1159 Facts Matter

I've adapted this blog for a printable page in my book, view it here.

Once again a discussion about CoViD. My discussion partner brought up a handful of examples of people who had CoViD, had been triple vaxxed and even had had it before; or a whole bunch of people they know who had CoViD, but nobody got it severely. The insinuation was: the vaccines don't work and anyway, CoViD was not all that bad.

I wish to make a point:

I have a definitive statement about CoViD, vaccinations and mis- as well as dis-information, as I understand it. To begin with: I do not rely on hearsay; I do not subscribe to ‘alternative facts’ from YouTube, inform myself on social media or consume social media memes … all to avoid that ever-present mis-information. Furthermore, I do not do my own research, because I haven't got the foggiest about the science; I simply would not know what I’m looking at. I just rely on experts in the fields of immunology and epidemiology:

107 CoViD Facts and their Sources

Three people to listen to about CoViD
and vaccinations

Where then do I get my information from when I comment on the issues?

I refer to what conspiracy theorists call "The Mainstream Media", above all:

Academic rigour, journalistic flair

Who we are:

The Conversation Australia and New Zealand is a unique collaboration between academics and journalists that in just 10 years has become the world’s leading publisher of research-based news and analysis.

So where has "not doing my own research" led me? As far as CoViD vaccinations is concerned, this is my stance:

Over the past 100 years our life expectancy has doubled. This is mainly for two reasons:

1) life-style changes like better working conditions, better nutrition hygiene and access to clean water

2) better education about medical interventions ... above all vaccinations

Vaccines have been called the most successful medical intervention in human history. More than a dozen and a half vaccines have been invented since the Second World War, which have eradicated or mitigated many diseases.

So, do medicines - including vaccines - save lives? Of course they do ... in fact just this century more than a hundred million lives were saved by vaccinations ...

... and vaccines are recognised to be extremely safe, including the various CoViD vaccines. And yes, some people will experience side effects, but they're small in comparison to the good the vaccines do.

Are vaccines poison? Of course they are (just like any meds, see below).

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For the record:

Vox: The extraordinary success of Covid-19 vaccines

Vox explains the news. We live in a world of too much information and too little context. Too much noise and too little insight. And so Vox's journalists candidly shepherd audiences through politics and policy, business and pop culture, food, science, and everything else that matters.

History of Vaccines: Since WWII many viral diseases had vaccines invented for their prevention, like Polio, Measels, Influenza, Chickenpocks, Mumps, Wooping Cough, Cholera, Typhoid, Diphtheria, Tuberculosis, Smallpox, Yellow Fever, Meningococcal, Hepatitis A, Pertussis etc …

Our World in Data: Reasonable estimates of lives saved due to vaccinations are in the range of around 5 million lives per year, which implies that between 1980 and 2018 around 150 to 200 million lives have been saved.

Our World in Data: Home

THECONVERSATION:Millions are rejecting one of humanity’s best weapons for saving lives: Vaccine

Vaccination has been the most successful medical procedure ever introduced. It has saved more lives than any other intervention. “The risk of serious adverse reactions has remained extraordinarily low for all modern vaccines;” again: ... COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, “under the most intense safety monitoring in United States history”.

CNN: Covid-19 vaccines saved nearly 280,000 lives in the US

Google search: "How many Deaths from CoViD?" As of June 2021 there have been about 207m cases of CoViD 19, and approx. 4.35m deaths; it is reasonable to suggest that millions of deaths have been prevented by the CoViD vaccines administered.

Our World in Data: How do death rates from COVID-19 differ between people who are vaccinated and those who are not?

In the US the death rate off unvaccinated people is 15.28 per 100,000; the death rate of those fully vaccinated (no booster) is 2.23, with booster 0.73. On average the death rate of the unvaccinated is 5x to 20x that of the vaccinated.

THE CONVERSATION: Your unvaccinated friend is roughly 20 times more likely to give you COVID

TH E CONVERSATION: Ivermectin is a Nobel Prize-winning wonder drug - but not for COVID-19

SMH: How a false science 'cure' became Australia's contribution to the pandemic

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Some comparisons:

As regards lock-downs, a comparison:

The CoViD death rate in Sweden was more than three times as many as in Australia (with half the case rate), which has 2.5 x Sweden's population.

statistia.com

Sweden had a 'no-lock-down' policy: Washington Post: "We saved our economy, but too many people died. Other countries should not emulate our strategy" ...

