In medicine, every once in a while, you're forced to go ahead of the science. To speak out not because the data is complete, but because the trajectory is undeniable. I’ve done this before—with heart failure—and time has proven it right. I’m doing it again now.
What I am about to share is not sensationalism. It is an extrapolation. Just like warning about a lung cancer epidemic in the 1970s when everyone was smoking, this is simply connecting the dots before the crisis becomes obvious to everyone.
A year ago, I interviewed a mother—Hetty—whose son died of an aortic dissection just 16 days after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. He wasn’t sick. He was dancing the night before. It was sudden, devastating, and—at the time—easily dismissed.
But new science has confirmed what many of us have feared. A paper published in May 2025 describes a rare, post-COVID case of inflammatory aortitis, affecting the ascending, descending, and abdominal aorta. No respiratory symptoms. Just immune-mediated damage leading to progressive, aneurysmal degeneration of the aortic wall. The same artery her son’s dissection began in.
When I look at this patient and the mounting evidence, I believe we are on the brink of an epidemic. Not a viral one—an epidemic of aortic dissections. Silent. Deadly. And preventable if we act early.
Lo, Hoi Yee Annie, and Pouria Parsa. "A rare presentation of Post COVID-19 Inflammatory Aortitis." Annals of Vascular Surgery-Brief Reports and Innovations (2025): 100388.
The science behind this prediction is clear:
The aorta is not just a passive pipe. It's a dynamic, immune-sensitive organ, especially at the outer layer—the adventitia—supplied by the vasa vasorum.
The spike protein, whether from infection or vaccination, has been shown to trigger aortitis—inflammation of the aortic wall.
Inflammation weakens the arterial wall. The result? Penetrating aortic ulcers, aneurysms, and eventually, dissections.
A Stanford study showed that people with a previous COVID infection—not severe, just any—were 9.7 times more likely to have rapid growth of abdominal aortic aneurysms compared to those without COVID. For context, smoking only doubles your risk. COVID nearly decuples it.
This isn’t hypothetical. This is already happening.
COVID-19 infection may promote aortic aneurysms and new treatment may slow its growth
Article - News Medical Lifesciences (Emily Henderson - May 10th, 2023)
Dissections don't come with warning signs. No cough, no fever. Just sudden collapse. And in many cases, the opportunity to intervene is already gone.
So why aren’t we talking about this?
Because it challenges the dominant narrative. Because it suggests that mild COVID isn’t always benign. Because it forces us to look at both infection and immune response—and what happens when that response becomes persistent, inflammatory, and silent.
This isn't about fear. It’s about early recognition, monitoring, and the possibility of prevention. Whether through immune modulation, reduced spike exposure, or close vascular follow-up for those at risk, we have tools. What we lack is the will to apply them.
If even a fraction of my prediction comes true, healthcare systems need to be ready. Because what’s at stake isn’t just data points—it’s people like Hetty’s son. People dancing one night and gone the next.
We must listen now—before it becomes a headline we can no longer ignore.
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