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Weighing the risks of COVID vaccines against the risk of the COVID virus
mlive.com ^ | August 29, 2021 | Julie Mack

Posted on 08/29/2021 12:15:47 PM PDT by be-baw

As an emergency medicine doctor in Michigan’s Thumb, Dr. Mark Hamed has seen hundreds of patients with COVID-19, but no one with a bad reaction to a COVID vaccine.

“Not one,” said Hamed, who also is the medical director for the public health departments in Huron, Lapeer, Sanilac, Tuscola, Alcona, Iosco, Ogemaw and Oscoda counties.

That parallels the experience of Dr. Liam Sullivan, an infectious disease specialist at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids: Countless patients with complications from COVID and very few with complications from the vaccine.

“There’s just no comparison at all,” Sullivan said. “We’ve had how many thousands of (hospital) admissions for COVID-19, and probably less than 10 admissions for some (COVID) vaccine-related thing, I would guess.”

Dr. Michael Zaroukian, a Lansing-area family physician who specializes in immunology and is affiliated with Sparrow Hospital, said he hasn’t heard of any hospitalizations at Sparrow related to a COVID vaccine reaction.

“It’s extremely clear that the risk associated with acquiring COVID and the risk of death from COVID are huge and obvious and a public health crisis,” Zaroukian said. “The number of cases of (serious) complications related to COVID vaccination absolutely happen, but they’re absolutely rare.”

Safety concerns about the COVID-19 vaccines are one of the top issues cited by those reluctant to be inoculated, with some suggesting that the vaccines are even more risky than COVID itself.

That’s not borne out at all by the data, experts say.

In the past week alone, more than 7,000 Americans died of COVID and almost 95,000 are currently hospitalized for the virus. There are reports of COVID patients overwhelming emergency departments and intensive care units in Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Meanwhile, 5.1 million vaccine doses were administered last week, with nary a news report about a vaccine-related death or serious complication.

To be sure, no vaccines are 100% risk free, and that’s true of COVID shots.

But the risk of complications from the virus are hundreds or thousands of times greater compared to serious complications from the vaccine, depending on someone’s age and underlying health conditions.

As of Aug. 24, the United State has reported almost 2.6 million COVID hospitalizations and about 628,000 deaths. Respectively, that’s about 7% and 1.7% of the nation’s 38 million confirmed COVID cases.

That doesn’t include non-hospitalized person with “long COVID,” in which symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, brain fog and respiratory issues continue for weeks or months after the initial infection. Long COVID can affect even people that had mild cases of COVID. It’s estimated that 10% to 30% of COVID patients have lingering symptoms.

By comparison, more than 200 million Americans have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. Since December, the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System – or VAERS – has received 27,440 reports of hospitalization and 6,789 reports of death involving people who have received the COVID vaccine, but those numbers come with a huge caveat.

Vaccine providers are encouraged to report “any clinically significant health problem following vaccination whether or not they believe the vaccine was the cause,” the VAERS website says. Vaccine recipients also can self-report health issues.

That means VAERS numbers include “incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental and unverified information,” the VAERS website says. “The number of reports alone cannot be interpreted or used to reach conclusions about the existence, severity, frequency or rates of problems associated with vaccines.”

The coincidence factor is especially important when, as is the case with the COVID vaccine, so many people are being vaccinated in a relatively short period of time.

As an example, an estimated 2,400 Americans die a day from a heart attack or stroke. With 364 million doses of vaccine administered so far, it’s inevitable some people had fatal strokes or heart attacks shortly after getting a COVID shot. The challenge for VAERS officials is determining whether vaccines increase the probability of those deaths.

So federal officials have identified several serious health issues linked to the vaccine, but they also stress those issues remain very, very rare. In fact, two of the issues – myocarditis in young men and blood clots in women – are a much, much more common complication of the COVID virus vs. the COVID vaccine.

Here’s a look at the specifics:

Anaphylaxis: About two to five people per million can experience a serious allergic reaction to the vaccine. This reaction, called anaphylaxis shock, which is potentially life-threatening but treatable, and is the reason that people are asked to wait for 15 minutes after receiving a vaccine.

Myocarditis: As of Aug. 11, federal officials have confirmed 762 reports of myocarditis or pericarditis among people 30 and under who have received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis is an inflammation of the sac around the muscle. Males age 12 to 17 are at highest risk, and the risk for them is estimated at 63 cases per million people, or about .006%. However, the COVID virus itself carries a much bigger risk of myocarditis. In a recent study of Big 10 athletes who contracted COVID, 2.8% of the males developed myocarditis, which is more than 400 times the myocarditis risk associated with the vaccine.

Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS): This issue with potentially life-threatening blood clots has been linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. To date, there have been 42 cases of TTS among the 13 million J&J shots administered. Women under 50 have been most affected. That said, potentially life-threatening blood clots are a common complication of COVID-19, and it’s estimated that almost a third of COVID patients in intensive care units develop thromboembolism.

