FAA: Medical guidelines changed on advice from cardiologists, not because of the COVID-19 vaccine

Ever since COVID-19 vaccines became widely available, PolitiFact has regularly debunked false claims about pilots suffering health emergencies because they were inoculated. 

In 2021, for example, we fact-checked a Facebook post that said there was "an epidemic of plane crashes linked to vaccine-related strokes in pilots." The Federal Aviation Administration told us it had seen no evidence that medical complications from COVID-19 vaccines caused any aviation accidents.

But more recent posts spreading online claim the federal agency misled the public about adverse cardiac events among pilots. 

"The FAA just telegraphed the fact that a substantial number of airline pilots have had serious heart damage from the C***D v*****e by widening the ECG parameters for pilots," one Instagram post said, referring to electrocardiograms, which some pilots are required to get for their medical certificate to fly in the United States. 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

We found more information about this claim on the blog of Steve Kirsch, who MIT Technology Review described as a tech millionaire who "went from COVID trial funder to misinformation superspreader." 

We’ve previously debunked several claims from Kirsch, including that the "Pfizer vaccine kills more people than it saves" and that twice as many children have died from COVID-19 vaccines as COVID-19. 

In Kirsch’s Jan. 17 post, he points to an October update to the FAA’s Guide for Medical Examiners, saying the agency "quietly widened" the parameters for what it considered a normal measure of heart function to accommodate "people who have cardiac injury." 

Kirsch says, "This is a tacit admission from the U.S. government that the COVID vaccine has damaged the hearts of our pilots. Not just a few pilots. A lot of pilots and a lot of damage." 

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The update is on the FAA’s website, revising its electrocardiogram "normal variants list," which details electrocardiogram findings that "are not cause for deferment unless the airman is symptomatic or there are other concerns." 

It changed the maximum acceptable PR interval — a heart health metric measured by electrocardiograms — to 300 milliseconds, or 0.3 seconds. A PR interval between 0.12 seconds and 0.2 seconds is considered normal. A PR interval that exceeds 0.2 seconds indicates a first-degree atrioventricular block, which can cause a slower heartbeat or abnormal rhythm.  

The Federal Aviation Administration told PolitiFact it raised the cutoff for a first degree ventricular block from 200 milliseconds, or 0.2 seconds, to 300 milliseconds, or 0.3 seconds, because the agency’s cardiology consultants provided information indicating that a PR interval under 0.3 seconds isn’t a risk for subtle or sudden incapacitation. 

The administration has "no evidence of aircraft accidents or incapacitations caused by pilots suffering medical complications associated with COVID-19 vaccines," a statement from the agency said. "When making changes to medical requirements and guidance, the FAA follows standard processes based on data and science. New scientific evidence enabled the FAA to safely raise the tolerance used to screen for a certain heart condition."

We rate claims that the change was linked to COVID-19 vaccines False.