COVID-19 Vaccines Safety & Effectiveness: 10 questions Challenge yourself with slightly nerdy but thoughts provoking test on COVID-19 Vaccines Safety & Effectiveness 1. Efficacy and Effectiveness measure how much a vaccine lowers the risk of getting sick (transmission and infection). Efficacy is assessed in clinical trials, whereas Effectiveness - in real world. Obviously, both are expected to be very close to each other. What Efficacy should a vaccine reach in order to be approved for use in public? above 0% at least 50% at least 80% at least 90% As long as it's safe it can be used None 2. In many countries (especially Canada) travelling was made very difficult for unvaccinated. This is to prevent transmission and infection. What is the World Health Organization (WHO) position on Pfizer BioNTech vaccine effectiveness (ability to lower the risk of transmission and infection in real world)? 95% effective more than 50% effective high efficacy against severe disease harmful and ineffective modest impact on transmission None 3. Poor (aka low income) countries could not afford COVID-19 vaccines and have significantly lower vaccination rate than high income nations. How does cumulative COVID-19 death rate compare between groups of wealthy and poor countries (roughly)? Our World in Data, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations wealthy have 30 times LOWER death rate than poor countries wealthy have 10 times LOWER death rate than poor countries there is no statistically significant difference wealthy have 10 times HIGHER death rate than poor countries wealthy have 35 times HIGHER death rate than poor countries None 4. By the end of February 2022, when Omicron became predominant COVID-19 variant, the United Kingdom was 64.7% fully vaccinated (at least 2 jabs). How much less (or more) likely was a fully vaccinated individual to die from COVID-19 compared to an unvaccinated person around that time? x3.5 MORE likely x1.5 MORE likely no difference x1.5 LESS likely x4 LESS likely None 5. More than 20 years of administering the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine recorded a whopping 48 adverse side effects of different severity levels. What is the approximate number of the known side effects for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine? Source: WebMD, "Measles, mumps, and rubella live vaccine subcutaneous Side Effects by Likelihood and Severity" 2 35 about 500 about 1,300 Being a bioweapon, every jab brings adverse reaction sooner or later None 6. In years prior to 2021, VAERS was registering about 500 deaths linked to all vaccinations per year. How many deaths were reported to VAERS for 2021? Note: The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a United States program for vaccine safety, co-managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It's been relied upon for over 30 years as early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines. 200 500 7,344 21,900 212,805 None 7. As of April 10, 2022, in Canadian province of Ontario 743 people were diagnosed with post-vaccination myocarditis/pericarditis. Approximately, how many of those 743 are expected to die every year? Public Health Ontario, Surveillance Report, Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFIs) for COVID-19 in OntarioNote: Myocarditis is the inflammation of the heart muscle. Pericarditis is the inflammation of the lining around the heart. None 1 or 2 around 60 around 200 all of them (743) None 8. How likely is COVID-19 infection to cause myocarditis/pericarditis? Very likely Very unlikely Mild myocarditis is almost guaranteed No correlation observed None 9. If Pfizer Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine is administered to a 12 y.o. child, what is the difference in vaccine potency compared to when the same brand is given to an 11 y.o.? Same potency, just safer. 2 times more potent 3 times more potent 5 times more potent They changed ingredients for under 12 to make vaxx more lethal None 10. If a new vaccine is administered to 60% of population in 6 months, and over that period vaccinated contributed to 30% of infection cases, what can be said about the vaccine effectiveness? If 40% unvaxxed generated 70% of cases, that's pandemic of the unvaccinated (0.7/40 - 0.3/60) / (0.7/40) * 100 = 71.4% Effectiveness is around Zero Not enough information None Time's up
