In the U.S., a Miami physician died following complications of immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) after his first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. ITP is a rare autoimmune condition in which the body generates autoantibodies to its own platelets, resulting in low platelet counts, blood clots, and bleeding if the platelet count drops very low. About 50,000 adults are diagnosed with ITP in the U.S. per year. Risk is increased in young women and people with other autoimmune conditions.
In a case series, James Bussel, MD, and colleagues reviewed 20 reports of thrombocytopenia after receipt of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. Bussel is professor emeritus of pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City who has published extensively on ITP. His group found that 17 of these patients did not have pre-existing thrombocytopenia. Patients’ median age was 41 and 11 were women.
“It is not surprising that 17 possible de novo cases would be detected among the well over 20 million people who have received at least one dose of these two vaccines in the United States as of February 2, 2021,” they wrote in the American Journal of Hematology. “The incidence of an immune‐mediated thrombocytopenia post SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination appears either less than or roughly comparable to what would be seen if the cases were coincidental following vaccination, perhaps enhanced somewhat by heightened surveillance of symptomatic patients.”
However, they note that “all but one” of these cases occurred after the first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
“One would assume that if the vaccination was unrelated to development of ITP, case occurrences would divide more evenly between the two doses,” they write. “…[W]e cannot exclude the possibility that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have the potential to trigger de novo ITP (including clinically undiagnosed cases), albeit very rarely.”
Every day all of us are exposed to hazards. Take going to McDonald’s. You could choke on the burger, you could have a serve allergic reaction (numerous people do), from ingredients such as azodicarbonamide to the association fats and salt with obesity, liver disorders. People have died from being electricuted from McDonald’s drink machines, while 142 people gave been murdered. Just look up number of people that have died of a heart attack while inside a McDonald’s or those that had food poisoning or gotten hurt or on the playground.
There is risk with everything we do. I have seen people nearly die from the first time having sex (great time to discover latex allergy) to opening a hoover bag.
The important thing is to place it in context.
If your worried about tens of deaths, in the context of tens of millions given a drug.
Some people will be unlucky. Some people will have behaviour changes once having a vaccine which may lead to death.
The odds are overwhelmingly in favour of taking the vaccine rather than taking your chance not catching Covid.
The definition of a a strawman is misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent’s real argument.
As can be seen from your second post, it is clear you define the vaccine as a hazard, and the debate is the risk associated with it. Saying we live in a world of hazards and risks is not a strawman. I used Mcdonalds but I could have used basically any drug, vaccine or product.
The EMA, WHO have all agreed the pros of the vaccine far outweigh the risks.
You are worried about AZ. I was trying to show how irrational that is. Why is mortality from AZ vaccine worse than Phizer? (I have already shown they are the same) I don’t really care if die of a heart attack, shitting myself or a blood clot. Death is death.
What I am saying is as unpalatable as it sounds, there is an acceptable loss of life. Because there is an extremely low risk of dying or having side effects from a vaccine. The risk of not taking the vaccine is a reasonable chance you could yourself could have reasonable side effects (a significant risk of death) or inadvertently pass it on to some who has a high chance of death.
That’s the context.
During a pandemic being worried/skeptical about 1 in a million situation is nuts, for you and the people you know.
A lot of history of Auto-Immune in my family, and I’ve had Hyperthyroidism, which caused a condition called Graves Disease. I had to to have a chunk of my thyroid killed off a few years ago.
At the time I remember some Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking on my door and their opening gambit was to tell question how there must be a designer because human beings are perfectly designed. I said ‘well, at the minute my own body is trying to kill me, so if there is a designer he’s not a very good one, is he’.
Anyway, I’m not worried - it’s a very, small risk, and not really much greater than any kind of medication. Christ, have you ever read the leaflet in a packet of paracetamol
One of the most difficult issues to address in a pandemic is that the cost/benefit to the individual is not the only consideration. The reality is there is an ethical obligation for individuals to take on increased individual risk due to the communal risk we all live in. That sounds crazy, but it’s explained by the difference in relative vs absolute risk. We do need to take on the burden of up to an order of magnitude greater risk to help get a public health emergency in check, but in terms of absolute risk that still hasnt moved the needle from “really really unlikely to happen to you”.
