Saturday, 13 Jan 2024
A COHORT of self-proclaimed experts together with the Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPIM) are on a campaign to misinform the public again about the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines. I debunked their pseudoscience in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic via an online news portal, and they have not offered any rebuttal or counterarguments since. In their latest campaign, they are demanding an immediate withdrawal of mRNA vaccines, claiming growing reports of adverse effects from consumers and medical professionals alike.
As is usual for the anti-vaccine lobby, their self-proclaimed experts speak in broad generic terms with no evidence-based science. One alleged that “Everywhere we see people dying, most of them are suffering, they cannot work.” This fear-mongering strategy of theirs, devoid of any facts or figures, creates panic among the gullible and ill-informed public.
It also presents an opportunity for them to market their herbs, tonics, worm medicines, mega vitamins and Peter McCullough’s (their foreign expert) newly developed detoxification supplement called nattokinase to detoxify the spike proteins. Experts have rubbished this mRNA vaccine detoxification supplement (http://tinyurl.com/5nh7xp93), and none of these alternative remedies have undergone double-blind randomised control trials, the benchmark of evidence-based medicine, to verify their efficacy and safety.
Another darling of the anti-vaccine campaign, Pierre Kory, had at least two of his scientific papers on the worm medicine, ivermectin, retracted due to poor statistics or just faking the numbers (http://tinyurl.com/mr33ezf3). Within eight months, the Covid-19 vaccination campaign in 141 countries prevented 2.4 million excess deaths by August 2021.
If the vaccines had been equitably distributed, another 670,000 more lives could have been saved. The deaths averted had an economic value of US$6.5 trillion, about 9% of the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the 141 countries concerned. A one-year study (published in The Lancet) between Dec 8, 2020 and Dec 8, 2021 estimated that Covid-19 vaccines prevented 14·4 million deaths in 185 countries (http://tinyurl.com/5fzvzku8). If the World Health Organisation (WHO) target of 40% eligible population fully dosed was met, another 599,300 deaths could have been averted.
In the COVAX Advance Market Commitment countries, an estimated 7·4 million deaths were averted. If the 20% vaccination coverage target set by COVAX had been met by the low-income countries, another 81,750 deaths could have been prevented. In the Malaysian context, the former director of the Institute for Clinical Research, Datuk Dr Kalaiarasu Peariasamy, said Covid-19 vaccines prevented between 16,000 and 17,000 deaths, as reported by the local press in June 2022.
The vaccine deaths alleged by PPIM and “experts” are more likely due to Covid-19 (deaths being higher among the unvaccinated), of which the world and Malaysia has unfortunately clocked seven million and 37,000 deaths, respectively.
MUSA MOHD NORDIN KPJ Damansara
Article by: The Star
