Are Covid Vaccines Safe and Effective?

Are Covid vaccines safe and effective? Let’s consider the evidence – all the evidence, anecdotal, circumstantial and scientific – and see …

Anecdotal evidence is considered to be less-than-scientific evidence. But what happens when you have a flood of it: a nurse passing out on TV just minutes after receiving the vaccine¹; several deaths in Israel after getting the vaccine^2,³; a Portugeuse nurse suddenly dying after getting the vaccine⁴; two people dying in Norway⁵; a Miami doctor dying⁶; a vaccine trial participant dying in Brazil⁷; the CDC reporting six cases of anaphylaxis (symptoms of which can include shortness of breath, vomiting, lightheadedness, low blood pressure) and thousands of people being unable to work after getting the vaccine⁸.

(See the section More Reports below for other similar stories.)

Double-blind studies, such as those used in the vaccine trials, are considered more scientific than anecdotal evidence. The main reason to perform double-blind studies is to compare an active ingredient with a placebo so that a scientific analysis can be done comparing the active ingredient with the placebo. Often it is assumed that the placebo is an inert substance, such as a saline solution injection. But what if the placebo is not an inert substance? It seems pretty clear that, then, you have tilted the playing field and are now comparing the safety of something questionable with the safety of something else that is questionable. This is indeed the way many vaccine trails are done. For example, in a UK Covid vaccine trial a meningitis vaccine was used as the control substance⁹.

So, when you hear that anecdotal evidence should be ignored and double-blind studies should be taken seriously, well, it depends on the double-blind study. The Covid vaccine is experimental – which is why it is only approved for emergency use – and to compare it with a meningitis vaccine is questionable science.

Pfizer vaccine analysis:

	Treated Group	Control Group
Total Subjects	21,830	21,830
# Infected	8	162
Infection Risk	8 / 21,830 = 0.0004 = 0.04%	162 / 21,830 = 0.0074 = 0.74%
# Severely Infected	1	3

Relative effectiveness: (162 – 8) / 162 = 95%
Absolute effectiveness: (162 – 8) / 21,830 = 0.7%
Absolute effectiveness wrt severe infections: (3 -1) / 21,830 = 0.009%

Let’s look at the Pfizer vaccine (which did use saline solution as the placebo) that claims 95% effectiveness¹⁰. That’s one way of stating the data. It’s called relative effectiveness, comparing how many of those that got sick from the placebo group (162) against those that got sick from the vaccine treated group (8). But if you were to compare the number of infections prevented (162 – 8 = 154) against the total number of people vaccinated (21,830 in the Covid vaccine treated group) you get a far less impressive number: about 0.7% of the total group was prevented from getting sick.

According to an FDA document, Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions¹¹, “Of these 170 COVID-19 cases, 1 in the vaccine group and 3 in the placebo group were classified as severe.” So, if you were to only consider the “severe” cases, the math looks like this: 2 severe cases were eliminated in the vaccine treated group out of a total of 21,830 participants: 0.009 % effective at eliminating severe cases. Or, doing a little bit of rounding, for every 10,000 Covid vaccine participants only one person was saved from a severe case of Covid.

If the entire US population were vaccinated: 350,000,000 * 0.00009 = 31,500 severe infections prevented. And that is what all the hoopla is about!

When you add to the analysis that many of those who get the vaccine will have some side effects: “Serious adverse events, while uncommon (<1.0%), were observed at slightly higher numerical rates in the vaccine study group compared to the saline placebo study group,” according to the same FDA document, and some may get side effects in the long term (it’s never been studied so we have no idea if there will be long-term side effects or how bad or how long-lasting). The FDA doc also says, “Data are not yet available to inform about the duration of protection that the vaccine will provide.” Given all this, the whole vaccination proposition starts becoming very questionable.

This article began by acknowledging that anecdotal evidence is considered to be of less value than other kinds of evidence. And while acknowledging that the following is also not scientific evidence, the story of Brandy Vaughan, founder of learntherisk.org, a website dedicated to educating people on the risks associated with vaccines, is pertinent. She had noticed strange occurrences in her home and, as a result, she recorded a video that not only documented these occurrences but also a statement that she was of good health and had no intention of killing herself. Nonetheless, she died on December 7, 2020. While officially her death was said to be of “natural causes,” many people don’t accept that explanation as being likely given her age and general good health, as well as the timing, which coincided with the Covid vaccine rollout.

You may not agree that Brandy Vaughan’s death is suspicious. But, for whatever reasons, many are being cautious about taking the Covid vaccines. For example, see the story 60 Percent of Nursing Home Workers in Ohio Decline COVID-19 Vaccines Over Safety Concerns¹². Of course, one good reason for hesitancy to take the vaccine is that the vaccine is only approved for emergency use, a fact that has been mostly buried amongst the fanfare surrounding the vaccine rollout. Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion in 2009 by the US DOJ for promoting off-label uses of a drug (not a vaccine) – another good reason for hesitancy. And the “vaccine court” has now paid off over $4 billion dollars in over 5,000 cases – yet another good reason for vaccine hesitancy. The “vaccine court” pays out with US taxpayers dollars because vaccine companies are indemnified from paying damages – perhaps the best reason yet for vaccine hesitancy.

So, are Covid vaccines safe and effective? Now, you decide.

Footnotes:

¹Nurse passes out on live TV after being administered COVID-19 vaccine

²Israeli man reportedly dies of heart attack hours after getting COVID vaccine

³Two Elderly Men Die Hours After Getting COVID-19 Vaccines in Israel

⁴Portuguese Nurse Dies Suddenly After Receiving COVID Vaccine

⁵Investigation launched as 2 people die in Norway nursing home days after receiving Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine

⁶Miami Doctor Dies After Receiving First Dose Of Pfizer Vaccine

⁷Volunteer in AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trial dies in Brazil: officials

⁸Thousands Negatively Affected After Getting COVID-19 Vaccine

⁹Placebos Used in Vaccine Trials Do Not Please Everyone

¹⁰What Does 95% Effective Mean? Teaching the Math of Vaccine Efficacy