Recently I was forwarded an article by an anti-vaxxer written by far right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Adams. Here is my response which I have yet to decide to share with the person involved since logic is seldom effective in such situations. Thanks for sharing the article by Mike Adams. Whenever I get new information, I try to assess the validity of the source. It appears that Mike Adams does not believe in the scientific method. I do, so right away we have a difference in our world view. None-the-less, I try to understand those who have a different world view than myself. The scientific method states that any research results are always subject to further investigation/research as experimental procedures improve. This iterative process can validate existing results or prove them false. It is a process of continuous improvement. So let’s look at vaccines. First of all, it is correct to say that vaccines kill people. But then so do all medications, even something as widely used and common as Aspirin.
By the end of 7 May 2021, about 1.4 billion people worldwide have had at least one Covid vaccination. To date, only a few thousand cases of blood clots have been reported by those taking vaccines and not all of those resulted in deaths. Scientific research is continuing. Mike Adams, and others, cleverly refer to legitimate scientific papers. I agree with all his quotes from the Salk Institute. He also provides a link to a Circulation Research paper and I agree with the quotes he uses from that paper. The Salk paper explains how the virus spike proteins damage the vascular system. Adams incorrectly asserts that vaccines which contains the spike protein or ruminants of the spike protein will do the same thing and will eventually kill millions. Unless you read the scientific papers closely, it is easy to feel that Adams assertion is correct. And that is the slippery technique that conspiracy theorists use. They use real scientific papers to establish an air of legitimacy, but slip in a small assertion that seems logical but in fact is incorrect. This is where Mike Adams smoothly veers away from science into conspiracy theory. Vaccines contain attenuated viruses or mRNA fragments of the spike protein both of which cannot replicate. It is important to understand this point. Vaccines do not replicate, indeed, by design, they cannot replicate. Once injected they attach to human cells and just remain there until the body produces antibodies and destroys them. The real Covid-19 virus can replicate and spread throughout the body. The body also develops antibodies for the real Covid-19 virus however in some cases the virus replicates so fast that it overwhelms the natural body defenses causing severe illness and death. The Salk paper and subsequent Circulation Research does not support Adams assertion. In fact, Circulation Research explicitly says the opposite, but Adams does not share those quotes. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.121.318902 A quote from the end of this article that Mike Adams fails to point out.. “This conclusion suggests that vaccination-generated antibody and/or exogenous antibody against S protein not only protects the host from SARS-CoV-2 infectivity but also inhibits S protein-imposed endothelial injury.” Details (not essential to understanding the conclusions below) So here is a more detailed explanation of the difference between Covid-19 spike protein (and the pseudovirus used in the Salk research). https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/05/04/spike-protein-behavior Quote from a CNet article by Jackson Ryan. (The CNet media bias rating is Center.) https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-some-covid-vaccines-may-cause-blood-clots-and-what-scientists-are-doing-about-it/ “Scientists are quick to point out that about a third of patients with COVID-19 also present with blood clots and that the risk of blood clots post-vaccination is lower than with the contraceptive pill.” Thus, the risk of a blood clot after an AZ vaccine is far less than from Covid-19 itself. There are also well developed protocols for screening, diagnosing and treating blood clots. “So I’ve been getting questions about what this means for vaccination: if we’re causing people to express Spike protein via mRNA or adenovirus vectors, are we damaging them just as if they’d been infected with coronavirus? Fortunately, the answer definitely seems to be “no” – in fact, the pseudovirus paper notes near the end that the antibody response generated by vaccination against the Spike protein will be beneficial in two ways, against infection and against the Spike-mediated endothelial damage as well. There are several reasons why the situation is different.” “Now we get to a key difference: when a cell gets the effect of an mRNA nanoparticle or an adenovirus vector, it of course starts to express the Spike protein. But instead of that being assembled