Vaccine Safety Update

This is the 25th 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 24th 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.

In the U.K., vaccines are now being offered to the most vulnerable 5-11 year-olds and those who live with someone who is immunosuppressed.
Sweden has decided not to recommend Covid vaccines for 5-11 year-olds, with ministers saying they “don’t see any clear benefit with vaccinating them”.
A parent’s group in New Zealand has presented their case to the High Court for an interim suspension of the rollout of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine to healthy 5-11 year old, as the Crown admits there have been at least 100 severe adverse events reported in the United States since the rollout began in November 2021.
MPs in the U.K. have called for an overhaul of daily Covid death toll to show the vaccination status of victims.
Israel’s finance minister has stated that the Green Pass should be scrapped as there is no medical or epidemiological logic for it.
A registered nurse has reported seeing a greater than 10 times increase in the rate of myocarditis after the vaccines rolled out.
Military medical whistleblowers have reported a 300% increase in Defense Medical Epidemiology Database codes registered for miscarriages in the military in 2021 over the five-year average, alongside almost 300% increase in cancer diagnoses, 1,000% increase in diagnosis codes for neurological issues, 269% increase in myocardial infarction, 291% increase in Bell’s palsy, 156% increase in congenital malformations of children of military personnel, 471% increase in female infertility and 467% increase in pulmonary embolisms.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has been associated with transverse myelitis (inflammation of the spinal cord).
A data analyst looking at 2021 U.S. figures has asked whether mass administration of the vaccine caused unseasonal outbreaks of Covid.
A professor has discussed the reasons he believes that people are not ‘seeing’ the evidence, despite it being clearly stated in the Covid vaccines ‘Emergency Use Authorisations‘.
An Olympic gymnast reported in the press to be an ‘anti-vaxxer’ had actually had the Covid vaccine shortly before he died, to enable him to work as a gymnastics coach.
An inquest found Lucy Taberer’s death was caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Sunderland boss Lee Johnson has said the Covid vaccine could be behind his goalkeeper Lee Burge being ruled out of playing with an inflamed heart – and says “it happens a lot after these injections” – as 25% of EFL players remain unvaccinated.
VAERS – the American version of the Yellow Card reporting system – as of January 21st reports a total of 1,071,856 reports of adverse events following Covid vaccines, including 22,607 deaths and 178,994 serious injuries.
DAEN Australia – the equivalent of the Yellow Card reporting system – has logged (up to January 19th) 104,214 reports of adverse events, including 746 deaths.
Children (Under 18) Adverse Events UK – up to January 19th, the MHRA reports a total of 3,039 adverse event reports, comprising 2,754 Pfizer, 253 AstraZeneca, 17 Moderna and 15 unspecified from 3,014,300 children vaccinated. This includes 57 reported cases with Pfizer and one with Moderna of myocarditis/pericarditis, suggesting a current risk of 14 cases per million first doses and 15 per million second doses for this age group.
Booster Doses – 42,748 adverse events have been reported across all vaccines up to January 19th from 36,668,441 people vaccinated, suggesting a reporting rate of one adverse event per 858 doses.

Summary of Adverse Events in the U.K.

According to an updated report published on January 20th, the MHRA Yellow Card reporting system has recorded a total of 1,439,579 events based on 439,578 reports. The total number of fatalities reported is 1,972.

Pfizer (25.6 million first doses, 22.5 million second doses) now has one Yellow Card in 159 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 36,467 people vaccinated (702).
AstraZeneca (24.9 million first doses, 24.2 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 103 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 20,750 people vaccinated (1,200).
Moderna (1.6 million first doses, 1.4 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 46 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 48,485 people vaccinated (33).

Overall, one in every 119 people vaccinated (0.84%) 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 say they analyse the data prior to publication, with deaths and pregnancy conditions being notably investigated. They do not state criteria by which reports would be removed and to date have not clarified why this data varies. It is therefore unclear how many reported adverse events have been removed from the reports since reporting began in February 2021.