Covid vaccine risks compared to that of eating peanuts

Here is a message that I received (via third party), from a very concerned person.

“I was given this info by my cousin who is an army doctor in Sri Lanka. He said only Sinopharm and Sputnik were safe. My wife, younger son and I didn’t take the poison jab. The injection is a bio-weapon to reduce the world’s population. Why are these murderers not get prosecuted?”

The covid virus was claimed by conspiracy advocates to be a bio-weapon to reduce the world population. Now, the vaccine, introduced to reduce deaths from the Covid virus is also claimed to be a bio-weapon?

So, are we living in a world of frightened people driven to irrationality? The antidote is to diligently look at the data.

What is the evidence that Sinopharm and Sputnik are “safe” while the other vaccines are “bio-weapons”?

No medication, and no food is 100% safe.

If you take a million people, there is bound to be a small percentage who will react badly to a medication or some type of commonly used food.

Take peanuts

These are perfectly safe for most people, but 3% children and 2% adults in a batch of 100 will react very badly (Anaphylaxis) to peanuts and may have to be rushed to a hospital. Some may die. There are dozens of other common foods that can hurt you.

—- So, at Most, RISK is 3-5% from Peanuts —-

But that does not mean peanuts are a bio-weapon sold mostly by American farmers (who dominate the market), to reduce the world population.

In the case of the Pfizer-Biontech, Moderna, and Oxford vaccines (these three may have been given in Sri Lanka, in most of the Western World), the following adverse reactions are noted.

Anaphylaxis after COVID-19 vaccination is rare and has occurred at a rate of approximately 5 cases per one million vaccine doses administered. Anaphylaxis, a severe type of allergic reaction, can occur after any kind of vaccination. So vaccines are almost 10,000 times safer than eating peanuts.

So, at Most, RISK is 0.00005% Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) after J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccination is rare and has occurred in approximately four cases per one million doses administered. So, again, taking vaccine is 10,000 times safer than the risk involved in eating peanuts.

So, at Most, RISK is 0.0004%

Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) after J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccination is rare

and has occurred in approximately four cases per one million doses administered:

· 12–15 years (70.7 cases per one million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech),

– vSo, at Most, RISK is 0.007% —-

· 16–17 years (105.9 cases per one million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech)

– So, at Most, RISK is 0.001% —-

· 18–24 years (52.4 cases and 56.3 cases per million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, respectively)

– So, at Most, RISK is 0.0056% —-

The data are based on publicly available statistics, approved by the CDC and other international agencies, as of January 2023. One does not need to be a scientist or an epidemiologist to look at the available scientific data. The opinion given by “a cousin” should not be considered a valid source, even if he or she is a doctor or scientist. The “ehipasskio” principle is also the basis of the scientific method.

The principal factor to remember is to use main-stream scientific sources, and not the opinions of individuals, or the writings of highly popular quacks like Dr. Merkola or their medical analogues in Sri Lanka who have advocated all kinds of alternative cures like Dhammika Paneiya, various Ayurvedic herbal medicines of no proven worth against a new virus, herbal teas, essential oils, tinctures, herbal therapies such as oleander/oleandrin, and silver products such as colloidal silver. Furthermore, mega doses of Vitamin D, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin etc., have been advocated, sometimes even by some medical people, especially in the early days of the pandemic.

However, now they have been firmly established to be of little or no value and indeed possibly very risky.

Furthermore, use of vaccines is cheap (about $10 for the annual booster), compared to the cost of taking a daily mega dose of Vitamin D, or drinking a cup of a herbal concoction like Pas-Panguwa or Peyaava, in the mistaken belief of “boosting one’s immune system” against the virus. A packet of “Pas-Panguwa” is about Rs. 500, i.e., about a dollar, and one needs about 100 such packets for a year, i.e., a cost of about $100 per annum, i.e., ten times the cost of the vaccine, but this results in no clinically confirmed benefit except perhaps their psychosomatic effects similar to those of a placebo.

Mega-vitamin usage is even more expensive and now clinically seen to be of little use.Main stream scientific opinion must be followed in formulating public health policies, while fringe opinions must be investigated by the research community without suppressing them. This has happened in regard to the Corona virus and Covid-19 pandemic.

So, in all risk cases, taking any of these vaccines (Pzifer-biontech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson etc) is hundreds to thousands of time LESS RISKY than, say, eating peanuts.

If are unvaccinated, or have not had your boosters, a good bet is to please get vaccinated since the risk from Covid is much bigger than the risk from vaccine reactions.

Chandre Dharmawardana

[National research Council of Canada, & University of Montreal, Canada]