WHO – Covid-19 Notes

Polio “iron lungs” meme

This meme makes the issue seem so clear.

And yet the fact that we have such a short memory works in both directions when it comes to polio vaccines.

—

In April 1955 more than 200 000 children in five Western and mid-Western USA states received a polio vaccine in which the process of inactivating the live virus proved to be defective. Within days there were reports of paralysis and within a month the first mass vaccination programme against polio had to be abandoned. Subsequent investigations revealed that the vaccine had caused 40 000 cases of polio, leaving 200 children with varying degrees of paralysis and killing 10.

—

Of course, they eventually came up with an effective polio vaccine.

But the polo vaccines offer lifelong (or at least near-lifelong) immunity.

The covid vaccines seem to last for ~6 months.

The polio vaccines also offer sterilizing immunity, preventing infection and protecting against disease and transmission.

The covid vaccines are quite effective at reducing illness and hospitalization. But it’s becoming evident that they do not prevent infection and transmission of the virus.

Another way in which the polio / covid analogy falls apart is that polio vaccines were administered during polio epidemics. In other words: regional outbreaks. And they were administered (and continue to be administered) in areas where no polio is present.

By contrast, the covid vaccines are being administered during a pandemic. Covid is everywhere, all around the world, and the goal of creating herd immunity in specific populations with a non-sterilizing vaccine is a totally different scenario. So far it does not seem to be anywhere near ending the crisis, even in the countries with the highest vaccination rates in the world.

Meanwhile, the WHO have stated that we are never going to end the pandemic by vaccinating people in developed countries while ignoring people in the developing world. The people who need the vaccine the most are the ones in crowded slums with poor sanitation, and it is from those countries that the next variants will continue to emerge.

P.S. One last thing: polio ravages children. Covid does not. Please think extra carefully before vaccinating children for something that does not cause them significant harm.

—

Sources:

How America’s First Polio Vaccine Led to a Growing Vaccine Crisis | NIH

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1383764/

Polio Vaccine Effectiveness and Duration of Protection | CDC

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/polio/hcp/effectiveness-duration-protection.html

WHO asks wealthy nations to hold off on Covid vaccine boosters at least through September | WHO

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/04/who-calls-for-moratorium-on-covid-vaccine-boosters-at-least-through-september.html

Vaccinated people are just as capable of contracting and transmitting covid asymptomatically

We are well past the point where this type of divisiveness is not only toxic, it is completely unfounded.

It turns out that vaccinated people are just as capable of contracting and transmitting covid, AND they’re more likely to do so asymptomatically without even realizing it.

—

[The CDC] released a study that showed the Delta variant produced similar amounts of virus in vaccinated and unvaccinated people if they got infected — data that suggests vaccinated people who get a breakthrough infection could have a similar tendency to spread the virus as the unvaccinated.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/health/us-coronavirus-thursday/index.html

—

“There are reports coming in that vaccinated populations have cases of infection, particularly with the delta variant,” Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, said at a press briefing Monday. “The majority of these are mild or asymptomatic infections.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/12/most-fully-vaccinated-people-who-get-covid-delta-infections-are-asymptomatic-who-says-.html

I’m sorry that our politicians and public health “experts” — who claim to “follow the science” — are actually spreading misinformation that isn’t based on current science whatsoever.

I hope people will begin to think for themselves.

Vaccine efficacy, effectiveness and protection

A vaccine’s efficacy is measured in a controlled clinical trial and is based on how many people who got vaccinated developed the ‘outcome of interest’ (usually disease) compared with how many people who got the placebo (dummy vaccine) developed the same outcome. Once the study is complete, the numbers of sick people in each group are compared, in order to calculate the relative risk of getting sick depending on whether or not the subjects received the vaccine. From this we get the efficacy – a measure of how much the vaccine lowered the risk of getting sick. If a vaccine has high efficacy, a lot fewer people in the group who received the vaccine got sick than the people in the group who received the placebo.

So, for example, let’s imagine a vaccine with a proven efficacy of 80%. This means that – out of the people in the clinical trial – those who received the vaccine were at a 80% lower risk of developing disease than the group who received the placebo. This is calculated by comparing the number of cases of disease in the vaccinated group versus the placebo group. An efficacy of 80% does not mean that 20% of the vaccinated group will become ill.

Vaccine efficacy, effectiveness and protection

This article is part of a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution. Learn more about vaccines – from how they work and how they’re made to ensuring safety and equitable access – in WHO’s Vaccines Explained series.

WHO asks wealthy nations to hold off on Covid vaccine boosters at least through September

“The entire world is in the middle of this and as we’ve seen with the emergence of variant after variant, we cannot get out of it unless the whole world gets out of it together, and with the huge disparity in vaccination coverage, we’re simply not going to be able to achieve that,” Aylward said.

WHO asks wealthy nations to hold off on Covid vaccine boosters at least through September

The World Health Organization on Wednesday called for a halt of Covid-19 booster shots, citing vaccine inequity around the world.

Most fully vaccinated people who get Covid delta infections are asymptomatic, WHO says

“There are reports coming in that vaccinated populations have cases of infection, particularly with the delta variant,” Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, said at a press briefing Monday. “The majority of these are mild or asymptomatic infections.”

Most fully vaccinated people who get Covid delta infections are asymptomatic, WHO says

Covid hospitalizations are rising in some parts of the world, mostly where vaccination rates are low and the highly contagious delta variant is spreading.