Covid Vaccine Effectiveness: Give Us the Data!
I have some concerns about this iteration of the COVID vaccine. For disclosure I have had three vaccines all of the Moderna brand – and I have had Covid three times. Two weeks after my most recent Covid illness I had a DVT in my left leg that went well up into my groin and I will probably be on some type of blood thinner for the rest of my life. I truly believe that the spike protein in some people induces a hypercoagulable state and I believe it does this through LPa and is a mechanism that needs much more study. I am not anti-vaccination and I have been fully vaccinated my whole life (check my smallpox scar) and I vaccinate my patients.
I did actually write an editorial that was published opposed to the HPV vaccine when it first came out[1]. That vaccine was designed around four subtypes of HPV virus to prevent external genital warts and to prevent cervical cancer changes. My complaint was and is still the lack of transparency from the pharmacy companies. When the vaccine first launched they published that it was 100% protective against cervical cancer changes caused by those two subtype HPV strains. This means that they had a cohort of patients and they were not publishing the total prevention numbers. Had they told me that in the cohort of vaccinated people 100% reduction of the HPV 16 and 18 cancers happened that would help me a little but I want to know how much total disease reduction occurred and they refused to publish that data. My analogy was that if we outlawed 9 mm bullets we could probably very effectively reduce deaths from gunshot wounds from 9 mm bullets but it would not reduce the problem and there would still be people being shot with other calibers and I was concerned that that was going to happen. I felt like that would have been sham protection and I wanted to know the real protective rates before I recommended it to patients. I was just being cautious because I had in fact seen pharmaceutical companies manipulating data to make their drugs seem dramatically better than they were. Now I was partially right and partially wrong. The antigen shift that I worried would happen has not truly happened and the vaccine is now very protective against cervical cancer and HPV related changes leading towards cancer of all subtypes – partly because the vaccine changed from four subtypes to nine. It also changed from three vaccinations to two in those under age 15.
I find myself in a very similar situation. Pfizer who has been first to get the vaccine variant out this time clearly has the data on how protective the vaccine is against COVID-19. And they will consistently hide that information and never let it out. Our dear Anthony Fauci lied to our president so that he, who has age issues and some credibility issues – this made him look like an absolute weak moron. He went on a public platform and said that if you got this vaccine you would not get Covid. There has never been a vaccine with 100% efficacy ever and realistically there never will be. So as the man spoke the strength of United States of America went down because of this obviously idiotic lie. I want to know how protective this vaccine will be. If it’s 60% protective, just like the flu vaccine has been historically, we will accept that. We are OK with that level of protection. However, now if you ask how protective is it, like I have done, the response is a landslide of hate and comments that reference me as a southerner Trump loving anti-vaccination idiot.
My political views are absolutely not in question here, this is a scientific question and it deserves a scientific answer. I think (know) this president and the last president are both morons. I categorically do not align with the current Trump anti-vaccination people. But asking what are the side effects – what is the percentage of serious side effects and what is the protection rate is a reasonable question. Pfizer has the information. They have run the studies they have the internal data they just refuse to make it public under the guise of a desire to not erode confidence in the vaccine. I categorically deny this logic and will say with 100% certainty that their lack of transparency is eroding the confidence of this vaccine. Not only this vaccine, but all vaccines. I have had more and more people refuse flu shots and pneumonia 23s, and the Prevnar 20 is an entirely different blog about sham protection and purchasable members of the ACIP and the FDA that would rubberstamp anything, but even good vaccines are being denied because they are not being transparent. It is annoying, it is challenging, and it is threatening the health of our patients who would probably otherwise vaccinate if they knew the data. Pfizer and Moderna – give me the data. Stop with this subterfuge. You may keep your surgeon general and half the members of the FDA and most of the ACIP – please give us the few leftover ethical ones and tell us the numbers.
[1] The Female Patient, September 2007, page 14.
I’m reluctant to get additional vaccine injections. I’ve had three Moderna but have friends with side effects from recent so-called updates.
Bravo Kenneth, very well stated. Too many in our profession have gone into their respective partisan gatherings after checking their objectivity at the door.