There’s been some hysterical modellers claiming that even with high rates of Pfizer vaccination, there will still be a large number of deaths. Ironically, their models have opened the way in New Zealand to questioning the value of Covid vaccines. We don’t need notoriously unreliable models, because we’ve got actual trial data. Trial evidence is superior to all other epidemiological evidence, and particularly so for projected models. We shouldn’t be relying on models now that we have so much observed data, including trials.
The latest Pfizer data reveals that there is a 7% increase in the overall fatality rate in vaccinated people compared to the unvaccinated. As we said in a recent post:
The best evidence of overall effect on death comes from the latest update of the Pfizer trial which shows slightly more overall deaths (15/21,926) occurred in the vaccinated group than in controls (14/21,921). This is important, since the outcome doesn’t just count successes (reduced covid ‘cases’), but also includes the possibility of vaccine harm, evaluating the effect of the vaccine on overall survival. This means the best evidence thus far indicates a 7% increase in risk of death, comparing the vaccinated to the unvaccinated. Yes, the numbers are small, and these results are compatible with a wide range of vaccine effects, but it seems strange that this important information is relegated to the study appendices and is absent from the summary. Most of us are more interested in our overall longevity, rather than being solely focused on avoiding covid-19. The Prime Minister’s claim (52’:27”) that the vaccine is “saving lives” is sounding hollow, from the best possible epidemiological evidence: Pfizer’s own trial.
Another publication points out that more severe adverse outcomes occurred in the treated rather than the untreated in all three vaccine trials.
The claims of the New Zealand modellers and Prof. Rod Jackson ignore important facts:
1. The age distribution of deaths with Covid is about the same as background.
https://www.covidplanb.co.nz/our-posts/is-new-zealands-covid-19-story-past-its-use-by-date/
2. Delta is not much different. It is not clear that ‘Delta’ is worse than any other form of Covid.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.02.21263014v13.
Vaccines and lockdowns are not working. Jackson states that there are only two ways to ‘deal with delta: lockdowns and vaccines’. As we have been saying from the start, lockdowns don’t work.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84092-1
Vaccines have not been successful in halting the Delta variation.
With all this data available, why are we still living in fear? While it was easy for authorities, media, and professional and amateur worriers to start the irrational fear that has dominated the past 18 months, it has been extremely hard to stop it. Many of those who started it, and modellers were chief among them, don’t yet want it to stop.
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