The FAA updated their cardiac guidelines for Medical Examiners....and some interesting covid factoids thrown in there too.

https://www.faa.gov/ame_guide

Steve Kirsch posted recently about the changes the FAA made to pilot physicals.  I decided to go digging a little deeper.  As we know, pilots were faced with mandates for vaccines.  We have had two pilots we know of have sudden cardiac death since the mandated vaccines.  One was Bob Snow, who recovered but will never fly again.  The other died behind the controls of his airplane shortly after it left Chicago in the winter of 2022.  He had 74 people on board and the copilot emergency landed the plane back in Chicago. 

These are just two cases.  There were many others I discussed in the post I made last fall about Bob Snow.  Family members came forward with injured commercial pilot stories.  

The FAA updated their guidelines on December 28th, 2022.  

Let’s start with their vaccine requirements.  As in, how long after a vaccine does the pilot have to be monitored for side effects. 

So they only require 48 hour monitoring post covid vaccine.  But we already have data that suggests the first 1-30 days post vaccine are when sudden death risk is highest from cardiovascular events.   Did you know they require MORE monitoring if you got treated FOR covid than they do for the vaccine?!?!?!?!

There seems to be a ton of more paperwork and red tape for a pilot who had covid or took an EUA covid treatment medication than for the damn vaccine itself.  

So what about the cardiac testing?  

Exam Techniques and Criteria for Qualification

Item 58. ECG

• Code of Federal Regulations

  1. First-Class: 14 CFR 67.111(b)(c)

  2. A person applying for first-class medical certification must demonstrate an absence of myocardial infarction and other clinically significant abnormality on electrocardiographic examination:

     1. At the first application after reaching the 35th birthday; and

     2. On an annual basis after reaching the 40th birthday.

  3. An ECG will satisfy a requirement of paragraph (b) of this section if it is dated no earlier than 60 days before the date of the application it is to accompany and was performed and transmitted according to acceptable standards and techniques.

They are not screening yearly until the age of 40.  How many pilots are under age 40 who have been covid vaccinated?  Additionally, EKG is not going to pick up cardiac damage from the vaccines.  We have seen many cases where EKG and ECHO were normal, but cardiac MRI revealed heart damage to portions of the heart that are related to sudden death occurrence.  Is a yearly EKG sufficient for pilots who were vaccinated?  No.  They need cardiac MRI testing. 

Perhaps of most concern is what they updated in October 2022 as “ok to fly” cardiac conditions:

There are many conditions on this “clear to fly” list that are associated with cardiac damage post vaccine.  And many are asymptomatic until they “suddenly coincidentally” are not and something bad happens.  I have personally chosen not to fly right now.  I believe they updated some of these parameters due to injured pilots being detected and they want to keep them in the cockpit.  These issues would have not been cleared to fly prior to the jab and the pandemic.