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Article by The Exposé failed to account for caveats listed in U.K. vaccine surveillance reports; falsely claims fully vaccinated people have weakened immunity

Vaccine effectiveness measures the proportionate reduction in the risk of an outcome, such as infection, symptomatic disease, and hospitalization. The COVID-19 vaccines have demonstrated a high level of effectiveness in reducing disease, hospitalization, and death. As such, vaccinated people are much less likely to fall ill and develop severe disease compared to unvaccinated people.

No evidence suggests that Pfizer’s smoking cessation medication Chantix increases the risk of cancer; recall of this product is irrelevant to the safety of COVID-19 vaccines

The recall of Chantix, a smoking cessation aid developed by Pfizer, wasn’t related to the actual ingredients in the product. The company took this precautionary measure after finding nitrosamine impurities that exceeded the recommended limits in certain batches of the drug. Although some nitrosamines compounds may increase cancer risk in humans, there is no evidence that the particular one found in Chantix poses a health risk.

Infection-induced immunity versus vaccine-induced immunity: Weighing the benefits and risks

Introduction Multiple articles and social media posts have debated the strength of infection-induced immunity​​—commonly referred to as natural immunity—compared to vaccination when it comes to the best protection against COVID-19. Public health authorities like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recommended that previously infected people get vaccinated. But scientific studies have … Continued

Social media post claiming that fully vaccinated people are “filling up” morgues and hospitals is based on flawed reasoning; unvaccinated people are actually over ten times more likely to die

Booster shots aim to bolster waning COVID-19 immunity over time. Although U.S. public health authorities are considering a change in the definition of “fully vaccinated”, no change to this definition was made as of 25 October 2021. But even without booster shots, fully vaccinated people are still 11 times less likely to die from the disease compared to unvaccinated individuals. Records of COVID-19 deaths in September and October 2021 from several states indicate that fully vaccinated people only account for about 20% of the COVID-19 deaths.

An investigation found no evidence that deaths of HIV-positive foster children enrolled in AIDS drug trials were caused by trial medication, contrary to recent claims

In 2004, author Liam Scheff published claims that New York City foster children who were HIV positive participated in experiments with AIDS drugs in the late 1980s and early 1990s that led to the deaths of children. An investigation by the Vera Institute of Justice found that 25 foster children died during the 88 trials and studies conducted in New York City between 1985 and 2005, but Vera did not find that any of the deaths were caused directly by the drugs from the trials. Additionally, while 81.3 percent of the clinical trials in New York City that involved foster children were funded by National Institutes of Health institutes, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci’s personal involvement in funding decisions cannot be determined.

The COVID-19 vaccines provide strong protection against hospitalization and death; number of vaccinated people in hospital does not indicate evidence against this

The vast majority of the adult population in the U.K. have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Clinical trials showed that the COVID-19 vaccines are about 95% effective against hospitalization and death. This means that when cases are high, as they are currently in the U.K., we would expect to see a small number of vaccinated people be admitted to hospital for COVID-19 and die. The numbers of deaths due to COVID-19 are much lower than seen in previous waves before vaccination was widely available. The likelihood of being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19 is higher for unvaccinated people, but as there are relatively few unvaccinated people in the country, they only account for a minority of the numbers.

Claims that a Harvard study showed COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective misrepresent the authors’ conclusions, fail to account for the study’s limitations

Drawing conclusions from population-level data is extremely complex and prone to bias and spurious associations. For this reason, the lack of correlation between the vaccination levels and the rate of SARS-CoV-2 infections in different countries and regions can’t be interpreted as evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective. Although COVID-19 vaccines aren’t 100% effective, multiple scientific studies show that they reduce the risk of infection and are highly effective against severe COVID-19 and death.

Vaccines are highly effective against COVID-19, but unvaccinated people can still endanger vaccinated people, contrary to Tucker Carlson’s claim on Fox News

Vaccines provide more reliable protection against SARS-CoV-2 and with fewer risks attached compared to infection. But as with any other vaccine, they aren’t 100% effective, therefore vaccinated people remain at risk of infection when there is a high level of virus transmission in the community. The high level of transmission is primarily due to unvaccinated people in the community, who are more likely to be infected and therefore transmit the virus to others. They represent the majority of COVID-19 related hospitalization and deaths. At the same time, by fostering the transmission and replication of the virus, unvaccinated people increase the likelihood that new variants emerge.

No evidence that the fall in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia is linked to the use of ivermectin

Despite the lack of evidence supporting a benefit of ivermectin in COVID-19 patients, many countries have promoted its use to fight the pandemic. So far, no reliable studies have provided evidence showing that ivermectin is effective against COVID-19. Furthermore, ivermectin recommendations are generally accompanied by other measures, including vaccination and restrictions. Studies have shown that such measures are effective at limiting the spread of the virus, making it more difficult to determine whether ivermectin has any beneficial effect.

Several laboratories in Spain have cultured and isolated the virus SARS-CoV-2; the claim that the virus doesn’t exist is false

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, has been isolated and sequenced on multiple occasions in multiple countries. These procedures are performed in Biosafety Level 3 laboratories. The Spanish Ministry of Health doesn’t have such facilities, as was indicated in response to a request for information in September 2021, but there are several such facilities in Spain that perform culture and isolation of SARS-CoV-2.