The other day a friend of mine sent me this article published by the Weston A. Price Foundation about the COVID vaccine. He is a business owner, and it was sent to him by one of his employees. He wanted to know my opinion on the discussion points. The text from the Weston A. Price publication is in black. My rebuttal is the red text below each discussion point. The end is a brief bio of the author and the references they sited.
MINOR IMPACT: Vaccine manufacturers claim that Covid-19 vaccines are 95 percent “effective,” but the FDA is allowing companies to define effectiveness as “prevention of mild symptoms.” The studies are not designed to detect a reduction in outcomes such as severe illness, hospitalization or death.1,2 For individuals who develop severe symptoms, the vaccine is not a remedy. Instead, nutritional and oxidative support can help keep the illness from going into “overdrive.”
In the trials the primary endpoint was contraction of COVID-19. Not prevention of “mild symptoms.” The studies were not designed to have severe illness, hospitalizations, or death as the primary endpoint because there are fewer of these events compared to cases. The studies would have to be much larger, and would have taken much longer to execute if the endpoint was severe COVID/death. This is known as statistical power. You have to have enough events in both groups to be able to prove there’s a difference between them. The need for the vaccine is imminent. The trial designers were well aware of this during the planning process.
It’s true, death and severe illness are much higher in older populations. It is much less in younger populations. To get death and severe illness events in a timely manner, one would have had to design the trial for those over 65. However, if a trial would’ve been conducted with only those over the age of 65 it is unlikely the FDA would have approved the vaccine for those under 65, excluding a large portion of the population. The goal of the vaccine is to stop the spread of COVID and end the pandemic. To do that a large part of the population needs to be vaccinated. If you have no data on most of the population it’s difficult for the FDA to justify approving it for use in that group.
Stating that the vaccine does not prevent severe cases is false. The Pfizer and Moderna trials both showed a reduction in severe COVID in the group that received the vaccine.
Relying on nutritional and oxidative support is not a proven or reliable strategy.
As far as the vaccine being a remedy? This is a ridiculous statement. Vaccines prevent disease, they do not treat disease. In a large survey of people with common sense, 100% said they would much rather never get a disease then to have to be treated for one (this is a joke, but I’m serious.) Prevention is a far superior approach to disease eradication that treatment. These "doctors" are Amateurs!
EXPECT ADVERSE REACTIONS: Participants in every Covid-19 vaccine trial have reported adverse reactions including high fever, chills, muscle pains and headaches.4-6 Some have even reported severe reactions that required hospitalization and invasive treatment. According to the FDA, potential long-term effects may include Guillain-Barré syndrome, brain swelling, muscle weakness and paralysis, convulsions and seizures, stroke, narcolepsy, shock, heart attack, autoimmune disease, arthritis and joint pain, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, and death.7 Some UK health workers have experienced anaphylactic shock after receiving one dose of the approved vaccine.8
You can expect some individuals to have a low-grade fever, muscle aches/headache, fatigue, and/or a sore arm 24-48 hours after the vaccine. This is a normal response to a vaccine. Some will get it. Not all. None of the other mentioned syndromes were found in the trials.
You can expect some people will develop Guillain-Barré syndrome, “brain swelling??” (not a medical term), muscle paralysis, seizures, stroke, narcolepsy, shock, heart attack, autoimmune disease, arthritis and joint pain, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, and death, in the year 2021 because disease exists, and it unfortunately happens in humans.
It’s likely coincidence. The clinical trial data did not show any of these reactions. This is the data you should rely on. In a clinical trial everything is controlled so it’s easy to see if the intervention is causing harm. The phase 1, phase 2, and phase 3 data were free of all these diseases. In the real world there are no controls. No comparison groups. No real observation. It’s simply anecdotes. Although it’s difficult, these reports should have little influence on your decision to get the vaccine.
This is why it takes so long for medicines to be approved. Safety is tested first, before efficacy. All of the vaccines went through phase 1, and phase 2 safety protocols. The largest trials, phase 3, also monitor for safety events. Trials are conducted with such large numbers so that investigators can tell the difference between an event occurring due to the medicine, or simply random chance.
There have been 2.4 million people vaccinated in the United States thus far with 28 cases of reported anaphylaxis, which are being investigated( There have been 2 cases in the U.K.). Honestly, it is unclear which ingredient could have induced the reaction. The vaccines are very clean, made from fewer ingredients, and most are things people use every day to build their own cells or in things they consume. As far as allergies are concerned, these are some of the safest vaccines developed. The ingredients are public knowledge and are easy to find on the Pfizer and Moderna websites.
You can do the math. The risk is low.
