Filenews 1 April 2021
In the last 20 years, for the third time, a coronavirus has escaped from its natural host, the bat, switching to an intermediate host and then infecting humans. The first two coronaviruses, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, were limited. Sars-COV-2, however, has had a different course; within a year it has broken across the globe and to date has affected more than 100 million people, caused 2.5 million deaths and caused huge and irreparable socio-economic disasters.
Such infectious diseases that cause epidemics and pandemics cannot be controlled only through the implementation of public health measures. Their limitation requires the development and production of effective and safe vaccines. It is striking that over 10 months more than 200 vaccines have been developed against COVID-19, many of them in various phases of clinical studies and three have already been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as safe and effective.
This impressive course of vaccine development and production against coronavirus is accompanied by various information about side effects that undermine the confidence of some of our fellow human beings and lead them to the wrong decision not to be vaccinated.
It is untrue that new technology vaccines (mRNA, DNA) interfere with the human genome and cause damage that will occur in the future. It is also untrue that everything was done in haste with the coronavirus vaccines and the procedures provided for were not followed. On the contrary, all required preclinical and phase I, II and III clinical studies were carried out, all the procedures provided for were followed and after strict control of all data they were approved by the competent regulatory authorities. It all happened so soon because the need required it, but there was the know-how and a large number of scientists were recruited with no precedent in the history of medicine.
Finally, it is untrue that the vaccine is more dangerous than COVID-19 itself. To date no deaths or serious irreversible complications caused by the vaccine have been reported, while the average mortality rate is 2.3% and at the ages of >80 years mortality is close to 15%. To date, more than 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccines (850,000 doses in our country) have been administered with impressive results in terms of efficacy and safety.
Mild and reversible side effects of the vaccine
Most of the reported side effects are mild and reversible. In a recent publication by the US, after 13.8 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the most common side effects were: pain in the injection site, fever, fatigue, headache, headaches, arthralgias, dizziness and nausea. These symptoms were most pronounced in the second dose of the vaccine.
More rarely severe allergic reactions were reported, only 4.5 cases/million vaccinated. However, this frequency is no different from that observed in other vaccines such as pneumococcal, influenza, shingles and is 10,000 times less than one's chance of ending up in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) if he becomes COVID-19. In addition, it should be noted that all those who experienced a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) were treated with the indicated treatment and none had an adverse outcome.
In clinical studies for vaccine approval Pfizer and Moderna, 8 cases of personal nerve paresis (Bell paralysis) were observed in 74,000 subjects involved in the two studies. However, this condition cannot be considered to be the result of vaccination as its frequency is approximately the same in the general population, 15-20 cases/100,000 population per year, as observed in vaccinated persons.
Finally, there has been much debate in the media about post-vaccination deaths in nursing home beneficiaries/nurses. Indeed, the above-mentioned STUDY from the USA observed 78 post-vaccination deaths in nursing homes. It should be noted, however, that half of the deaths occurred in people who were in hospice care with instructions not to resuscitate, which demonstrates the severity of the subject diseases in these individuals. In addition, there was no causal link to vaccination in any death.
Contrary to all the information available, the vaccines to date approved for COVID-19 disease prove daily that they are effective and more harmless than the disease itself. Mass vaccination in Israel and the prevention of the disease are the first strong evidence of the safety and efficacy of vaccines and I believe they will convince even the most sceptical that general vaccination of the population is a one-way street for our return to normality.
Source: ygeiamou.gr
