Reentry, ventricular tachycardia, which is a very fast abnormal heart rhythm, will cause somebody to collapse. It degenerates into ventricular fibrillation, and that’s a full-blown cardiac arrest.”

All quotes and citations per my interview with Dr Peter McCullough, via Umbrella News.