I don’t want to discredit these reports of anaphylaxis, but a lot happens to people after they get a vaccine. In my entire career I’ve had no cases of anaphylaxis after a vaccine, and I’ve given thousands of vaccines. I have had people pass out, freak out, scream, and have panic attacks after a vaccine (I only treat adults). As a physician, I can tell pretty easily the difference between someone about to faint and anaphylaxis. To the untrained eye it would be difficult to tell. So individuals in charge of oversight think, "What’s the harm of an epinephrine injection and having someone observed in the ER, compared to being wrong and this person is having a severe reaction? None. So, if you are untrained, you error on the side of caution, give the shot, and report the event. Theoretically, there is almost no risk for anaphylaxis. The trial data supports this statement. Time will tell. But I’m confident when more observation data is available this event will be extremely unlikely.
WON’T PREVENT COVID-19: An FDA Pfizer briefing paper published December 10, 2020 revealed 43 percent more suspected cases of Covid-19 in the vaccinated group than in the placebo group within seven days of vaccination.9
An observation period of 7 days is very short. So, there were few events in the first 7 days. 43% sounds like a lot, but it probably isn’t. 10 cases in one group and 6 in the other is a 40% increase. Is that really significant? Unlikely. That’s why these trials have 30,000 patients in each group. They are massive. Each patient was followed for 2 months. All infectious were accounted for in the final analysis. There were no shortcuts. 43% in a vacuum means nothing. It’s not enough to make a claim, you have to prove it. Show us your analysis. This statement is anecdotal and unproven.
NO LIABILITY: Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers will be protected from all liability—if you are injured, you cannot sue.10 Manufacturers will have complete indemnity even though all previous attempts at creating coronavirus vaccines caused harm and never advanced to regulatory approval.11
The vaccine is not mandated. It is voluntary. You will be made aware of the risks prior to taking it. Information is available on cdc.gov regarding the risk of the vaccine. The pharmaceutical companies will only be held liable if they were found to tamper with the trial or the data they presented to the FDA. The FDA has approved it for use. They take on the responsibility. And they take your safety seriously.
Imagine if you lived in China, or Russia? No clinical trial. No safety data available. They give their citizens an unproven vaccine against their will. You're fortunate to live in a country that, in general, cares about your well-being.
WILL NOT END RESTRICTIVE MEASURES: Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health acknowledges that the vaccines may prevent symptoms but will not block spread of the virus, so vaccine recipients will still need to wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid crowds.12,13
Dr. Fauci is fundamentally incorrect (gasp) if he believes the vaccine will not slow the spread of the virus. But he doesn’t believe this. The vaccine will not completely block the spread of covid i.e. 100%. The vaccine is 95% effective, which means there will still be some cases. The expectation is that a significant number of people will refuse to get the vaccine, which means cases will continue. However, the case numbers will reduce along with all of the other issues surrounding COVID as more individuals get vaccinated.
Restrictive measures are put in place by political institutions based on case rates and fatalities. They have made suggestions arbitrarily along the way and differ from state to state. I will imagine the same thing will happen as cases go down. It will take a lot longer to loosen restrictions if individuals refuse to get vaccinated. So, if you hold out, and your friends do, and their friends do… plan on wearing masks, gathering with no more than 10 people, not being able to visit your loved ones, for a lot longer than you would have otherwise.
NOT NECESSARY: According to the CDC’s current best estimate, the “infection fatality rate” (IFR) for Covid-19 is less than 1 percent for people age 69 and younger, including a .003 percent IFR for children and adolescents.14
For many individuals the overall risk is low. This is true. However, even if you are young it’s possible to lose the COVID lottery and punch your ticket out of here or become very ill from COVID. For others it is much higher. 100x for 65 and older, 1000x for 80 and older. Add different diseases like obesity, diabetes, chronic lung disease, and those go up 300x, or 3000x, from the .003% base. The individuals in high-risk groups get more benefit from the vaccine, in terms of IFR reduction, than those in low risk groups. This is expected.
The other battle is with our return to normalcy. Many people are suffering due to restrictions from the pandemic. We are all at risk from this. Not seeing our loved ones, you may have lost your job, a lost school year for our children; How does one calculate this risk? How can we continue under the cloud of the pandemic, knowing there is a possible solution? Not necessary? Hardly. The other road to freedom is much more arduous than the vaccine. Natural herd immunity is still many months away, likely well into 2022 without the vaccine.
If “Dr.” Madej has a better solution to unwind this mess she should come out with it, instead of making misleading claims, fear mongering, and just telling people to take their vitamins.
COULD MAKE YOU STERILE: Two prominent doctors, including the ex-head of Pfizer’s respiratory research, warn that Covid-19 vaccines contain a spike protein called syncytin-1, vital for the formation of the placenta.15 If the vaccine triggers an immune response to this protein, then female infertility, miscarriage or birth defects could result.
Women that contracted COVID 19 while pregnant did not have more miscarriages than those without the virus. The birth rate did not reduce in 2020 any more than it has in previous years (there is a general downtrend in births going on for the past decade). COVID-19 has the spike protein. You develop antibodies to the spike protein when infected. The same antibodies you develop in response to the vaccine. Therefore, if it were going to cause sterility, we would’ve already seen it in infected women. This theory is officially debunked by logic.
