By C. ben-David
The recent comment from Dr. Wayne Murray, a local physician, titled “More advice to the death counters raises the important issue of the relationship between COVID-19 death rates and vaccination rates.
Unfortunately, his skewed observations downplay the role of vaccines in preventing COVID-19 deaths when he opines that, “A vaccinated person develops some degree of protection to lessen the burden of COVID-19 infection …”
“Some degree of protection” is a gross understatement.
Yes, a few vaccinated persons die after contracting COVID-19 but this is simply because no vaccine, whether for this or other viruses, offers 100% protection against being infected or dying after being infected. People suffering from comorbidities like gross obesity, a largely self-inflicted disease many of our people suffer from, are particularly susceptible to dying after contracting this and other viruses. No reputable epidemiologist would ever succumb to the “linear reasoning” Dr. Murray refers to: “that even with vaccinations as primary protection some of the persons might have died still” because they were already afflicted with life threatening preconditions.
Dr. Murray also fails to note that many countries with more vaccinated than unvaccinated persons – countries with well over 50% of their population vaccinated — still see a much higher infection rate among those who are unvaccinated regardless of whether they have known comorbidities or not. It is, therefore, false for him to say that “When both groups [vaccinated and unvaccinated] are near even (50/50) we would possibly see a number of vaccinated persons die of COVID-19 and it is at this point that using death as selling point could backfire.”
There is no “backfire” here, only logical and epidemiological errors from a member of our medical community, as shown by data from our colonial motherland, England, among many other countries.
In the United Kingdom, 80% of people aged 16 and over have had two doses and nearly 90% have had one dose, well above Dr. Murray’s 50/50 division between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons.
A recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) government report has shown that fully vaccinated people in England are much less likely to die with COVID-19 than those who aren’t vaccinated, or have had only one dose.
Out of more than 51,000 COVID deaths in England between January and July 2021, only 256 occurred after two doses. As Dr. Murray suggests, they were mostly people at very high risk from illness from COVID-19.
Unlike Dr. Murray’s false assertion of only “some degree of protection”, the English figures show the very high degree of protection from the vaccines against COVID-19 illness and death, the ONS said.
Some deaths after vaccination were always expected because vaccines are not 100% effective, the study says, and because it takes a couple of weeks after your second dose to build the fullest protection.
Of the 51,281 deaths involving COVID registered in England between Jan. 2 and July 2, 2021: 640 (1.2%) were people who had received both vaccine doses (This total includes people who had been infected before they were vaccinated); some 458 deaths (0.8%) were people who died at least 21 days after their second dose; just 256 deaths (0.5%) were people who were both fully vaccinated and who had their first positive PCR test at least 14 days after their second dose.
“Breakthrough” deaths — occurring at least two weeks after the second jab along with a first positive PCR COVID test — tend to happen in the most vulnerable, men and those with weakened immune systems, with the average age being 84. But in total these numbers were very small accounting for only 0.5% of all deaths from COVID-19 over the first six months of the year.
Of course, as more and more people are vaccinated, the numbers of fully vaccinated people infected with COVID-19 who then die from it will also grow but this obvious assertion does not support Dr. Murray’s specious reasoning.
The most important observations are those that have been made for months now by leading medical experts around the world : (1) COVID-19 vaccinations have saved millions of lives and (2) COVID-19 deaths are much lower now than they were before people were vaccinated.
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Clitoris Bendick David, stop trying to discredit people who actually know inside information on how our health care system works or doesn’t work. Who in their right mind would believe you a Gonsalves plant and internet fanatic like you over Dr. Murray, a real and practicing physician. I would not even waste my time reading your stuff, you flipflopping yoyo and fake scientist.
Normally, I would not be enthused about your writings; however I found it a bit controversial, confusing and a bit strange with what Dr.Wayne Murray was expressing. I was left wondering how well he thought that his commentary and message was serving to educate and encourage others to be vaccinated. Unlike him, Dr. Alwayn Leacok set out and explain and express the issues with blood clots that occurs when you have COVID-19. This was a well written piece which was set out to educate and clear up some answers to questions that others may have had. We need to educate for the community to fully understand dangers and the scope of this virus and for people to discern that this is a pandemic that is real and is deadly. So, there is a
I totally agree, and quite honestly, I didn’t see what benefit Dr Murray’s article had, except to just throw more oil on fire.
I doubt whether the medical data or real life experience from the UK or elsewhere will convince the folks who did not benefit from the so called education revolution to take the vaccine, we simply cannot escape the fact that ignorance kills or at the very least gives the empty kettles the courage to spout a great deal of nonsense on this site. I do believe that these anti-vaccine proponents will contribute to a lot of gullible people losing their lives to the virus worldwide. Get vaccinated people, and in the absence of a mandate, if you wish to exercise your right to not take the vaccine, then do that, but shut the f.u, and stop trying to encourage others to join you in your Lemm emulation.
Dr Murray’s comments are quite revealing.
I respect him even more as a true medical professional.
Vaccinated persons are not immune from the same dreaded disease that the vaccine is designed to prevent/ suppress.
This randomly selected death of vaccinated persons is disturbing.
The Ministry of Health should cease and desist from administering vaccines
I must agree with Cotton Eyed Joe. C. Ben David does not even live in SVG. If he did he would have heard of how many people have COINCIDENTALLY died after getting vaccinated. I knew or had known 3 people that died within days after vaccination and this author claims vaccination is better than natural immunity when he does not even know any real actual data.. A phrase the USA is trying to eliminate is @natural immunity@ because the objective is not health, it is vaccination.. If the government were honest about those that have been vaccinated, there would be less getting vaccinated.
If C Ben David wants to inform people instead of doing ULP propaganda, why doesn’t he look up Dr. Richard Flemming. We can all laugh when C. Ben tries to look better informed than a real expert.
I have noticed in the past this author just cherry picks data he wants us to believe and will purposefully ignore real facts and data if it does not fit his objective.
Simple truth, does the vaccine prevent the transmission of the virus? No. Does the vaccine prevent persons from getting sick and die? No. So all this rubbish talk makes no sense.
The lives of millions of people around the world have been saving by taking these vaccines.
The lives of 4.56 million people around the world have been lost because they refused to taken of these vaccines or they did not have access to any of these vaccines.
Any contrary assertions like yours are based on fake science promulgated by those with nefarious motives or with no understanding of scientific cause and effect.