The impending medical retirement of a 28-year-old elite athlete because of complications from myocarditis, indicates the likelihood of COVID-19 vaccine harm.
On May 28, 2023, whilst playing for the Canberra Raiders in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition, Corey Harawira-Naera collapsed causing play to be halted for over ten minutes. Harawira-Naera was taken from the field on a medicab and hospitalised at Westmead Hospital, before being discharged early the next morning at 3:30am.
Or the numerous other incidents of “on-field collapses” occurring since the commencement of the pandemic and the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
The latest reports indicate that Harawira-Naera will be medically retired by the Canberra Raiders because he has not fully recovered from the symptoms which caused his collapse, including “funky heart rhythms”, elevated troponin persisting months after his medical episode occurred, and most significantly, his myocarditis diagnosis, which is a significant adverse event associated with COVID-19 vaccination, especially for men under 40, which is inflated for low-risk groups like elite NRL players.1
Yet, Harawira Naera’s myocarditis has curiously not been mentioned in any mainstream media stories.
The only media outlet to accurately report this fact has been the Canberra Times (owned by Australia’s largest independent media publishing group “Australian Community Media”) who have run at least three stories about Harawira-Naera’s myocarditis diagnosis.
“Corey Harawira-Naera's season is officially over with the Canberra Raiders versatile forward undergoing further heart tests in Sydney . . . They've already cleared him from a concussion and cognitive perspective, now they're working to do the same from a heart perspective. Harawira-Naera has myocarditisand also a slightly elevated marker for cardiac enzyme troponin. It's why he's gone to Sydney for a stress test to further check his heart. . . .He had very high troponin levels in the wake of the seizure, with medical staff able to reduce them down to just outside the normal range. That allowed him to return to training, but those enzyme levels never quite came back to the required levels prompting an end to Harawira-Naera's season.”2 [emphases added]
“Harawira-Naera needs his heart rhythm to return to normal before specialists will give him the all-clear to return to training following his sickening seizure midway through the year. . . . He's had to undergo a series of tests since to try to get his career back on track. Having been cleared from a concussion perspective, Harawira-Naera was held back by myocarditis, which led to high troponin levels - a heart enzyme marker that signals heart damage. Those levels have finally come down, but now he needs to show his heartbeat has returned to normal before experts will give him the all-clear.” [emphases added]
“Harawira-Naera's life was turned upside down when he collapsed and suffered a seizure in Canberra's win over South Sydney. . . . He suffered complications from myocarditis, though his troponin levels have dropped since which is a positive sign. Harawira-Naera will meet with a specialist next month to see if his heart rhythms have returned to normal, which will determine whether he can make a return to footy.”3 [emphases added]
There has been no shortage of interest in this story, and no shortage of media reports about Corey Harawira-Naera since his collapse in May 2023, but none, aside from the examples from the independently owned Canberra Times have mentioned his myocarditis diagnosis which raises the question: why are media outlets hesistant to report the truth about Harawira-Naera’s condition?
Was He Vaccinated?
The big unknown in this story is Harawira-Naera’s vaccination status.
Based on our own enquiries, however, we have reason to believe he was vaccinated prior to the 2022 season commencing.
We know he was one of only four Canberra Raiders players yet to be vaccinated by late 2021. In a November 2021 podcast, journalist Phil Rothfield outed these four unvaccinated players as Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Joe Tapine, Josh Papali'i and Corey Harawira-Naera.
By March 2022, however, just prior to the launch of the NRL season, three of these four unvaccinated players had tested positive to COVID-19 and had obtained temporary vaccination exemptions as reported in a Canberra Times article.4
These three temporarily exempt players were:
Charnze Nicoll Klokstad - “Jordan Rapana got it while controversially taking part in the NRL All Stars game and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Sam Williams, Matt Frawley and Peter Hola have also been forced into seven days' isolation due to the virus.”5
Joe Tapine - “[Joe] Tapine's also unvaccinated, but eligible for a four-month exemption having also had COVID-19.”6
Josh Papali’i - “The vaccination thing - I have an exemption for four months so I think I'll reassess when I get there.”7
That left Corey Harawira-Naera as the only unvaccinated holdout who had apparently not had a COVID-19 infection once the 2022 season commenced.
Why is this relevant?
In round 2 of the 2022 season, the Canberra Raiders travelled to Queensland to play against the North Queensland Cowboys. At the time, the Queensland Government were still enforcing strict border security protocols denying entry to any unvaccinated person from COVID-19 “hotspots” (as designated by the Queensland Government) such as NSW.
Yet, Harawira-Naera played in this game, presumably because he was vaccinated, and therefore, not prevented from travelling to Queensland to do so.
If news of his medical retirement is confirmed following a meeting with his cardiologist this month, Harawira-Naera might provide more details about his experience and we will be able to confirm the hypothesis presented in this article.
Just don’t expect to read about it in the major newspapers if he blames the vaccine.
Knudsen, B., & Prasad, V., “COVID-19 Vaccine Induced Myocarditis in Young Males: A Systematic Review”, European Journal of Clinical Investigation, 53(4), 2023, https://doi.org/10.1111/eci.13947