into more infectious viral particles, as would happen in a real coronavirus infection, this protein gets moved up to the surface of the cell, where it stays. That’s where it’s presented to the immune system, as an abnormal intruding protein on a cell surface. The Spike protein is not released to wander freely through the bloodstream by itself, because it has a transmembrane anchor region that (as the name implies) leaves it stuck. That’s how it sits in the virus itself, and it does the same in human cells.” So now let’s look at the facts logically. Yes, Covid vaccinations introduce spike proteins into our bodies. But so does catching Covid-19. The difference is as expressed above: “Now we get to a key difference: when a cell gets the effect of an mRNA nanoparticle or an adenovirus vector, it of course starts to express the Spike protein. But instead of that being assembled into more infectious viral particles, as would happen in a real coronavirus infection, this protein gets moved up to the surface of the cell, where it stays.” One is planned inoculation with a vaccine that extremely rarely causes deaths. The other (catching Covid) is natural inoculation which causes millions of deaths . The body produces antigens towards the virus in both cases. The Covid-19 virus has an estimated real mortality rate of about 0.2%. Calculating mortality rates has been fraught with uncertainties at this point in time. To date worldwide, 157,826,379 cases have been reported with 3,288,154 deaths (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/). That is a mortality rate of 2.083%. But it is estimated that 10 times the reported cases have actually occurred (most with no or mild symptoms). So the resulting estimated mortality is much lower at 0.2%. This is a conservative estimate according to the link below. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-rate/ Of the Covid vaccines given currently, only Astra Zenica and Johnson & Johnson have causally linked blood clots. https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-some-covid-vaccines-may-cause-blood-clots-and-what-scientists-are-doing-about-it/ With 317 million AZ doses administered to-date worldwide, the causally linked blood clots rate is 0.001%. https://thrombosiscanada.ca/covid-19-vaccines-and-blood-clots-faqs/ Of those who have been diagnosed with blood clots the reported fatality rate ranges from 19% to 40%. (Canadian data so far is around 19%). Thus, the blood clot data to date for AZ is:
Thus to date, the AZ vaccine alone saved 634,000 minus 1268 (blood clot deaths) = 632,732 lives to-date. Not to mention the numerous “long-Covid” medical issues that are continuing to occur and may occur for years to come for those who actually catch Covid-19. Vaccines save lives, but admittedly not at zero risk. It appears that other vaccines’ blood clot rates are no higher than AZ, and with some vaccines such as mRNA vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, etc), the blood clot rate is much lower than AZ. If we scale the results globally: (Conservatively assuming all vaccines have the same blood clot rate as AZ)
Globally, Covid-19 vaccines could conservatively save 16,169,400 lives. But the world is not perfect. It took time to develop vaccines and it will take time to vaccinate everyone. We have already lost 3,295,950 lives and will lose many more before vaccines can be rolled out around the world. We could lose another 5,000,000 lives before everyone can get a vaccine. And of course due to various conscientious objections some will not get vaccinated. And sadly many misinformed people (up to 30% of the US population) will not get vaccinated contributing many more deaths. Conclusions One might argue that people have the right to refuse a vaccine but here is the downside to that decision. As long as a significant number of people do not get vaccinated, Covid-19 will continue to circulate, AND, as all viruses do, it will continue to mutate. The risk then is that more virulent and deadly varieties of the virus will occur, killing millions more people. Not to mention the economic damage and crushing debt that future generations will have to bear. I personally feel an obligation to those millions of people and future generations. That, in addition to my own protection, is the main reason I choose to get vaccinated. For everyone, including those of a religious persuasion, it seems like the right thing to do , in spite of any personal reservations about the vaccine that you might have. No vaccine or medication is zero risk. Vaccines however have been proven to be extremely safe, safer than most medications. Globally other vaccines save 4 to 5 million lives per year (mostly children) according to WHO (https://www.who.int/news-room/facts-in-pictures/detail/immunization) Since vaccines were first used, it is estimated that 180,000,000 lives have been saved. This is how I see things.
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