Why I changed my mind

“The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”

—Proverbs 12-15

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

AFTER weeks of dilly-dallying, I have finally decided to take a Covid-19 vaccine and my schedule is on April 19 at the Citi Field in Flushing here in Queens, NYC.

My decision to delay my vaccination had something to do with my obsession with the one-dose Johnson & Johnson until news broke out recently that it had been paused (it was not recalled contrary to some reports).

Like many of my friends in Queens, I preferred J&J over the Pfizer and Moderna because of the single dose as early as first week of March (my original schedule in Brooklyn), but recent developments changed my mind. 

I am now willing take the vaccine from either Pfizer or Moderna on April 19. I have no right to be choosy. 

News that six women developed a rare blood clotting disorder after receiving Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine has prompted new questions about whether vaccines affect women differently than men, and whether there are special considerations that women should take into account when getting vaccinated.  

The U.S. health agencies on April 13 called for an immediate pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine after six recipients in the United States developed a rare disorder involving blood clots within one to three weeks of vaccination.

Also, all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico temporarily halted or recommended providers pause the use of the vaccine. 

The U.S. military, federally run vaccination sites and a host of private companies, including CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart and Publix, also paused the injections.

Fewer than one in a million Johnson & Johnson vaccinations are reportedly now under investigation. 

If there is indeed a risk of blood clots from the vaccine—which has yet to be determined—that risk is extremely low, according to health authorities. The risk of getting Covid-19 in the United States is reportedly far higher.

It was reported that the pause could complicate the nation’s vaccination efforts at a time when many states are confronting a surge in new cases and seeking to address vaccine hesitancy.

Johnson & Johnson has also decided to delay the rollout of its vaccine in Europe amid concerns over rare blood clots, dealing another blow to Europe’s inoculation push. 

South Africa, devastated by a more contagious virus variant that emerged there, suspended use of the vaccine as well. 

Australia announced it would not purchase any doses.

 

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Women appear to have more side effects after vaccination than men, according to New York Times’ Christina Caron.

She said a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in February, examined the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines and found that 79 percent of the side effects reported to the agency came from women, even though only 61 percent of the vaccines had been administered to women.

It could be that women are more likely to report side effects than men, said Dr. Sabra L. Klein, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Or, she added, women might be experiencing side effects to a greater degree. “We’re not sure which it is,” she said.

If women are in fact having more side effects than men, there might be a biological explanation: Women and girls can produce up to twice as many antibodies after receiving flu shots and vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella (M.M.R.) and hepatitis A and B, probably because of a mix of factors, including reproductive hormones and genetic differences.

A study found that over nearly three decades, women accounted for 80 percent of all adult allergic reactions to vaccines. 

Similarly, the C.D.C. reported that most of the anaphylactic reactions to Covid-19 vaccines, while rare, have occurred among women.

And in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine describing the experiences of people who had redness, itching and swelling that began four to 11 days after the first shot of the Moderna vaccine, 10 of the 12 patients were women. 

It is not clear, however, whether women are more prone to the proble.

If you have mild side effects like headache or a low fever, it’s actually a good thing, Dr. Klein said, because it means your immune system is ramping up. 

A lack of side effects, however, does not mean the vaccine isn’t working.

 

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The most destructive insect in the world is the desert locust (Schistocera gregaria), the locust of the Bible, whose habitat ranges from the dry and semi-arid regions of Africa and the Middle East, through Pakistan and northern India. (Carneigie Library of Pittsburg)

According to sex therapist Mark Pines, having abusive parents can lead to sex addiction. 

Pines has a practice in Irvine, California. He told the Orange County Register in an article dated April 9, 2010 that "it's common for men who cheat to have a bottomless need for adoration."

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

A matter of trust

 “It's hard when you're always afraid. You just recover when another belief is betrayed. So break my heart if you must. It's a matter of trust.”

—BILLY JOEL in “A Matter of Trust”

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

MY Christian belief tells me I shouldn’t reject something I don’t understand; I shouldn’t disparage the proponents of correct thinking, law and order; I shouldn’t discriminate and abhor the merchants of good health and good tidings—unless they propagate bedlam and total chaos. 

