‘Heartless’: New York Times Sinks to ‘New Low,’ Suggests 24-Year-Old’s Myocarditis Death Not Caused by Vaccine

A New York Times article “marginalized” the Watts family’s “unspeakable suffering” and misrepresented Children’s Health Defense’s involvement in the case.

By: Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D. and originally published on 12/14/2023 by The Defender

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The propagandists at The New York Times are doing everything they can to normalized the tragic death of George Watts, Jr who died from COVID-19 vaccine related myocarditis after his second Pfizer vaccine. In order to return to in-person at SUNY- Corning Community College, George was required to take primary series COVID vaccines, but he never told his parents (who at the time were very much against taking COVID vaccines without learning more about their safety and effectiveness) until he began getting very ill.

I was honored to be interviewed for this article in an effort to set the record straight and to help correct the blatant mistruths put forth by The New York Times. True reporters would want to investigate these claims further including an investigation of similar cases (of which there are many) but not this disgrace of a publication. The way we win is to keep telling the truth about these tragic stories and to find ways to bring more lawsuits until justice is served for all who were injured or died unexpectedly after COVID-19 vaccination until proven otherwise.

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The New York Times on Wednesday ran an article that “ridiculed” those seeking justice in the case of George Watts Jr., a 24-year-old man who died from complications of COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis.

Attorney Ray Flores, who on May 31 sued the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) on behalf of Watts’ estate, said the Times’ article “marginalized the family’s unspeakable suffering.”

Flores told The Defender:

“The New York Times ridiculed all those who advocate for the parents of George Watts, Jr., whose death, according to the Certificate of Death, was caused by ‘COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis.’”

“The Times also inaccurately characterized Children’s Health Defense (CHD)’s involvement, as CHD is not a party in the suit.”

Stewart A. Thompson, the author of “Behind the Birth of an Anti-Vaccine Story,” describes himself as a Times reporter covering “how false and misleading information spreads online and how it affects people around the world.”

CHD President Mary Holland accused the Times of sinking to “a new low.” She told The Defender:

“All that one needs to know about this article, totally lacking in empathy or journalistic integrity, is that it is by a journalist who ‘focuses on misinformation, disinformation and other misleading content.’

“This is to say, in straightforward language, that Mr. Thompson is a propagandist whose job is to counter inconvenient yet often true narratives that go against the government and the New York Times’ primary advertisers, Big Pharma.

“Mr. Thompson seems eager to suppress the reality that COVID vaccines are the most dangerous pharmaceutical product ever foisted on the global population.”

Thompson’s article has already drawn criticism from other readers including John Leake, co-author with Dr. Peter McCullough of the Courageous Discourse Substack, who wrote:

“The piece is a perfect example of reporting an incident while at the same time falsely minimizing its significance for the broader community.

“This propaganda technique conveys the impression that the issue is being addressed instead of concealed while at the same time concealing the true scope of the problem.”

Kim Mack Rosenberg, acting general counsel for CHD, agreed. She described the Times article as “heartless,” telling the The Defender:

“The New York Times’ distorted and inaccurate article is immensely unfair to the family of George Watts, Jr. but also is unfair to every Times reader. Readers deserve to know that these injections have caused harm — including death — to many Americans — and worldwide.

“The Times attempts to preserve the narrative that these shots are ‘safe and effective,’ not only regurgitating a tired and demonstrably false narrative, but it does so at the expense of the Watts family, which already has suffered a horrific loss.”

Rosenberg said she found it “unfathomable” that the Times “feels the need to question the credibility of the Watts family and others in order to censor accurate information and prop up a house of cards.”

The article “is further evidence that investigative journalism is dying on the vine at what was once a fine publication,” she added.

George Watts Sr. told The Defender he was “humbled” by all the news attention his family’s tragedy was receiving. “I also grieve for all the other families whose lives have been destroyed by these deadly shots,” he said.

“But,” George Sr. added, “all the news coverage in the world will never bring my son back.”

As previously reported by The Defender, George Watts Jr., was a student at Corning Community College in Corning, New York, when in the summer of 2021, the school mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for all students attending fall classes.

Watts waited to get vaccinated until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “approved” the Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine and got his first dose on Aug. 27, 2021. He was administered the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine authorized only for emergency use.

The FDA approved the Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine on Aug. 23, 2021, but the DOD didn’t make it available.

Despite experiencing side effects from the first dose, Watts understood the vaccine to be “safe and effective,” so he took a second dose on Sept. 17, 2021.

Following the second dose, Watts experienced more severe side effects, including numbness in his extremities, difficulty grasping and holding objects, a sinus infection, cough and sensitivity to light.

He visited the emergency room at the Guthrie hospital on Oct. 12, 2021, also complaining of a lump on the left side of his neck.

The hospital diagnosed him with sinusitis and prescribed an antibiotic. Watts returned to the ER on Oct. 19, 2021, concerned that he was not improving.

His health continued to decline. On Oct. 27, 2021, at home with his mother, Watts began coughing up blood and then became unresponsive. His mother called 911 and administered CPR.

Watts was taken to the ER where he was found to be in cardiac arrest and subsequently died. He had no previous medical history that could explain his sudden death. Watts also tested negative for COVID-19 in a post-mortem test.

The medical examiner ruled his cause of death to be “complications of COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis.” His death certificate also listed COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis as the sole immediate cause of death.

In his article, Thompson seeded doubt regarding whether vaccine-induced myocarditis caused Watts’ death, despite acknowledging that George Jr.’s death certificate “placed the blame squarely on the vaccine” and that it was “instantly obvious” to Watts’ parents that the vaccine was their son’s cause of death.

Thompson referred to COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis as “an uncommon and often mild condition involving inflammation of the heart.”