Guillain-Barre Syndrome: VAERS has received 161 reports of Guillain-Barre Syndrome after the J&J vaccine. GBS is an autoimmune disorder that can cause muscle weakness and paralysis, although the majority of people recover. The U.S. has about 3,000 to 6,000 cases of GBS a year, and a small percentage of those are linked to flu shots or other vaccines. Officials say they are “monitoring” reports of GBS to determine if the COVID vaccine increases the risk of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. GBS also can be triggered by the COVID virus itself, according to the Mayo Clinic.

To see the vaccine as riskier than the virus itself is like people who refuse to wear a seatbelt “because they heard of someone who drowned in a car accident because they couldn’t get their seatbelt off,” Zaroukian said. “You can always come up with a story about the rare exception of where doing something that should keep you safe was in this instance less safe.”

He encourages people to take a hard look at the numbers: The chances of severe illness from COVID may be, for most people, less than 10% but it’s a much, much bigger possibility than having a severe reaction to the vaccine.

Even for children, who are at lower risk for severe COVID, the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of getting vaccinated, said Dr. Rosemary Olivero, a pediatric infectious disease specialist with Spectrum Health.

“The chance of an adverse effect from getting the vaccine are so extremely low, and the risk of a negative consequence of COVID-19 probably ranges anywhere from 3% to 10% for a child,” which includes the risk of hospitalization; long COVID and/or multisystem inflammatory condition syndrome, a serious complication that can develop a month or so after a child has had COVID, she said.

While the VAERS reports of deaths and hospitalizations overstate COVID vaccine risks, Hamed points out that even if one took those numbers at face value, the risks associated with the virus are far, far more greater than the risks linked to the virus.

“We know for a fact that COVID kills people,” with more than 600,000 deaths in the United States so far, Hamed said. “It’s misinformation” to say that VAERS has linked almost 7,000 deaths to COVID. “That’s false. But even if it were true, that’s a lot better than the deaths caused by COVID.”


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: coverup; deaths; vaccine
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To: be-baw

Julie Mack, Pfizer Public relations

Censorship destroys trust. Stop the one sided talking points and at least the skeptical will listen.

Of course, they can’t do that can they.


61 posted on 08/29/2021 2:24:39 PM PDT by TheDon (Resist the usurpers)
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To: be-baw

That’s crap talk.

https://ammtwitter.wordpress.com/vaers-reports/


62 posted on 08/29/2021 2:44:26 PM PDT by dynoman (Objectivity is the essence of intelligence. - Marilyn vos Savant)
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To: one guy in new jersey

Flow chart doctors ONLY know what the flow chart tells them (see ‘Idiocracy” for reference) thats where we are today. Some overpaid politician says something everyone has to believe it.
I’m not ‘vaxxed’ and don’t plan to be. I will most likely lose all my military benefits for opting out. AND Yes I OPT OUT, Only Nazi’s and Communists FORCE inoculations, shots, experimental treatments.


63 posted on 08/29/2021 2:47:16 PM PDT by Conservative4Life (thy merchants were great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. Rev18:23)
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To: roving

roving wrote: “The problem are all the vaxx liars.”

That problem is worse with the anti-vaxxers.


64 posted on 08/29/2021 2:52:25 PM PDT by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: DugwayDuke

biden, fauxi, and the cdc recommending vaccines for our citizens to stop the spread of a virus while biden opens the border, invites, welcomes, and freely spreads hundreds of thousands of disease carrying invaders across our country during a “global pandemic” reeks of hypocrisy, proves our government officials don’t care about our health, and anything they preach shouldn’t be trusted...


65 posted on 08/29/2021 3:03:56 PM PDT by heavy metal (smiling improves your face value as well as making people wonder what the hell you're up to... 😁)
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To: be-baw

Based on this Ignore Israel as well.


66 posted on 08/29/2021 3:15:08 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: be-baw

” Dr. Mark Hamed has seen hundreds of patients with COVID-19, but no one with a bad reaction to a COVID vaccine. “Not one,” said Hamed”

Hamed’s a liar ...


67 posted on 08/29/2021 3:15:27 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: nikos1121

If you’ve already had this 99.95% benign cold and survived, then natural immunity is far superior to a vaccine that’s losing its efficacy over time.


68 posted on 08/29/2021 3:17:51 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: be-baw
And what do the long term studies say about potential side effects, down the road, from this new mRNA gene therapy?

They say nothing, because there are no long term studies.

There are many eminent doctors and scientists who are very wary of these "vaccines" and there is evidence that they are producing the variants.

If I was in a high risk group, I might think about it, but I'm not.

The fear porn, "vax everyone" industry is guilty of using rare case to terrorize the population.

" Otherwise healthy young person dies from CCP Virus and wishes they were vaxxed."

They are usually morbidly obese, probably have diabetes, hypertension and a weak heart.

