The U.K. will “look carefully” at claims that the Pfizer vaccine fails to protect as well as expected following research into the first 200,000 people given the jab in Israel, Britain’s chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance said.
At the same time, Vallance sought to tamp down concern over the Israeli data, telling Sky News,
“What we know from clinical studies… is that if you take everything from day zero to day 28, then the overall figure is something like 50 percent protection.
But of course, you don’t expect any protection in the first days because your immune system hasn’t had a chance to build up and some people may have been infected before they had the vaccine. If you take it from day 10 up to day 21 and beyond, it looks much more like the 89 percent figure the JCVI gave.”
Vallance’s assertions were belied by the Israeli numbers and timeline, in a shifting landscape of purported protection rates and timelines for antibody buildups.
Some U.K. health experts moved the goalpost even further following the disappointing Israeli data. They claimed the value of the vaccine might turn out to be not in its ability to prevent people from getting COVID, but in somehow reducing serious cases leading to hospitalization and deaths.
Finally, the infamously slow U.K. health system of managed (i.e. rationed) care has come under fire during the virus vaccine rollout for making people wait up to 12 weeks for a second dose, which is longer than the drug companies advise for the booster shot.
Vaccine Quick Stats
Worldwide, more than 54.4 million doses of COVID vaccines have been administered as of 21 January, including 17.2 million doses in the U.S. Daily vaccine inoculation rates have ramped up to an average of 2.76 million doses.
States leading the way per capita in vaccinations include:
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
- West Virginia
- Alaska
- New Mexico
States reporting the lowest per capita vaccination rates include:
- California
- Nevada
- Missouri
- Alabama
- South Carolina
California scores among the lowest for distribution of vaccines on hand. So far, they’ve distributed just 37 percent of vaccine doses available. By comparison, Texas, another large state, has distributed 57 percent of available vaccines, and New York has dispensed 56 percent.
According to official sources, most shots thus far have been administered through hospitals and other institutional healthcare settings. It is projected that the pattern will evolve to include more doses doled out from pharmacies and health clinics, where other vaccines such as flu shots have more traditionally been given. Some states are reportedly looking to utilize sports stadiums and theme parks as mass vaccination centers, though lack of demand for the vaccine may indicate such measures are part of a publicity push to vaccinate as opposed to a response to actual capacity needs.
Beginning on 12 January, the U.S. government advocated that all persons over the age of 65 receive a COVID vaccination. Health officials also recommended anyone over 16 with certain medical conditions receive the vax.
Globally, Israel continues to lead in vaccinations, despite recent problems reported with vaccine efficacy there. The U.S. and U.K. are among world leaders, while China, though having begun distribution of an experimental vaccine mid-way through 2020, has vaccinated only an average of one person in a hundred.
According to the VAERS reporting system, a joint database of the CDC and the FDA compiling adverse reactions, there have been at least 55 deaths in the U.S. to date attributed to the COVID vaccine.
In one case, a 66-year-old senior home resident in Colorado felt sleepy after receiving the Moderna vaccine and went to bed. He was observed the following morning “in bed lying still, pale, eyes half open and foam coming from mouth and unresponsive,” according to a VAERS report. “He was not breathing and with no pulse.”
Black Out
As far as a comprehensive list of adverse reactions to the COVID vaccine, the mainstream media has not been breathlessly reporting on the latest numbers and incidents.
A Google search for “total adverse vaccine reactions” turns up a just few recent stories and a handful of articles from early January, including one by NBC, which tended to frame reactions as statistically insignificant by focusing on just one kind of reaction (i.e. allergic reactions) instead of the wide array of reactions being reported.
Meanwhile, the WHO homepage for vaccine reaction rates information sheets, which is part of its Global Vaccine Safety Initiative (GVSI), currently has no specific report or data regarding the COVID vaccines.
TRENDPOST: Despite the negative vaccine report blackout, information is slowly coming out. For example, a 20 January article on the Healthline website reported that health officials in California paused vaccinations from a “single lot” of the Moderna vaccine following severe allergic reactions experienced by six people in San Diego. The people all required medical attention after receiving shots, the California Department of Public Health acknowledged.
The lot in question contained a total of 1,272,200 doses, most of which were shipped across the country, according to a Moderna statement, which claimed that thousands of those doses had already been administered.