McGill University Office for Science and Society

8 Jun 2024

 

...

"As we slide down this rabbit hole, you will see why scientists have had to write multiple 10,000-word refutations on this subject. Those of us trying to fairly explain our understanding of the science of vaccines are at a major disadvantage: we can’t simply make stuff up.

...

"Take-home message:
- The claim that the spike protein or its messenger RNA can be detected for weeks or months after vaccination is based on studies where fragments were barely detectable, often trillionths of a gram, which is in keeping with our understanding of biology

- The fears around the wrong protein being made because the vaccine RNA has been modified is not backed up by the evidence, which shows that those wrong proteins are few and far in between and are likely destroyed by the cell like most malformed proteins we naturally produce
...
- Over 13 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, with robust data showing they are overwhelmingly safe."

 

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19-medical-critical-thinking/spikeopathy-speculative-fiction-contaminates-blood-supply

 

Further elaboration in the full version of the linked article above.

 

McGill University Office for Science and Society

"Our office recently celebrated its 25th anniversary—25 years of, among other things, separating sense from nonsense on scientific matters."

 

 

Fall Covid-19 vaccine provides additional protection

Jan. 3, 2025

 

"The first data on the effectiveness of this fall’s 2024-2025 Covid-19 vaccine is in, and it’s looking good!

 

A preprint was released on patients at a Veterans Affairs hospital. Scientists tallied the number of people who did (and did not) have Covid-19 from September- November 2024 and whether they got this fall’s Covid-19 vaccine (specifically the Pfizer 2024-2025 KP.2 formula). Among 44,598 infections, the Covid-19 vaccine reduces:

• Hospitalizations by 68%

• Emergency department and urgent care visits by 57%, and

• Outpatient visits by 56%

The vaccine worked best for those over 65 years old. This study is very preliminary (it only covered two months with little Covid-19 transmission), but the findings aren’t surprising—they are generally consistent with what scientists have found in previous years."

 

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/the-dose-january-3

 

"Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) reaches more than 295,000 people in over 132 countries with one goal: “translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people feel well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions."

 

"My name is Dr. Katelyn Jetelina. I have a Masters in Public Health and PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. I am an epidemiologist, data scientist, wife, and mom to two little girls.

 

During the day, I wear many hats, including scientific consultant to a number of organizations, including CDC."

 

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/about

Excerpts of a recap of COVID vaccine safety issues from the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities:

 

"The fact that a medical event has been reported as a suspected side effect does not mean that the vaccine caused it. Anyone can report a suspected side effect, including members of the public and healthcare professionals. Regulators constantly analyse these reports to see if there may be a causal link with the vaccine. They do this by comparing the rate of a medical event in vaccinated people with the rate of the event in the population before the pandemic and before vaccination. As part of this robust and continuous safety monitoring, regulators also consider any other available evidence such as evidence from studies. Most of the time, reported suspected side effects are not caused by the medicine concerned.

...

Reports of deaths following vaccination are very rare. During mass vaccination campaigns, when millions of people are being vaccinated, it is expected that some deaths will occur by chance shortly after vaccination. The fact that deaths are reported after vaccination does not mean that the vaccine caused them. Healthcare professionals can report any death that occurs following vaccination, even if it is unknown whether the vaccine was the cause. In very exceptional cases, deaths have been reported to be caused by the vaccines*1. 

*1 One example is ‘thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome’ with adenoviral vector COVID-19 vaccines 

...

ICMRA strongly supports the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and their benefits in protecting people of all ages from the severe consequences of COVID-19."

 

"About ICMRA
ICMRA brings together 38 medicines regulatory authorities from every region in the world, with the WHO as an observer."

 

https://icmra.info/drupal/strategicinitiatives/vaccines/safety_statement

 

 

 

02/07/2024

NewsGuard Reports More Than 300 Vaccine-Related False Narratives Now Spreading Online

Nearly four years since the outbreak of COVID-19 — and amidst a constant stream of false claims about vaccine efficacy — NewsGuard reports that there are now more than 300 vaccine-related false narratives infecting social media and online search results

 

(February 7, 2024 — New York) Health misinformation site Natural News (NewsGuard Trust Score: 5/100) reports that elderberries are more effective protection against flu than a vaccine. The National Vaccine Information Center (Trust Score: 12.5/100) cites research claiming measles vaccines cause measles. U.K-based Principia-Scientific (Trust Score: 20/100) claims COVID-19 vaccines contain monkey DNA.