Dr. Carrie M Madej is an Internal Medicine Specialist in McDonough, Georgia. She graduated with honors from University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School in 2001. Having more than 19 years of diverse experiences, especially in INTERNAL MEDICINE: "If you call the number (712-770-5065, enter 177646#) you can listen to a lecture about the many serious, life-altering, humanity-altering effects of the vaccine that is being proposed. The lecture is about 45 minutes long, about 20 minutes of lecture, then 20 minutes of talk after." (Medical professionals saying the COVID Vaccine alters DNA Genome)
This idea that the COVID vaccine can alter your DNA is complete garbage. First, the material the vaccine utilizes is RNA. RNA is used to code for proteins. DNA codes RNA. A protein can not code RNA. RNA can not code DNA. It doesn't go backwards. Like most things, there's an order to it. The spike protein RNA is processed by organelles outside the cell nucleus then broken apart once transcribed, just like any other RNA code present in the cytoplasm. RNA can not magically convert to DNA and then get inserted into your genetic code by accident. It's preposterous. Clearly these individuals do not understand cell biology.
References:
Just look at these references. A ridiculous collection of youtube videos, blog posts, yahoo finance articles, and other opinion pieces. There is one appropriately conducted scientific article in the entire bibliography. These are not credible sources. Where did they learn to write a research paper?
1. Doshi P. Will covid-19 vaccines save lives? Current trials aren’t designed to tell us. British Medical Journal. 2020;371:m4037. https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4037.
2. Haseltine WA. Covid-19 vaccine protocols reveal that trials are designed to succeed. Forbes, September 23, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2020/09/23/covid-19-vaccine-protocols-reveal-that-trials-are-designed-to-succeed/?sh=5da0663d5247.
3. Brownstein D, Ng R, Rowen R et al. A novel approach to treating COVID-19 using nutritional and oxidative therapies. Science, Public Health Policy, and the Law. 2020;2:4-22. https://ozonewithoutborders.ngo/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Novel-Approach-to-Covid-19.pdf.
4. Jackson LA, Anderson EJ, Rouphael NG et al. An mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 – preliminary report. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020;383(20):1920-1931. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2022483.
5. Allen A, Szabo L. NIH “very concerned” about serious side effect in coronavirus vaccine trial. Scientific American, September 15, 2020. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nih-very-concerned-about-serious-side-effect-in-coronavirus-vaccine-trial/.
6. Mayer A. Leading COVID vaccine candidates plagued by safety concerns. The Defender, November 13, 2020. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/covid-vaccine-candidates-safety-concerns/?itm_term=home. .
7. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, October 22, 2020 Meeting Presentation, slide #16. https://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/covid-19-vaccine-bombshell-fda-documents-reveal-death-21-serious-conditions-possi1.
8. Reals T. U.K. warns against giving Pfizer vaccine to people prone to severe allergic reactions. CBS News, December 9, 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/covid-vaccine-pfizer-shot-uk-warning-people-with-history-of-significant-allergic-reactions/#app.
9. Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Meeting. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/media/144245/download, page 42.
10. Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act. COVID-19 PREP Act Declarations. https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/legal/prepact/Pages/default.aspx.
11. Lyons-Weiler J. Pathogenic priming likely contributes to serious and critical illness and mortality in COVID-19 via autoimmunity. Journal of Translational Autoimmunity. 2020;3:100051. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7142689/.
12. Khemlani A. Fauci: Early COVID-19 vaccines will only prevent symptoms, not block the virus. Yahoo! Finance, October 26, 2020. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fauci-vaccines-will-only-prevent-symptoms-not-block-the-virus-195051568.html.
13. Scipioni J. Dr. Fauci says masks, social distancing will still be needed after a Covid-19 vaccine—here’s why. CNBC, November 16, 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/16/fauci-why-still-need-masks-social-distancing-after-covid-19-vaccine.html.
14. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19 pandemic planning scenarios. Updated September 10, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html.
15.Petition/motion for administrative/regulatory action regarding confirmation of efficacy end points and use of data in connection with the following clinical trials. Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg and Dr. Michael Yeadon, petitioners. Filed with European Medicines Agency, December 1, 2020. https://healthimpactnews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/Wodarg_Yeadon_EMA_Petition_Pfizer_Trial_FINAL_01DEC2020_EN_unsigned_with_Exhibits.pdf.
Please help the Weston A. Price Foundation restore nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism. westonaprice.org
Dr. Berg’s insights & Resources:
1. Why 80 Percent of People with COVID-19 have No or Mild Symptoms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US-1oKNXVGc
2. COVID’s Low Death Rate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHRNvAIFSMU
3. Cheapest COVID Therapy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Hnl7iRvpo
4. Apple Cider Vinegar & Coronavirus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Exw97UNbs
5. COVID and Vitamin D: (1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRwts0iztVs
Susceptibility to the Coronavirus? (Key: Nutrients): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjUOpvmDE7k