Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, age 24, is in critical condition after a hit to the chest. The official line is to blame commotio cordis (Latin: agitation of the heart), a rare cause of death in young athletes. Their flexible chest wall allows more energy to be transmitted to the heart, causing ventricular fibrillation, that is, cardiac arrest. Only a minority survive. Most common causes are baseballs, hockey pucks, and lacrosse balls. Martial arts are rare causes.

This condition is even rarer above age 18, when the chest wall becomes more rigid. The rib cartilages become bony, allowing coroners to estimate the age of cadavers. So was Hamlin the victim of a rare accident, or was his heart damage – at least in part – caused by his having received ***? You know, what California doctors can lose their licenses for criticizing.

Science is a method of discovering the truth by experiments and analysis of data. Science is NOT a fixed set of beliefs enforced by authorities. Science demands investigation of the apparent increase in cardiac deaths of young men. Political correctness demands that the apparent increase be ignored. Our choice. But it is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.