Vaccine Safety Update

This is the 28th of the round-ups of Covid vaccine safety reports and news compiled by a group of medical doctors who are monitoring developments but prefer to remain anonymous in the current climate (find the 27th one here). By no means is this part of an effort to generate alarm about the vaccines or dissuade anyone from getting inoculated. It should be read in conjunction with the Daily Sceptic‘s other posts on vaccines, which include both encouraging and not so encouraging developments. At the Daily Sceptic we report all the news about the vaccines whether positive or negative and give no one advice about whether they should or should not take them. Unlike with lockdowns, we are neither pro-vaccine nor anti-vaccine; we see our job as reporting the facts, not advocating for or against a particular policy. The vaccine technology is novel and the vaccines have not yet fully completed their trials, which is why they’re in use under temporary and not full market authorisation. This was done on account of the emergency situation and the trial data was largely encouraging on both efficacy and safety. For a summary of that data, see this preamble to the Government’s page on the Yellow Card reporting system. (Dr. Tess Lawrie in June wrote an open letter to Dr. June Raine, head of the MHRA, arguing that: “The MHRA now has more than enough evidence on the Yellow Card system to declare the COVID-19 vaccines unsafe for use in humans,” a claim that has been ‘fact checked’ here.) Boris Johnson said in October that being double vaccinated “doesn’t protect you against catching the disease, and it doesn’t protect you against passing it on”. We publish information and opinion to inform public debate and help readers reach their own conclusions about what is best for them, based on the available data.

Conservative MP Christopher Chope has told Boris Johnson’s Government that it should pay more attention to the relatives of people who have died after getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
Newly released official documents from the Pfizer Covid vaccine trial show the vaccine has 1,291 different potential side effects.
A whistleblower has alleged fraud and misconduct in relation to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trial.
A new paper presents the effects of COVID-19 mRNA (Pfizer) vaccine on in vitro glial cells of the brain and shows that “mRNA vaccine (Pfizer) changes mitochondria by downregulation of cytochrome c resulting in lower effectiveness of respiration (oxidative phosphorylation) and lower ATP production” which “can lead to lower immune system response”. The observed changes in cells are “similar to those we observe for brain cancer vs grade of aggressiveness”.
The World Health Organisation has signed a contract with Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems to build a software solution for global electronic verification of coronavirus vaccination certificates.
Reported infections and deaths are very high in Hong Kong despite a Zero Covid policy and high vaccination levels.
VAERS – the American version of the Yellow Card reporting system – as of February 25th reports a total of 1,151,450 reports of adverse events following Covid vaccines, including 24,827 deaths and 200,331 serious injuries.
DAEN Australia – the equivalent of the Yellow Card reporting system – has logged (up to February 24th) 112,396 reports of adverse events, including 775 deaths. Australia has also introduced a new vaccine, Nuxavoid, to the approved list.
Children (Under 18) Adverse Events U.K. – up to February 23rd, the MHRA reports a total of 3,487 adverse event reports, comprising 3,186 Pfizer, 256 AstraZeneca, 24 Moderna and 21 unspecified from 3,214,500 children vaccinated. This includes 65 reported cases with Pfizer and one with Moderna of myocarditis/pericarditis, suggesting a current risk of 14 cases per million first doses and 11 per million second doses for this age group.
Booster Doses – 46,454 adverse events have been reported across all vaccines up to February 23rd from 38,112,342 people vaccinated, suggesting a reporting rate of one adverse event per 820 doses.

Summary of Adverse Events in the U.K.

According to an updated report published on February 23rd, the MHRA Yellow Card reporting system has recorded a total of 1,466,191 events based on 447,795 reports. The total number of fatalities reported is 2,040.

Pfizer (26 million first doses, 23.3 million second doses, 29.1 million third doses) now has one Yellow Card in 156 people vaccinated. Deaths: one in 35,813 people vaccinated (726).
AstraZeneca (24.9 million first doses, 24.2 million second doses, 54,600 third doses) has one Yellow Card in 102 people vaccinated. Deaths: one in 20,162 people vaccinated (1,235).
Moderna (1.6 million first doses, 1.5 million second doses, 8.9 million third doses) has one Yellow Card in 44 people vaccinated. Deaths: one in 40,000 people vaccinated (40).

Overall, one in every 117 people vaccinated (0.85%) have experienced a Yellow Card adverse event. The MHRA has previously estimated that the Yellow Card reporting rate may be approximately 10% of actual figures. Note that sometimes in Yellow Card reporting, the numbers of adverse events (including fatalities) will be lower than the previous week. The Yellow Card system is a passive reporting system, so in theory this should not happen as all reports should be cumulative. However, the MHRA says it analyses the data prior to publication, with deaths and pregnancy conditions being notably investigated. It does not state criteria by which reports would be removed and to date has not clarified why these data vary. It is therefore unclear how many reported adverse events have been removed from the reports since reporting began in February 2021.

Blood Disorders = 27,167
Pulmonary Embolism & Deep Vein Thrombosis = 4,061
Anaphylaxis = 1,615
Acute Cardiac = 27,005
Eye Disorders = 24,246
Blindness = 510
Deafness = 772
Spontaneous Abortions = 776 miscarriages
Nervous System Disorders = 282,041
Vomiting = 18,604
Strokes and CNS haemorrhages = 3,155
Seizures = 3,403
Paralysis = 1,483
Gastrointestinal Disorders = 133,468
Infections = 34,332
Herpes = 5,128
Immune System Disorders = 6,299
BCG Scar Reactivation = 156
Skin Disorders = 99,731
Respiratory Disorders = 55,210
Psychiatric Disorders = 30,800
Reproductive/Breast Disorders = 56,673
Epistaxis (nosebleeds) = 3,571
Tremor = 12,769

Further analysis can be found via the U.K. Freedom Project.

Source: Pfizer; Moderna; AstraZeneca; Unspecified. “F” denotes fatal.

Postscript: It has been pointed out to the Daily Sceptic that the official documents from the Pfizer Covid vaccine trial referred to above, in addition to including a non-exhaustive list of 1,291 different potential side effects, concluded that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks. It has also been pointed out that the safety and efficacy of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has been confirmed in peer-reviewed studies. Results from Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in November 2021, found that the vaccine “continued to be safe and have an acceptable adverse-event profile”, and was 91% effective in preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19 after six months.

Further, it has been claimed that the above reference to data from the Yellow Card reporting system doesn’t adequately contextualise these data. The Yellow Card reporting system, much like the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), allows for anyone to report vaccine side effects. The MHRA acknowledges the limitations of the system on its website (which we’ve linked to in the above article), stating that “the nature of Yellow Card reporting means that reported events are not always proven side effects. Some events may have happened anyway, regardless of vaccination. This is particularly the case when millions of people are vaccinated, and especially when vaccines are being given to the most elderly people and people who have underlying illness.”

We believe that, in fact, the Yellow Card reporting system is more likely to under-report vaccine adverse events than over-report them and we repeat that the MHRA has previously estimated that reported adverse events may be around 10% of the true number.