 

These are among the now more than 300 vaccine-related false narratives that NewsGuard’s healthcare information team has identified circulating on the internet, shared by 4,387 websites and other news sources and social media accounts — and counting. Two thirds of all the news and information websites that NewsGuard has rated as untrustworthy since 2018 publish healthcare misinformation. [emphasis added]

 

“The vaccine-related false narratives we’ve found don’t just reflect the spike in conversations about vaccines since the pandemic,” said John Gregory, health editor at NewsGuard. “Long before COVID-19, people made all kinds of questionable statements about vaccines, related to autoimmune diseases, infertility, cardiac arrest and other health topics. In fact, 67% of news sites rated as generally untrustworthy (below 60/100) by NewsGuard have been flagged for publishing health misinformation, making it one of the largest categories of misinformation we track.”

 

(more)

 

https://www.newsguardtech.com/press/newsguard-reports-more-than-300-vaccine-related-false-narratives-now-spreading-online/

 

To the OP. I would start looking over your shoulder. The headless chickens ( anti vaxxers ) will find out where you live , strap you to a chair and talk you to death. It is slow and agonising  death but when it comes, it will be a relief.

COVID-19 Misinformation Persists, 4 Years After Shelter-in-Place

While people’s lives are largely free of the extreme public health measures that restricted them early in the pandemic, misinformation about vaccines and conspiracy theories are still around.

 

April 1, 2024

...

"Four years later, people’s lives are largely free of the extreme public health measures that restricted them early in the pandemic. But COVID misinformation persists, although it’s now centered mostly on vaccines and vaccine-related conspiracy theories. [emphasis added]

 

PolitiFact has published more than 2,000 fact checks related to COVID vaccines alone.

 

“From a misinformation researcher perspective, [there has been] shifting levels of trust,” said Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Early on in the pandemic, there was a lot of: ‘This isn’t real,’ fake cures, and then later on, we see more vaccine-focused mis- and disinformation and a more partisan type of disinformation and misinformation.”

...

on social media and in some public officials’ remarks, misinformation about COVID vaccine efficacy and safety is common. U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [Donald Trump's current nominee to head the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services] has built his 2024 campaign on a movement that seeks to legitimize conspiracy theories about the vaccines. PolitiFact made that its 2023 “Lie of the Year.” [emphasis added]

 

(more)

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-04-01/four-years-after-shelter-in-place-covid-19-misinformation-persists

 

Somehow very fitting that a lot of the nonsense COVID anti-vax threads posted here are sharing space with discussions about whether the Earth is flat or round, and about whether the religiously purported "Virgin Birth" really was...  🙂

 

40 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Somehow very fitting that a lot of the nonsense COVID anti-vax threads posted here are sharing space with discussions about whether the Earth is flat or round, and about whether the religiously purported "Virgin Birth" really was...  🙂

 

Is talking to yourself a vaccine side effect?

 

I prefer to look at these kinds of COVID vaccine effects:

 

What are the implications for public health practice?

Adults aged ≥65 years should receive 2 doses of 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccine, and persons aged ≥6 months with moderate or severe immunocompromise should receive ≥2 doses to protect against severe COVID-19.

Vaccine Effectiveness

"The 2023–2024 COVID-19 vaccines provided approximately 50% (95% CI = 44%–55%) additional protection [emphasis added, meaning beyond prior infection and prior vaccine protections] against hospitalization initially and then waned to negligible additional protection by approximately 4–6 months after receipt of a 2023–2024 COVID-19 vaccine dose. Protection lasted longer against critical illness (i.e., intensive care unit admission and death). VE against critical illness started at 67% (95% CI = 55%–75%) and decreased to 40% (95% CI = 16%–58%) 4–6 months after the dose, with point estimates indicating additional waning of VE by 6–10 months after the dose (10)."

 

Safety

ACIP reviewed CDC data on COVID-19 vaccine safety with a focus on doses administered after the initial vaccination series. Robust safety surveillance of COVID-19 vaccines has demonstrated that serious adverse events are rare [emphasis added]: anaphylactic reactions have been rarely reported after receipt of COVID-19 vaccines (12), and a rare risk for myocarditis and pericarditis has been observed after COVID-19 vaccination, predominantly among males aged 12–39 years (13). No increased risk for myocarditis or pericarditis was observed in adults aged ≥65 years after COVID-19 vaccination (13); whether the risk might be different in persons with immunocompromise is unknown."

 

U.S. CDC

December 12, 2024

 

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7349a2.htm