69 posted on 08/29/2021 3:32:48 PM PDT by Eagles6 (Welcome to the Matrix circa 1984.)
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To: John S Mosby
Are there known animal reservoirs for the CCP virus?

Have they actually, truly found this virus in bat populations or does this virus not exist in the wild?

As far as I've been able to determine, they have not found this virus existing in an animal population.

I know some animals have tested positive for it but does that mean a reservoir?

I know that it was recently found to be widespread in farmed mink in Scandanavia but no one seems to believe that it originated naturally there and then jumped to humans.

70 posted on 08/29/2021 3:51:50 PM PDT by Eagles6 (Welcome to the Matrix circa 1984.)
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To: DugwayDuke
So you would avoid a medication that only made your symptoms milder?

Aspirin has a pretty good track record for safe effective use. The story I shared was an analogy. I have taken many more vaccines than most and even remember TB sanitariums that were common in my youth and of course we all feared polio and I took that vaccine with out question but I seriously question this one because I am not as naive as I was in my youth.

71 posted on 08/29/2021 4:23:04 PM PDT by itsahoot (Many Republicans are secretly Democrats, no Democrats are secretly Republicans. Dan Bongino.)
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To: DugwayDuke

Duke....
I’m not anti-Vax. I’m just very suspicious
and distrustful of a government that
would force me to do something I don’t
want to do. (like wearing a seatbelt, or
getting vaccinated). I’m also distrustful
when our government would promote
someone losing their job because
they choose to not get vaccinated.
And I’m also distrustful of a
government that forces it’s citizens
to get vaccinated while over 1,000,000
illegal alien invaders have crossed
our southern border and not a single
one has been vaccinated along with
thousands of Afghans being flown in.
I find this to be hyper hypocritical.
I’m also distrustful of a government
that Obfuscates alternative treat-
ments that have been proven to work.
(ref. India), and instead force these
these vaccines as the only treatment
for COVID.


72 posted on 08/29/2021 4:50:41 PM PDT by Lean-Right (Eat More Moose)
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To: be-baw

The problem with this is, you can’t get honest and accurate data about the risks of the vaccines.

No one, no one can telll you the long term risks and suppression and lies abound in the short term risk because politics is driving all of this, and thr push for universal vaccination storyline Does not allow for any negative data to be available about them.


73 posted on 08/29/2021 4:53:37 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: DugwayDuke
Can you name two or three vaccines that are 100% effective?

I'm looking up some numbers to try and find someone who received pre-exposure prophylaxis and appropriate boosters and still developed rabies, but RabAvert is highly effective.

Rabies is highly lethal in humans, almost a 100% lethality.

The 3 shot series is ~$700-800.

You need to have a RFFIT test to determine antibody levels and if a booster is indicated.

74 posted on 08/29/2021 5:05:51 PM PDT by Fury
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To: nikos1121

You will get the virus even if vaccinated so what’s your point exactly? The vaccine doesn’t prevent infection. Symptoms “ should” be milder? Maybe. The initial efficacy for Pfizer was claimed to be 95%. Not 93 or 96 or 97.5, but a nice even 95, convenient no? Nice memorable number, almost like a made-up claim.

Now the efficacy is put as low as 62%. Check the latest data. And falling with time. Thousands of vaccinated people have died. Thousands more in hospital. The claims were absolutely bogus and wrong. So are you sure it will work as advertised? Studies say this, studies say that. We know the initial studies were completely wrong. Sure your claims are based in anything but studies that are in fact proven wrong by events?


75 posted on 08/29/2021 5:33:14 PM PDT by libertarian66
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To: be-baw

Danger of harm to vaccinated, 1 in a hundred thousand. Higher (heart) for some.
Danger of harm from covid: 1 in a thousand. (Higher for some)

This math is easy: 1 to 100.


76 posted on 08/29/2021 6:47:59 PM PDT by mrsmith (US MEDIA: " Every 'White' cop is a criminal! And all the 'non-white' criminals saints!")
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To: be-baw

I know three people who have had bad reactions and one of them is in the ICU right now.
He is a healthy 19 year old who had a stroke seconds after getting the clot shot.
This “doctor” is full of shit!


77 posted on 08/29/2021 6:53:27 PM PDT by GranTorino (Bloody Lips Save Ships.)
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To: nikos1121

I doubt it. I have been exposed several times and not gotten the virus. I know a few people who have the same experience.
There are a lot of unexplained variables.


78 posted on 08/29/2021 6:57:23 PM PDT by GranTorino (Bloody Lips Save Ships.)
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To: libertarian66

I really don’t know what is factual. I’m a doctor I’m not seeing vaccinated people dying. Some sick? Yes.


79 posted on 08/30/2021 1:31:05 AM PDT by nikos1121
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To: EEGator

Here you go porkchop. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6642332/


80 posted on 08/30/2021 2:08:11 AM PDT by LumberJack53213
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