Thompson quoted Dr. Mary Jumbelic — a retired forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner of Onondaga County, New York, who reviewed the details of George Jr.’s case — as saying she’d have “no problem putting myocarditis on the death certificate as the cause of death … But the leap here is the conclusion that it’s vaccine-related.”

Thompson suggested the true cause of death is not yet known because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still preparing a report about George Jr.’s death:

“If they [CDC officials] agree with the medical examiner, George Jr.’s death could become the first that the department has tied to vaccine-related myocarditis in the United States. If they disagree, it could offer more clarity about what happened to George Jr.”

Leake said Thompson left important questions unanswered.

“At no point,” Leake wrote, “in the report does the author consider any of the following questions:

1. Are cases of vaccine-induced myocarditis being overlooked, ignored and misdiagnosed?

2. Are treating physicians making a diligent effort to look for myocarditis in patients such as the subject of this report?

3. Are all unexpected deaths like the subject of this report being thoroughly investigated by medical examiners?

Meanwhile, Thompson’s article focused intensely on recounting how the Watts family became acquainted with CHD. According to the Times:

“The Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit founded by the anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., contacted the Watts family and solicited donations for the organization off their name.”

Lucia Sinatra, co-founder of No College Mandates, told The Defender the Times got it wrong.

“I was furious when I read the piece,” she said. “They’ll do anything to discredit critics of the COVID vaccines, including CHD, by making it seem as if CHD used Watts’ name for their own purposes.”

CHD didn’t initially reach out to the Watts family, she said. It was the other way around — and she facilitated the contact. Sinatra said:

“Volunteers at my organization first made contact with the Watts family to see if we could learn more details about his death and write a story about it especially since the coroner determined it was Pfizer COVID vaccine-induced myocarditis.”

Soon after that, Sinatra set up a series of phone calls with George Sr. “It was during these conversations that George said to me, ‘I want justice for my son,’” she recalled.

Sinatra said she then reached out to CHD’s Holland “to tell the Watts’ story.”

She said, “Mary and I continued speaking for a few weeks and then I introduced her to the Watts family.”

Sinatra said she was on “a few early calls” with the Watts and their legal team, including Flores. “I had gained George’s trust and he wanted me on board until he could comfortably transition to his legal team, which he has at this point.”

On March 31, Flores filed the lawsuit — in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — against the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and Lloyd Austin III in his official capacity as defense secretary.

Flores said the suit is “an important and timely case.”

“With Pfizer’s stock price down almost 50% YTD, it is no wonder that Mr. Thompson is targeting this extremely well-publicized case and belittling Mr. Watts and his supporters,” Flores said.

The lawsuit alleges the DOD engaged in “willful misconduct” by continuing to exclusively allow distribution of the stockpiled version of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that had been authorized for emergency use even after the FDA granted full approval to a different vaccine, Comirnaty.

According to the complaint, the DOD “capitalized on a quintessential ‘bait and switch’ fraud,” using the fact that Comirnaty was FDA-approved to bolster its claims that the vaccine authorized for emergency use was “safe and effective,” in a move that intentionally misled millions of Americans.

The lawsuit further alleges the DOD knowingly deceived Watts and other Americans for the purpose of mass human experimentation, which violates protections provided by the Nuremberg Code.

According to Flores, the Times article’s chronology was “off” in saying CHD contacted the family and quickly sought donations for the suit. “I decided to take the case and filed over one year later. Only about one month after it was filed, did CHD send out an e-appeal to donors.”

The Times also inaccurately reported that CHD “approached” the Watts family, “kick-starting a relationship that resulted in a long-shot lawsuit brought by the Watts family and CHD.”

Flores said that saying the lawsuit was “brought by the Watts Family and CHD” was also incorrect. “Funding and bringing are different things. Bringing means initiating, filing. Funding means to pay,” he said.

“CHD has generously agreed to pay for costs of the suit,” he said.

But Flores — not CHD — is legally representing the Watts family. He is not being paid hourly from CHD for his work on the case and the complaint doesn’t seek attorney fees.

Flores is the case’s only attorney of record and is not a staff CHD employee. He is a senior outside counsel to CHD who is retained and is an attorney of record in several other active CHD cases.

Thompson said the Times “conducted dozens of interviews over several months for this article — including with the Watts family; the coroner’s office in Bradford County, Pa., which reviewed the case; and myocarditis experts, pathologists, lawyers and doctors who have reviewed details about George Jr.’s case.”

Indeed, Flores said on Oct. 4 Thompson interviewed him — but then chose not to mention Flores or any of his comments in the article.

Flores said he believed Thompson was looking for ways to ridicule allegations in the complaint about “guinea pigs” and violations of the Nuremberg Code. Flores said:

“In the interview, I pointed out that the federal court chastised the DOD by labeling soldiers who were forced to take experimental anthrax vaccines as ‘guinea pigs.’ The DOD lost in D.C. Federal Court and was forced to rescind the mandate.”

Flores pointed out to Thompson that the complaint cited Federal Judge Emmet G.  Sullivan’s 2004 ruling, which stated:

“Congress has prohibited the administration of investigational drugs to service members without their consent. This Court will not permit the government to circumvent this requirement.”

Flores also pointed out Sullivan’s 2003 ruling, which said, “The United States cannot demand that members of the armed forces also serve as guinea pigs for experimental drugs.”

“For some reason,” Flores said, “any reference to our conversation about the court’s characterization was omitted.”

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Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.

Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., is a reporter and researcher for The Defender based in Fairfield, Iowa. She holds a Ph.D. in communication studies from the University of Texas at Austin (2021) and an M.A. in communication and leadership from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington (2015). Her scholarship has been published in Health Communication journal. She has taught at various academic institutions in the U.S. and is fluent in Spanish.