Covid Vaccines: Beyond the Hype
There is a lot of talk about vaccines. Some epidemiologists claim they are effective. Some doctors claim they are harmful. Could they be both?
In 2009, I wrote a book I titled Dupe ‘em and Dope ‘em. One of the concepts in the book was that from a business perspective an ideal drug would reduce mortality rate (fewer deaths) and increase morbidity rate (more people sick). Illegal drugs are similar. Although they do not reduce mortality, illegal drugs make people feel better and create patients for life. Now think about it, is that what most drugs do? Few, if any, drugs help make people healthy (not need drugs). Most are needed for life.
Before we go into vaccinations increasing the morbidity rate, I want to first look at the positive. Are vaccines helpful? For this post I will keep it simple. I will look at Covid.
For a little background, I was a student at the University of Kansas in 1976 when President Gerald Ford advocated vaccination for the swine flu. My biology professor at the time, Dr. Stone, was a virologist. He told us that the flu viruses mutate so quickly that it is impossible to vaccinate against them successfully. He thought it was a political stunt to take the public attention off of Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon. The U.S. has had annual flu vaccines ever since.
I had never taken a flu vaccine. I re-evaluated my position with Covid. It makes sense to me that if a vaccine can mimic a virus, the body would respond by creating immunity. I learned that while getting my chiropractic doctorate. I also learned that native immunity, from contact with a virus was superior to artificial immunity from vaccines. Reports on the Covid vaccine were that those who received the vaccine were dramatically less likely to be in the hospital.
During the lockdown, I was taking care of my mother in an assisted living facility. I was required to be vaccinated. I realized that I was more afraid of the vaccine than the disease. I decided to face my fear and be vaccinated.
Now we can look back. How effective was/is the vaccine?
An article in Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics published in March 2024 provides a good look at history. “Several vaccine candidates demonstrated remarkable protection ranging from 67% to 95% against symptomatic COVID-19.” That was the initial finding. “Since the initial readouts occurred, several SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern with the capacity to escape vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibodies (NAb) have emerged…” The sentence continues with a list of 13 variants. “Reassuringly, more recent trends show that COVID-19 infections have largely decoupled from COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths.” It is unclear how much of the decoupling can be attributed to vaccine vs natural immunity. “Moreover, the BNT162b2 and Ad26.COV2.S vaccines conferred 70% and 82% protection against ICU admission 1 to 2 months post-immunization, respectively, during a wave of Omicron cases in South Africa, despite marked reductions in protection from symptomatic infection.” Although still getting sick, fewer are hospitalized. That seems to be the case to be made for vaccination.
An article in Oxford Academic, also published in March 2024 reported research by Cleveland Clinic on 48,210 employees followed for 17 weeks. It is unclear how many were vaccinated vs control. “Estimated vaccine effectiveness was 42% (95% CI = 32-51) before the JN.1 lineage became dominant, and 19% (95% CI = -1-35) after.” Notice that the virus continues to change, and vaccine is less effective. More disturbing is the last sentence. “Risk of COVID-19 was lower among those previously infected with an XBB or more recent lineage and increased with the number of vaccine doses previously received.” If I am reading that correctly, the more vaccine doses you have had the more likely you are to get Covid.
My analysis is that Dr. Stone was correct. It is very difficult to vaccinate for flu viruses due to the rate they mutate. Given the ineffectiveness and decoupling of infections from deaths, I am no longer being vaccinated.
Maybe in a future article I will look at reactogenicity and harms from vaccines. It is one thing to receive a vaccine which has no effect. It is quite another to be harmed.
Interestingly, I refused the Covid vaccine. My significant other chose to take the vaccine. He became seriously ill with Covid and passed it on to me ... the unvaccinated. He nearly died, and experienced a tough, slow recovery. I personally told his attending physician that he was absolutely NOT to give him resveratrol and NO intubation!! If he had lung problems, then give him antibiotics...NO intubation. He experienced many side effects. My experience was a slight case with no side effects.