Whether or Not to Get the Covid-19 Vaccine: A Controversy Founded in Misunderstanding
Disclaimer
I believe the risk from receiving the Covid-19 vaccination is probably minimal. The vast majority of us should take it without fear of harm. Like everything in life, individuals must weigh the pros and cons. This post is intended to provide accurate published data. The data is taken from official government websites, Pfizer’s official website, and a few others. It is not intended to be medical advice. The views expressed are my opinions only. You should address concerns about the Covid-19 vaccination only with qualified medical professionals.
In the Beginning…
I published my first post about Covid-19 on March 18th of 2020. The lockdowns had just begun, and we did not have as much data as we do now. We had limited treatment options, and vaccines were not available, so I decided to cover some of the basic lifestyle practices that lead to better immunity as it was our only option. The lockdown had just begun, was supposed to be only a few weeks long, and the experts said masks were of no use. The stance changed for masks, and we all complied. But now we are in the midst of heated times. The implication that unvaccinated people are dangerous is misguided, and I need to speak up. I have nothing against vaccines personally and went out of my way to get certified by my state to provide them for anyone wanting one. I deem the matter a personal choice, and the law and medical ethics support this.
We Were Unified When Covid Began
A month after my first post, I wrote about how well we were all doing trying to comply. I mused that some of the undertakings might prove futile, while others could become miracles. I understood that time would tell. I was emphatic that despite effective medical interventions, some would have no effect, and we should still strive to become healthier.
The Data is Difficult to Interpret
Since then, I have covered data that show lockdowns did not appear to help, nor did the masks. I shared research about the lockdown controversy by highlighting how different policies between some states made no difference in the pandemic. I also published a theory on why masks don't seem to work. In my personal dealings with mask and lockdown supporters, I have found that none of them have looked at the information first-hand. Rather, they listen to the persistent push for facemasks and lockdowns by many politicians, organizations, and a large contingent of the population. Sadly, most people don't comprehend just how beneficial lifestyles are at keeping us healthy and lowering our chances of catching contagious diseases.
Weston A. Price, Healthy Lifestyles, and Natural Disease Immunity
Weston A. Price
Weston A. Price observed that "modernized natives" had a 35% greater susceptibility to tooth decay, gum disease, tooth loss, crowded teeth (including impacted wisdom teeth), and tuberculosis compared to their "native" counterparts who lived much healthier lives. The “modernized natives” lived western lifestyles and ate processed foods. Many continue to disbelieve his findings. He gathered data in the 1930s when there were no antibiotics and observed perfectly healthy "native" populations immune to dental problems and tuberculosis infections. He noted that many had made habitual use of specific preventive measures in meeting crucial life problems. The measures included nutrient-dense diets devoid of processed carbohydrates and seed oils, plenty of outdoor activity in the sunshine, adequate sleep, and nurturing family relationships. (1) I stress that the populations he studied had no choice as they had no access to modern medicine or dentistry. Read his book for free here.
Tuberculosis Immunity Without Antibiotics or Quarantine
The fact that people can be naturally immune to tuberculosis and other diseases has escaped attention. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the United States and one of the most dreaded diseases known to mankind. Unlike today where we are all supposed to live in isolation, only sick people were isolated to protect the healthy. (2) FYI, Leprosy, and all other diseases until Covid involved quarantine of only the ill.
The Road Less Travelled
Despite our modern advances in medicine and dentistry, many of my patients embrace the same healthy lifestyles as the populations that Dr. Price studied. I also have a larger population that does not. As expected, the former group is much healthier than the latter. Those of us who go to extra efforts to mitigate our risk of developing a disease have different reasons for doing so, but our common thread is the understanding of the imperfect nature of modern medicine, coupled with the enormous benefits of good sleep, nutrition, weight management, healthy relationships, etc. We feel that the extra time and effort outweigh the downside of disease that makes life less enjoyable and medical treatments that may have side effects. As you can imagine, I catch heat for my stance regularly from close family and friends. I take the ribbing in stride as it is usually not done in a mean-spirited way.
Division and Strife
The latest controversy is over whether to get vaccinated against Covid or not. Adopting a healthy lifestyle is a personal choice, and most of the pressure comes from personal motivation, not from haranguing by others. The vaccines are another matter. I and others have angry relatives and friends pressuring us to get the vaccine. If it were just that, it would be somewhat tolerable. Alas, many unvaccinated people are now the object of scorn, ridicule, fear, and hatred. I have had family, friends, and patients dismissive of me, or even accusing me of being a “carrier” and a potential killer. The rest of this post is not intended to dissuade you from having the vaccination. Rather, my goal is to help people be more understanding and compassionate towards individuals who have chosen to remain unvaccinated.
Informed Consent
Patients are entitled to hear all reasonable risks and benefits whenever deciding whether to have a medical procedure, including consenting to take prescription medicine. This is called informed consent in the medical profession. In past tort cases, physicians have been found guilty of assault and battery because they did not discuss all of the risks or permission was not granted before providing medical procedures. (3) The Covid vaccine risks are not known as the production was rushed, and no animal trials were done. There is not enough information (for me and others like me) to consent to. For this and many other reasons, many are hesitant to get the new vaccine until more is known about the potential risks and side effects.
