Vaccines and Reactions, Should We Be Worried?
Many people are worried about getting the COVID vaccine because they are worried about the side effects and reactions they might get. So let me clear up why you should be far more worried about the virus than the vaccine.
The risk and side effects of catching COVID-19
I have mentioned in a previous article I wrote on COVID that catching the virus can result in serious side effects. 1.8% of all people infected will die, which may not sound like much, but in the US so far, that small percentage is over 723,000 people who are dead and growing. Excess deaths due to COVID is a travesty, but tallying deaths alone don't tell the entire story. As I mentioned in a previous post:
"7% of all people who get covid-19 are admitted to a hospital for treatment. Of these people, according to the CDC, 24% of people who test positive for Covid-19 go to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and 13% have to go on ventilators."
Another article I wrote showed that 57% of all people who catch COVID, even if they are asymptomatic, will develop symptoms of Long COVID. This includes breathing issues, fatigue, brain fog, and more, and can affect the person for years down the road.
What are the risks of vaccination against COVID-19?
I will start off by admitting that vaccines may have side effects for certain people, especially the immunocompromised. Some people may experience reactions, which may potentially be severe for a very small number of people. Reactions happen when it comes to just about everything. Certain types of shampoo can cause a reaction, and even foods like tree nuts or eggs can cause life-threatening reactions in some people. But how likely is this when it comes to the COVID vaccines?
According to the CDC, the chances of experiencing anaphylaxis is 2 to 5 people per million people vaccinated in the US. The Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine uniquely had a small increased risk of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) in women under 50. This caused the vaccine to be paused for a bit before it resumed a few months later. Out of the 15 million people who got the J&J vaccine, 47 people developed TTS.
The J&J vaccine was also singled out for having a slightly increased risk for Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS), which can cause paralysis. 228 men aged 50 and older developed this about 2 weeks after vaccination.
Despite my best wishes, not one person has been proven to develop magnetic superpowers as a result of getting a vaccine. Drats...
As of October 13th, 2021, more than 403 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were given in the US. And according to the VAERS data, there were 8,638 reports of death, which would mean the vaccine has a 0.0021% risk of death, right? Well, probably not.
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a way for doctors to report any and all symptoms that develop after someone has received a vaccination. This system is meant to check for any potential trends in data that might show new adverse reactions to a vaccine.
The 8,638 reports of death mentioned above are not proven to be connected to vaccines. In another post written by Dr. Finley, these results are more of a correlation, not causation. If you were to have just received a vaccine and then died on the way home due to a car crash, it would be reported in this data. As Dr. Finley states:
It's included because, what if a pattern emerges that was hidden before? Perhaps vaccines cause dizziness and thus increases car crashes. This is something we'd wish to know, correct?
You can learn more about how VAERS is compiled and used on the CDC's website.
I also want to point out that the booster shot by Moderna for COVID-19 has been unanimously backed by FDA advisers. Side effects for the booster shot do not seem to be any worse than the side effects for the first 2 shots administered.
So what does the data suggest?
If we assume that the VAERS data suggest causation (it does not, it is a correlation) then we can determine that the risk of death by getting the COVID vaccine is 0.0021% as mentioned above. The risk of getting serious side effects as a result of these vaccines seems to be not much higher.
In fact, the risk of getting any form of allergic reaction outside of some swelling or pain from these vaccines seems to be less than 0.1%. People who are said to have a high allergy risk also only have a 2% chance of getting any significant reaction from this vaccine.
This is compared to the risks of catching COVID, which has a 1.8% chance of death, a 7% chance of having to be admitted to a hospital, and a 57% chance of suffering from lingering symptoms for many months to years.
COVID comes with a 1.8% risk of death, while the vaccine comes with a 0.0021% risk of death. So even taking VAERS data into account, you are 85614% (856 times) more likely to die of COVID than from getting the vaccine. Given that most deaths recorded by VAERS are likely not caused by vaccination, that number is probably much higher.
If you want to learn more about VAERS, check out this video below by the CDC: