Contribution – Part 120/21
Is “vaccine hesitancy” a mere matter of “misinformation” (perhaps spread by “armchair instigators”)?
BRADES, Montserrat, Aug 23, 2021 – Recent talk about “vaccine hesitancy” by officials across the Caribbean region and here in Montserrat has highlighted claims of “misinformation” coming from “anti-vaxxers.” Locally, a natural health advocate who actually calls himself an “anti-vaxxer” has been censored by ZJB Radio in live call-ins several times and has now been reduced to speaking in poetic parables. Overseas, outright censorship and de-platforming have now become routine, a bad sign. So, is the obvious concern about the rushed development (recall, “Operation Warp Speed” [1]) of still experimental, emergency/ conditional authorised vaccines simply misinformation, perhaps fed by conspiracy theories?
First, let us carefully observe what is cleverly NOT being said in an August 18th US White House tweet on proposed third jab booster shots. Of course, the vaxxes are announced as “safe” and “highly effective,” but why is it that we are seeing a highly unusual fading in protective effects in six to eight months?
So much so, that the “fully vaccinated” are now expected to get another “booster” shot? (Is that what we remember for typical vaccines, and is it not strange that we were not told about such boosters originally? Yes, some well known “vaxxes” require boosters several years later, but in six to eight months? C’mon.)
The point is quite clear, we are just now learning about longer and longer-term effects and concerns, here, that protection is waning just as new strains are spreading, so we need the third jab. Nor is this just in the US or Israel which also mainly uses mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer’s vaccine. In the UK it was recently announced that they are pushing for 32 million people to take the third jab. And, lost in the shadows, since February, there has been talk of possible booster shots in the Autumn and of annual or even six-monthly shots. That’s why here at TMR we previously spoke of the booster shot train. [2]
Clearly, researchers and officials are still monitoring and learning from a changing situation with the vaccines and with Covid-19.
That is, as “emergency” or “conditional” authorisation implies, these are still experimental vaccines.
Unfortunately, there is a tendency for some officials to deny that regulatory fact. And no, the current push to prematurely declare the Pfizer vaccine fully approved does not change the underlying facts. For, it is impossible to put the emergence of long-term effects and trends on “warp speed.” Plainly, the future still arrives at the rate of 24 hours per new day, 365 ¼ days per new year. There is a reason why new drug development typically takes 4 – 7 years or even over ten years.
Speaking of trends, some tend to blame the emergence and spreading of highly contagious new strains on the “not-vaxxed”. But, there is an issue of drugs resistance at work, similar to how so many bacteria are now resistant to antibiotics or how some insects seem to now shake off formerly highly effective insecticides. Because, of “adaptation to selection pressure.” There are even problems with resistance to some antiseptics used in hospitals etc. (That’s part of what we are paying Doctors for, to know about and deal with such challenges.)
Did you notice that the “fully vaxxed” are still being told to keep on wearing face masks and to practice social distancing, etc.? Why is that? In part, because the vaccines are what some call “non-sterilising.” For, they typically don’t immediately stomp on a viral invasion General Rommel style and prevent forming a beachhead for Covid-19. Instead, they are said to reduce the intensity of the disease, and it is hoped they reduce the likelihood of death or serious damage to health. That is, it is quite possible for the “fully vaxxed” to catch Covid-19 and to spread it to others. That’s why we are seeing a fair number of reports of just that happening. (And this is before we see “breakout” strains that are sufficiently different that the antibodies from vaccination have little effect. Some argue that the Delta strain is nearing that sort of breakout.)
Yes, all of this is complicated, and there are other more complex concerns. Especially, regarding adverse reactions.
