Do we throw the dice to choose between taking an experimental vaccine with unknown long-term side effects or risk an experimental treatment to lessen our chances of contracting COVID-19 and to reduce the symptoms if we do catch it? Or do we do nothing and risk becoming hospitalised or possibly dying?
Why aren’t these choices explained to us?
Jacinda Ardern is pinning her hopes, and those of her “team of five million”, on a successful vaccine reopening the border and preventing future lockdowns – but only if we all pull together to create herd immunity. In other words: fall into line or the consequences may be dire!
The problem is that the government’s herd immunity approach in using a vaccine to control the disease contains factors that have not been made clear to the public.
The PM’s health advisors have been tight-lipped about experimental treatments used overseas that claim to reduce the worst effects.
The latest drug on the COVID block has been around for decades and is probably in your medicine cupboard already but it could reduce the worst effects of COVID-19.
“Aspirin, one of the oldest and most widely used drugs, is preventing COVID-19 infections, Israeli scientists have claimed in “exciting” findings.”
Times of Israel
In October last year University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers found patients taking low dose aspirin “had a significantly lower risk of complications and death compared to those who were not taking aspirin”.
“They were more likely to survive the infection compared to hospitalized patients who were not taking aspirin. The study, published today in the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, provides “cautious optimism”, the researchers say, for an inexpensive, accessible medication with a well-known safety profile that could help prevent severe complications.”
Science Daily
Israeli research just released this month also suggests aspirin may also fight off an infection.
“In the peer-reviewed research, they found that in a sample of Israeli PCR tests, patients who take small doses of aspirin were 29 percent less likely to test positive. They cross-referenced 10,477 results with medical records covering what preventive drugs patients take.
“We were really excited to see a big reduction in the proportion of people testing positive, and this gives a promising indication that aspirin, such a well-known and inexpensive drug, may be helpful in fighting the pandemic,” Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern of Bar-Ilan University told The Times of Israel.
As well as concluding that people who take aspirin, which was developed more than 120 years ago, are less likely to be diagnosed with the virus, Frenkel-Morgenstern hit on another ‘important’ finding: “Aspirin users who are diagnosed with COVID-19 are likely to have a shorter illness – by about two days – and be less likely to suffer from aftereffects of the coronavirus”, she reported.
Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern was already working on COVID-19 treatments. In July 2020 she published findings of a study finding healthy levels of Vitamin D help fight the virus and lessen the chance of hospitalisation claiming at the time this study was the largest population based study of its kind.
“Her team studied a 7,807-strong sample of Israelis who were tested for the coronavirus. It found that the average vitamin D level for people who screened negative was in the internationally-accepted “adequate” range, while the average for those who tested positive fell in the “inadequate” category.
The study, newly peer-reviewed and published in The FEBS Journal, compared people who got a negative result to those who ended up both testing positive and being hospitalized, and reported a stark difference in vitamin D levels.
Times of Israel
Vitamin D levels below recommended levels are common with Frenkel-Morgenstern’s research suggesting 70% of Israelis have deficient levels. But before you race out and buy a vitamin D supplement, a competent practitioner would recommend testing your existing levels first.
Our COVID-19 advisors follow the WHO’s recommendations.
Last year the WHO trialed remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, low dose corticosteroids, lopinavir/ritonavir and azithrormycin on hospitalised patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19.
They declared that hydroxychloroquine does not reduce the mortality rate of COVID patients but this view was challenged by doctors successfully using hydroxychloroquine administered in the first stage of the disease, rather than the latter stage of hospitalisation as used in the WHO trial.
A research paper produced in July 2020 endorsed the use of lopinavir/ritonavir saying “In our opinion, despite the controversial results of an important randomised clinical trial, and some recommendations, clinicians should not abandon the use of LPV/r for the treatment of COVID-19“.
Last October the Lancet rejected lopinavir-ritonavir as a COVID-19 treatment, saying that more clarity is needed on an effective dosage. Writing off this drug seems premature before an effective dosage has been determined.
There are thousands of clinical trials of dozens of treatments such as ivermectin outlined in the Pharmaceutical Journal.
WHO granted emergency approval to some COVID-19 vaccines pending compilation of the long term data on their potential, unintended side effects.
Peter Williams asked Dr Byram Bridle, Associate Professor of Viral Immunology at the University of Guelph, Ontario, about our vaccine rollout.
Bridle said the 25-30% of New Zealanders hesitant about the vaccine is not surprising. They are a different group to the anti-vaxxers and understandably nervous about unknown side effects. Bridle considers vaccine manufacturers have a responsibility to assure the safety of their vaccines but they can’t do it until more data is collated.
Our vaccine rollout is part of Pfizer’s Phase III clinical trials which won’t be completed inside three years, and although the short term data looks very good Bridle said the vaccine produced for the swine flu pandemic was withdrawn after two years when the long term data revealed the side effect of narcolepsy.
We also don’t know how long the immunity produced by a vaccine lasts. Bridle believes the current vaccines are too narrowly focused, meaning they will not be effective against future variants. Nor do we know how many people developed a natural immunity after contracting the virus and clearing it from their system.
We are seeing anecdotal incidences of possible vaccine side effects in the international vaccine rollout.
Although there is no evidence of a causal relationship with the vaccination and the deaths of two Austrian women who died from blood clotting disorders after receiving the two-dose Astra-Zeneca vaccine, Austria has suspended the distribution of the vaccine pending more investigation.
In Utah a healthy 39 year old woman died after receiving a second dose of the Moderna vaccine.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told The Epoch Times in an email that as of March 8, more than 92 million doses of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 had been administered, with 1,637 deaths occurring following the injections.”
Epoch Times
The New Zealand public should know about the experimental nature of COVID-19 vaccines and alternative treatment options.
We should know that the COVID-19 vaccine is approved for emergency use and that recipients become part of Phase II clinical trials.
We should know that data on the unintended side effects are at least two years away.
We should also heed Bridle’s recommendation that anyone with a history of severe allergic reaction, particularly anyone who carries an epi-pen, not receive the vaccine.
This information – and information on the people WHO recommend should NOT receive the vaccine – should be on the government’s COVID-19 website.
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