I should trust the authorities especially if they promote and uphold only what is good for the community, and what is best for humanity.

Trust, after all, is an attitude that we have towards people whom we hope will be trustworthy, where trustworthiness is a property not an attitude.

Trust and trustworthiness are therefore distinct although, ideally, those whom we trust will be trustworthy, and those who are trustworthy will be trusted. 

“For trust to be plausible in a relationship, the parties to the relationship must have attitudes toward one another that permit trust,” says the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Moreover, for trust to be well-grounded, both parties must be trustworthy.

Thus I am one of those who admire, support and endorse the advent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines—regardless of their origin and which pharmaceutical firm they were developed—as long as they have been approved by higher health authorities.

Why resort to pessimism when we can be optimistic in the time of pandemic?

 

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In this subject matter, I’ve been waiting since middle of 2020 (around June when purveyors of conspiracy theories began cultivating the fear of the COVID-19 vaccines, associating them to the “microchip” rumors in a bid to instill widespread fear among the gullible) for Bill Gates to say something about the rumors since he had been linked in this brouhaha.

In between, I found the story by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Reality Checkers Jack Goodman and Flora Carmichael on the

speculation about the coronavirus vaccine, which had been ramping up even as the social-media posts from anti-vaccination campaigners were gaining more traction online.

“Why the microchip rumors don't stack up,” Goodman and Carmichael averred. “First up, a conspiracy theory about vaccines that has spanned the globe. It claims that the coronavirus pandemic is a cover for a plan to implant trackable microchips and that the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is behind it. We've found no evidence to support these claims.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told the BBC the claim was "false".

The head of the Russian Communist party reportedly declared that so-called "globalists" supported "a covert mass chip implantation which they may in time resort to under the pretext of a mandatory vaccination against coronavirus".

He didn't mention Mr Gates by name but in the US, Roger Stone, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, said Bill Gates and others were using the virus for "microchipping people so we can tell 'whether you've been tested'."

The BBC Reality Checkers said a new YouGov poll of 1,640 people suggested that 28 percent of Americans believe that Bill Gates wants to use vaccines to implant microchips in people—with the figure rising to 44 percent among Republicans.

 

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Rumors took hold in March when Mr Gates said in an interview that eventually "we will have some digital certificates" which would be used to show who'd recovered, been tested and ultimately who received a vaccine. He made no mention of microchips.

That response led to one widely shared article, under the headline: "Bill Gates will use microchip implants to fight coronavirus".

The article makes reference to a study, funded by The Gates Foundation, into a technology that could store someone's vaccine records in a special ink administered at the same time as an injection.

However, the technology is not a microchip and is more like an invisible tattoo. 

It has not been rolled out yet, would not allow people to be tracked and personal information would not be entered into a database, said Ana Jaklenec, a scientist involved in the study.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said: "The reference to 'digital certificates' relates to efforts to create an open-source digital platform with the goal of expanding access to safe, home-based testing."

Gate reportedly did not say this about the vaccine.

The BBC Reality Checkers explained further: “The Microsoft billionaire has been the target of many different false rumors about vaccines.”

A recent post on a UK-based Twitter account reportedly said: "Bill Gates admits the vaccine will no doubt kill 700,000 people" and links to a video featuring right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

“The claim in the tweet, which has had more than 45,000 retweets and likes, is false and misrepresents Gates' words,” insisted the BBC Reality Checkers.

 

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In the video, Mr Gates is talking about the efficacy of vaccines in older people and cautions about the risk of side-effects.

He sets out a hypothetical situation about the potential harm of side-effects, saying:"If we have one in 10,000 side-effects, that's way more... 700,000 people who will suffer from that."

“He does not ‘admit’ 700,000 will die from a vaccine,” the BBC Reality Checker added. “Conspiracy theories about Bill Gates have reached the Italian Parliament, where an independent MP called for Bill Gates to be referred to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.”

In a recent development Gates was reported to have been alarmed at the volume of conspiracy theories around the coronavirus vaccination, but was confident that the world will largely return to normal by the end of 2021.

Delivering the keynote interview at the World Congress of Science & Factual Producers on Tuesday, Gates said, “I’m surprised at all the conspiracy theories — people who think the vaccine is not meant to save lives. That’s all wrong, but the scale of it is a bit scary in terms of, will that prevent people from being willing to take the vaccine, and why are they looking for these simple explanations?”

The stated goal of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s vaccine development and surveillance division is to advance public goods for global health through technological innovation by accelerating the development and commercialization of novel vaccines and the sustainable manufacture of existing vaccines.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, is a former editor of two dailies in Iloilo, Philippines)

 

 

 

I’ll take the vaccine

 “Misinformation or distrust of vaccines can be like a contagion that can spread as fast as measles.”   

— Theresa Tam

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“WILL you be taking the COVID-19 vaccine?” asked a survey in the United States undertaken by KTUL Channel 8.

Even after being tested negative in three COVID-19 tests in the last three months in New Jersey (once) and New York City (twice), my answer was a quick “yes, I will take the vaccine as soon as it is available.”

Will you take the vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna?

“Both if necessary—one after the other,” was my second answer.

Like the swings at a playground, says the KTUL Channel 8, when it comes to feelings about a COVID-19 vaccine it's not uncommon for people to waver back and forth.

ALEX P. VIDAL: Tested negative 3 times

“We've been waiting on one or more COVID-19 vaccines for months, unsure of not only when they would arrive but how effective they would be when they did,” C/Net’s Dale Smith observed.

“Now it appears the two vaccines that will most likely be the first to receive Food and Drug Administration authorization might get here before 2021. Not only that, but clinical trials have demonstrated both are over 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 infections.” 

That means at least nine out of 10 people who receive those vaccines will likely not contract COVID-19, even if they're exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease, after being inoculated, Smith surmised.

StatNews reported that Moderna, joined by U.S. government scientists, announced November 16 that their mRNA vaccine candidate was 94.5 percent effective in preventing Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to an interim analysis of a 30,000-patient clinical trial. 

The news comes exactly one week after Pfizer and BioNTech said their respective Covid-19 vaccine candidate, also created using mRNA technology, was more than 90 percent effective in its own 60,000-patient clinical trial. 

 

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Here’s what we know—and still need to learn—about the two most advanced Covid-19 vaccines and how they might reshape the pandemic that has killed 1.3 million people worldwide and infected at least 54.5 million, according to StatNews.

It’s too early to tell for certain, but the overall efficacy of the vaccines appears to be similar, based on the data disclosed to date. 

This isn’t altogether surprising, since the Moderna and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine candidates are reportedly both based on the same kind of technology.

Based on data disclosed November 16, “the Moderna vaccine appears to have been protective in important subsets of participants—the elderly and people from communities of color, the latter of which make up 37 percent of the volunteers in Moderna’s trial.” 

Moderna also released data about the number of participants who developed severe Covid-19. 

There were 11 cases of severe disease, all of them in the placebo group. The elderly often respond less robustly to vaccines and are more vulnerable to having severe cases of Covid-19, if infected.

The clinical trial conducted by Pfizer and BioNTech reportedly included the same subpopulations of participants, but specific results have not been disclosed.

 

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‘VACCINES’ safety profile encouraging.’ So far, both vaccines appear to be generally tolerable—but by no means painless, added the StatNews. In its announcement November 16, Moderna said it observed a few short-lived severe side effects in volunteers, including fatigue, muscle pain, and headache. 

None required hospitalization. 

For its part, Pfizer said last week that its independent data monitors reported no serious safety concerns. 

In an earlier update from its Phase 1 clinical trial, Pfizer’s vaccine led to mild or moderate fever and pain at the site of injection, side effects that resolved over time, the company said.

But the most important safety data won’t come until patients have been followed for months and even years. 

Pfizer and Moderna have promised to collect and disclose that information in time.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, was a former editor of two dailies in Iloilo, Philippines)