For example, some have pointed out how the US reporting system has seen a surge in bad reactions to vaccines once the Covid-19 vaccines were put on the table. There have been reports of blood clot formation, heart failures, and mysterious sudden deaths. There are similar reports from Australia. However, perhaps the most relevant report is from the European Union, where all four main vaccines are in use. Some have queried the databases and have compiled [3] figures that should indeed be of some concern, such as:
In more details as reported, up to July 31st for the 27 EU states:
Pfizer: 9,868 deaths and 767,225 injuries
Moderna: 5,460 deaths and 212,474 injuries
JANSSEN: 733 deaths and 57,159 injuries
AstraZeneca: 4,534 deaths and 923,749 injuries
Selecting the breakdown for AstraZeneca, and highlighting a few striking lines:
• 21,004 Blood and lymphatic system disorders incl. 126 deaths
• 19,717 Cardiac disorders incl. 1,489 deaths
• 33,642 Respiratory, thoracic, and mediastinal disorders incl. 1,168 deaths
• 137,631 Nervous system disorders incl. 1,081 deaths
• 205,214 General disorders and administration site conditions incl. 2,832 deaths
We do not need to endorse or certify these numbers (and there are doubtless overlaps etc) to understand why many will be concerned and why it is not good enough to simply dismiss concerns as “misinformation.” Yes, such figures are as usual hedged about with many disclaimers and debatable points, etc. On the whole, a common view is that voluntary reporting likely leads to underreporting, and it is always easy to throw up endless technical objections that boil down to correlation is not causation. However, let us remember that the cigarette manufacturers did just that for many decades, highly successfully, until in the end it was finally concluded, enough is enough.
On further fair comment, these vaccines can clearly be regarded as ameliorative treatments administered before the fact of infection, which now seem to require onward boosters after 6 – 12 months. Possibly, on an ongoing basis as new strains emerge and as boosters also begin to fade out. Where cumulative risk obviously rises with repeated exposure. Likewise the so-called “fully vaccinated” can catch and pass on Covid-19. If that is so, why is there pressure targetting the “unvaxxed” as the threat for new infections? Isn’t it the case that in Israel [4]:
“As of 15 August, 514 Israelis were hospitalized with severe or critical COVID-19 . . . 59% were fully vaccinated. Of the vaccinated, 87% were 60 or older. “There are so many breakthrough infections that they dominate and most of the hospitalized patients are actually vaccinated,” says Uri Shalit, a bioinformatician at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) . . . “One of the big stories from Israel [is]: ‘Vaccines work, but not well enough.’” [“A grim warning from Israel: Vaccination blunts, but does not defeat Delta” Science Mag dot Org, August 16, 2021.]
Fair comment, the Covid-19 vaccines were rushed through at “warp speed” and at the same time long since tested repurposed drugs showing clearly significant antiviral effects have been brushed aside by officials and the major media, especially now Ivermectin. [5] Part of that comment is that in accord with the Nuremberg Code [6] and similar ethical regulations, emergency authorisation and experimental treatments are permitted in cases where there is no established, well-accepted effective treatment. There is obviously a lingering question of health and life risks and uncertainties. It should therefore give serious pause to vaccine advocates that a key inventor of mRNA technologies, Dr. Robert Malone, is giving cautions on safety issues. [7]
Some would observe that while repurposed drugs such as Ivermectin are not going to make a fortune for anyone now, Moderna just turned in a quarterly profit report in the billions. Others will mutter about big pharma.
Yet others will highlight Mr. Bill Gates’ TED Talk PR fiasco of saying on stage, on video, that he hoped to reduce an estimated global population trend to nine billion by 10- 15%, [8] naming vaccines as a means to do this.
Then, there is the sheer fact of global spread and linked onward mutations of the Covid-19 virus, where apparently animal reservoirs have come up. Such as, cats. This virus is not going away anytime soon and we have to find better strategies to adapt to it and treat it.
Perhaps, then, we need to have a new conversation, one that doesn’t start by stigmatising the concerned as being the ignorant misinformed misled by armchair instigators.
[1]See https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-319 Note, In the well-known Sci-Fi Star Trek universe, space ships moving in imagined excess of the speed of light are moving at “warp speed.”
[2] TMR, https://www.themontserratreporter.com/the-emerging-covid-vax-booster-shot-train/
[3] See: https://www.technocracy.news/soaring-european-union-reports-1-9-million-vaccine-injuries-20595-deaths/
[4] See https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/grim-warning-israel-vaccination-blunts-does-not-defeat-delta
[5] TMR https://www.themontserratreporter.com/ivermectin-some-population-level-evidence/
[6] TMR https://www.themontserratreporter.com/compulsory-jabs-vs-the-nuremberg-code/
[7] See https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/06/22/robert_malone_steve_kirsch__bret_weinstein_discuss_spike_protein_from_vaccine_is_dangerous.html
[8] See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfstBe1buaA from 2:28 on.