Adverse Vaccine Events
The CDC hosts the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System VAERS, which is a voluntary database. Below are the deaths from vaccines reported since 1990. The graph reflects all vaccine-related deaths. It does not single out any particular vaccine. Notice the recent spike. I leave you to draw your own conclusion about what you see.
Courtesy of VAERS
The Pfizer Clinical Trial Setup
I had access to their study because I signed up for the vaccine, knowing they had to provide it to me for legal informed consent. Here it is in a nutshell:
They had 43,000 participants. They included only healthy people. They excluded all individuals likely to have any significant symptoms from a SARS CoV-2 infection, including Individuals at high risk for severe COVID-19 (the actual disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus), including those with any of the following risk factors:
Hypertension
Diabetes mellitus
Chronic pulmonary disease
Asthma
Current vaping or smoking
History of chronic smoking within the prior year
BMI greater than 30; the obese
Anticipating the need for immunosuppressive treatment within the next 6 months
The information above is still available from the government here.
Pfizer Had Their Thumb On the Scale
They left out the people likely to have symptoms leaving people less likely to have them. The results are therefore much better than what we are seeing in our normal population of sick Americans. By the way, as with most studies, it was double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled. It is of the highest quality according to industry standards.
The Pfizer Clinical Trial Results
There were 170 COVID-19 cases out of the 43,000 participants. Covid-19 is the disease, SARS-CoV-2 is the virus leading to an infection that can often be silent. Eight of these were in the vaccine group, and 162 in the placebo group.
The Covid-19 rate in the vaccinated group was: Eight divided by 21,500 is 0.04%.
The Covid-19 rate in the non-vaccinated group was: 162 divided by 21,500 is 0.75%.
The actual risk of having symptoms from the SARS-CoV-2 virus was lowered from .75% to .04% in the vaccinated group. The vaccine lowers your absolute risk of having any symptoms by less than 1%. The amount is only .71%! That’s it.
The information above is available from Pfizer here.
The Way Pfizer Reports Their Findings
They leave out the 42,830 people who did not have symptoms, 21,500 of whom were unvaccinated. They then compare the 162 symptomatic unvaccinated people to the 8 symptomatic vaccinated people.
Here is their math:
The reduction from 0.75% to 0.04% is 95%, so they claim the vaccine has 95% efficacy, which is meaningless. They use relative risk which is statistical sleight of hand for the unsuspecting public who understand little to nothing about the pharmaceutical industry’s underhandedness. Absolute risk is the number to heed. The results they show seem impressive but are statistically insignificant.
Here Are Some Excerpts From the CDC Information on the Pfizer Vaccine
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is an unapproved vaccine that may prevent COVID-19. There is no FDA-approved vaccine to prevent COVID-19.
After a systematic review of the literature, the Work Group used the GRADE approach to assess the certainty of the evidence for outcomes related to the vaccine, rated on a scale of 1 (high certainty) to 4 (very low certainty). The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was type 1 (high certainty) for the prevention of symptomatic COVID-19.
The vaccine is rated type 4 (very low certainty) for the estimate of prevention of death.
The available data were consistent with reduced risk for these severe outcomes among vaccinated persons compared with that among placebo recipients. (The reduced risk is .71%)
Data on hospitalizations and deaths are limited at this time, but a vaccine that effectively prevents symptomatic infection is expected to also prevent hospitalizations and deaths.
No data were available to assess the efficacy for the prevention of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.
My Take
Lowering my absolute risk by .71% is not strong enough to incentivize me because I am in a low-risk group, to begin with.
The relative risk of 95% is meaningless.
Pfizer excluded those likely to have Covid-19 symptoms.
Researchers did not look at the prevention of death from Covid-19.
The researchers did not look for asymptomatic carriers and make no claim that you won’t be a carrier; there will be risk present, albeit diminished, even with vaccination. (4)
Nobody can claim they are immune to SARS-CoV-2, nor that they can’t spread it, vaccine or not.
Data on the health risks is limited.
The vaccines are not approved.
Healthy lifestyles confer strong immune systems.
One Final Note
The death rate per 100,000 has been on the rise since 2009. It has gone up on average .009% per year over that timeframe. The graph below is taken from the CDC’s data all the way back to 1950. You can see that the rate fell until 2009. The yellow is the percent change year over year. As you can see, we had large increases (yellow line) from 2004 to 2005, 2006 to 2008, and 2009 to 2010. The change in the year of covid was less than those years. Could someone have taken the data from those years and frightened the public? Absolutely. Were there pandemics in those years? Maybe; obesity and heart disease come to mind. Don’t let the experts deceive you into panic, rashness, and anger towards the people who know how to sift through the data.
The first 50 years of the last century had a very noticeable pandemic year. The death rate after it was in steady decline until recently.
Conclusion
I want you to get the vaccination if that is your wish. I believe the risk is small if you are healthy. We are all in this together. Accusing our friends, family, and loved ones following their legal rights or endangering you is divisive. We should all take care of ourselves, avoid things we deem risky, and allow others to do the same.