... had Australia done so, the death toll could have been (2.5 x 3 x 6,383 =) 47,872. Another calculation could be [{25 : 10 =} 2.5 x 18,365 =] 45,912

Without lock-downs Australia could have had tens of thousands of CoViD deaths ... an indication that Australia's handling of the pandemic was very successful; however, without vaccines the death toll would have been 10 x as many again.

Australia:

Population 25M

CoViD cases 4.72M

CoViD Deaths 6,383

Deaths per million 255

Sweden:

Population 10m

CoViD Cases 2.49M

CoViD Deaths 18,365

Deaths per million 1,836

In 2019 ca. 812 people died from the flu in Australia (Pharmacy Guild of Aus).

CoViD Deaths: 6,383 (over two years)

CDC: In the US the flu has resulted in 12,000 - 52,000 deaths annually between 2010 and 2020 ... against close to a million deathsover two years from CoViD.

Some say CoViD is just another flu ... yeah, right.

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One more popular point in the debate: "I don't want that poison in my body!"

But you do succumb to the need to have your children inoculated against measles, mumps, rubella and diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) as well as polio, hepatitis, chickenpox etc before they are allowed into kindy or school … and you do get shots against cholera, tuberculosis, typhoid etc if you wish to travel to some third world countries, don't you?!

You don’t want to have ‘that poison put into your body’? Tell me about it ... I'm a diabetic, I have injected ‘poison’ into me twice a day for twenty five years. Hadn’t I done so I would have died last century. Tell a cancer sufferer about it. When you have a car crash, all sorts of stuff is injected into you to keep you alive - do you ask the paramedic, “ 'xcuse me, what’s that stuff you’re administering?”

Anyway, are medicines - are vaccines - poison? Of course they are; one has to be very careful with all medications, they are potentially very dangerous; I’d die if I injected too much insulin. But applied correctly, are they good for us? Well, yes.

However, if you want to commit suicide, just take a handful of any of the meds in your meds-cupboard ... success is assured.

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AAP FACTCHECK:

COVID vaccine deaths claim falls short on data coverage

A UK website that frequently publishes COVID-19 vaccine misinformation has turned its attention to Australia, claiming that the country has experienced significantly more deaths from the coronavirus vaccines than all others combined over a period of 50 years.

However, the claim is based on a distortion of data on adverse reactions published by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australia’s medical regulatory agency, repeating similar falsehoods shared about COVID-19 vaccine rollouts in other countries.

Claim:

Australia has recorded 12 times more deaths due to COVID-19 vaccines than from all other vaccines combined over 50 years.

False.

The claim misrepresents vaccine adverse event reports, which do not show causality. 11 deaths have been linked to COVID-19 vaccines in Australia to date.

According to its latest COVID-19 vaccine safety report, dated 27 January 2022, the TGA had received and reviewed 755 reports of deaths following vaccinations. Of these, only 11 had been identified as being linked to the vaccines themselves; all occurred following the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“Review of these individual reports and patterns of reporting does not suggest that the vaccines played a role in the vast majority of these (reported) deaths.”

More than 19.6 million people had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose in Australia as of 26 January, while over 48.7 million vaccine doses had been administered. As experts previously explained to AAP FactCheck, more than 400 Australians die each day on average, which meant some coincidental deaths following vaccination would inevitably be recorded.

Facts matter.

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But, but, but ...

... "don't you know, they are lying to us". Who's 'they'?

Well, "the Government ... and the 'Mainstream Media'," of course.

But who exactly does the lying? A government official? Which one?

The Health Minister? The Premier? The Prime Minister?

A spokesperson - who briefs the spokesperson?

And who in the 'Mainstream Media' are the ones lying? Are 'they' the editors? Or the journalists? Is it Rupert Murdoch maybe, who tells his editors: "Go ahead, report that vaccinations are required to beat CoViD; but do not tell them the truth (as per YouTube, Facebook, Instagram) that it would be better to just take a substance commonly used forinfections in horses, which are caused by parasites, such as mites and worms. You must suppress that info."

And then Rupert Murdoch - although he knows better, he knows it's a lie - successfully convinced all other media professionals to report that un-truth, that vaccinations are required to beat CoViD, and NOT to tell the REAL truth - as per social media - that there are actually better cures.

So the question is, do they know they're lying (promulgating dis-information) or do they simply pass on mis-information unknowingly? Do they lie by omission, where they just suppress information?

How does this work?

We need to get to the bottom of this.