We are very supportive of vaccines in general and principle. Covid19 vaccines do not have the efficacy experienced in previous vaccines and have far more adverse reactions. New Zealand has taken an unusual step (October 2021) of trying to achieve 90% uptake of the Pfizer vaccine alone. To achieve that aim it is making it mandatory to have the Pfizer vaccination if you work in some fields (health, teaching and hospitality) and after 90% is achieved, to participate in civil life (events, hospitality).
Many public and private institutions and businesses are enthusiastically complying with this project, championed by media (NZ Herald), requesting their staff be vaccinated.
Those in New Zealand hesitant about Pfizer have looked at other vaccine options, such as Novavax. The Government has previously said it bought enough doses for over 5 million people and was considering using it as the ‘booster’ vaccine.
Despite that, the Government health helpline won’t talk to callers about the option of using Novavax (first-hand experience, 28 Oct 2021).
Novavax, from a biological perspective, seems safer and seems to have milder adverse events than the Pfizer Covid19 vaccine, although we’d like to see some independent data on this. It is still the spike protein, but in recombinant form (rather than mRNA), which the body then makes.
Check out:https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2107659
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