It amazes me how the media keep inviting experts that push their gut feelings by cherry-picking only the science that confirms their beliefs. I am talking about the wishful thinking that is single-dose vaccines.
If you believe these experts, the evidence is strong, verging on undeniable, that we should skim on the Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca vaccines and only administer one dose. They have most often cited the calculation by the U.K. government which I discussed here. This same argument was parroted by two Canadians in a more recent push for one dose.
The arguments for sticking with what we know are being buried. Here is an excellent summary of the main points. I covered all of these earlier than most in this blog post.
Since that time, there have been many studies that bolster the case for sticking with two doses. You've heard about these studies except they buried the lead in each case.
***
We recently heard there is a study that showed half doses of Moderna might be enough. Such a study did exist, it's an interim analysis of a small-scale randomized trial - but the big story in that study is that the antibody levels did not exceed that obtained through natural infection until after the second doses. I wrote about that study here.
We recently heard about a study in which the Mayo Clinic found 89% efficacy in their real-world study. Great news. What the media experts did not tell you is that this VE was measured from 36 days after the first dose, thus including the effect of the second dose. If measured from first dose, the VE is 60%. Therefore, real-world evidence shows that the VE of a single shot is nowhere near the 90% claimed by these experts.
We recently heard of a study involving Israel's largest healthcare provider, verifying that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have real-world efficacy similar to those achieved in the clinical trials. Great. But did the media experts tell you what else they found? The vaccine effectivness at 14 days after the first dose is in the 40-60% range depending on how they defined cases. It was not until after the second shot where effectiveness edged towards 90%. Therefore, real-world evidence shows that the VE of a single shot is nowhere near the 90% claimed by the experts.
***
What I wrote above are directly lifted from those scientific papers. It does not require any interpretation or analysis. I'm just relaying what the researchers said in those papers. The media and their experts are filtering out what don't fit their worldview, and you're worse off for it.
Of course, I have taken notes while reading those studies so in a future post, I'll provide an evaluation of these real-world studies.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.