Recently, there has been an increased level of concern among cable news pundits about potential health risks associated with COVID-19 vaccination. It is critical to put this concern in perspective.
BREAKTHROUGH INFECTIONS
If you were to listen to many of these talking heads, you might get the impression that breakthrough infections are common. This is simply incorrect. The rate of breakthrough infections among vaccinated people is less than 0.02%, and to put this in context, it is half the rate of breakthrough infections among people who have recovered from COVID-19 infection, but who have not been vaccinated. As we have heard, repeatedly, for those who were vaccinated, even if there is a breakthrough infection, it effectively never results in severe disease.
Please keep these numbers in mind when you hear commentators express concern over breakthrough infections as if they occur among a large group of vaccinated people and suggest an indication of the ineffectiveness of the vaccines.
RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH VACCINES
Almost every vaccine has some level of increased risk associated with administration. The new mRNA vaccines have a distinctly LOWER level of risks.
This week, a publication in the New England Journal of Medicine (one of the top 3 scientific journals relating to health issues) looked at potential increased risks associated with COVID-19 vaccinations. If you would like to view the original source, here is the link: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2112543
This study looked specifically at Israel and India and compared the risks of adverse events associated with vaccines to those associated with illness from the virus.
The popular press has picked up on ONE of these findings, namely that among young males there is an increased risk of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) about 3 times that of normal young males (a ratio of 3.3:1). Although this may sound high, it still only represents about 11 events per 100,000 people. On the other hand, the rate of myocarditis among the same group of young males who contract the virus is over 18:1. In other words, the chance of developing myocarditis if you become infected with COVID-19 is 6 times greater than if you were vaccinated.
But that is not the complete story. To quote the authors: “What is even more compelling about these data is the substantial protective effect of vaccines with respect to adverse events such as acute kidney injury, intracranial hemorrhage, and anemia, probably because infection was prevented. Furthermore, the persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection appeared to be at substantially higher risk for arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, deep-vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, pericarditis, intracerebral hemorrhage, and thrombocytopenia than those who received the vaccine.”
RISKS OF DYING – A PERSPECTIVE
The odds of getting myocarditis from vaccination are about 1 in 10,000.
The odds of dying from an opioid overdose in your lifetime are 1 in 92
The odds of dying in a car accident in your lifetime are 1 in 107
The odds of dying in a gun assault in your lifetime are 1 in 289
The odds of drowning in your lifetime are 1 in 1,100
The odds of dying from choking on your food in your lifetime are 1 in 2,500
The odds of dying from sunstroke in your lifetime are 1 in 8,200