Before I begin, let me just say that I'd love to tweet this directly into
Wendy Bell's attention but, alas, the woman who is constantly crying out for
an "honest discussion" about Covid has blocked me from her twitter feed.
Maybe
Brock, her sidekick/gofer/toady could help me out. Hey, Brock! Can you pass
this up to your boss?
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Anyway, here's yesterday's BS:
Ok. So let's see what, exactly these studies have to say.
For example, here's that first study from The Lancet.
And here is the paragraph from which Wendy cherrypicks her sentence:
Vaccination reduces the risk of delta variant infection and accelerates viral clearance. Nonetheless, fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections have peak viral load similar to unvaccinated cases and can efficiently transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts. Host–virus interactions early in infection may shape the entire viral trajectory.
Remember, Wendy said that this study suggested that the vaccines are a failure.
This one says that while vaccination reduces the risk of delta infection and accelerates the body's ability to clear the virus, nonetheless those vaccinated individuals who do become infected have a peak viral load similar to those unvaccinated. But Wendy? doesn't that "accelerates viral clearance" part shorten the time span that someone could have that "peak viral load"?
Sure looks like it to me.
Wendy fails.
And
here's the paper from Wendy's second Lancet reference
(the reprint regarding the Vietnamese healthcare workers).
And this is from that paper's Abstract:
Between 11th25th June 2021 (7-8 weeks after the second dose), 69 staff tested positive for SARS- CoV-2. 62 participated in the study. Most were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and all recovered. Twenty-two complete-genome sequences were obtained; all were Delta variant and were phylogenetically distinct from contemporary viruses obtained from the community or from hospital patients admitted prior to the outbreak. Viral loads inferred from Ct values were 251 times higher than in cases infected with the original strain in March/April 2020.BTW Wendy, they were all vaccinated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine which isn't FDA approved. Perhaps you should have mentioned that to your adorings.
Also look at the second sentence:
Most were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and all recovered.
They were vaccinated. They had mild to no symptoms. They all recovered.
And yet you said that this "suggested" that the vaccine was a failure when all it showed was how much more powerful the Delta variant is when compared to the original strain.
Wendy fails, again.
Here's that Medrxiv paper from 7/31/2021.
And here's some of the stuff Wendy decided not to tell her fans:
The term “vaccine protection” can have several meanings, and is not always clearly defined. Ideally, vaccination would provide “sterilizing immunity,” completely preventing virus replication in vaccinated individuals. Intramuscularly delivered vaccines against respiratory viruses are not necessarily expected to provide this level of protection, however.
So Wendy is complaining about what, now?
The paper also contains this:
Nonetheless, the finding of high SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in vaccinated individuals has important implications for risk assessment and mitigation. Emerging data suggest that circulation of delta may be associated with reduced vaccine effectiveness against any symptomatic disease, but protection against severe disease and death is still robust.
And:
Continued adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as masking and distancing, will remain important for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals because we cannot predict which vaccinated individuals will experience breakthrough infections with high viral loads. This somewhat unexpected finding also underscores the uncertainty about the long-term performance of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. While vaccines continue to provide outstanding protection against severe disease and mortality, the durability of this protection cannot be reliably predicted. Therefore, it is essential for public health policy to encourage vaccination while also planning for contingencies, including diminished long-term protection.
Wendy fails. Again.
Do I really need to continue this exercise?
Wendy Bell, the more you nudge people away from the vaccines the more you're putting their health in danger. And the more they're in danger the rest of us are in danger, too.
Wendy Bell, The Angel of Death
