More Fakebook COVID ‘fact-checking’
This is the response of the Full Fact ‘fact-checking’ organisation on November 23rd, in regards to a Facebook post about adverse reactions to the virus vaccines. The response was entitled Coronavirus: fact checked. I reproduce it in its entirety:
The government plans to monitor potential adverse reactions to a Covid-19 vaccine, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be safe.
WHAT WAS CLAIMED
A contract from the UK government says the MHRA is seeking an AI software tool to process the expected high volume of Covid-19 vaccine adverse drugs reactions to ensure no details from the adverse drugs reactions’ text are missed.
OUR VERDICT
This is correct, but monitoring any adverse reactions is a standard part of monitoring an approved drug or vaccine. Reported adverse reactions are not necessarily the same as side effects, and may have no connection to the vaccine.
We’ve been asked by our readers to check claims on whether the government has awarded a contract to create an AI software tool to “process the expected high volume of Covid-19 vaccine Adverse Drug Reaction (ADRs)”.
This is correct—the government’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has awarded this contract to a company called Genpact UK.
It’s important to remember that reports of “adverse drug reactions”, sometimes referred to as “adverse events”, are not quite the same thing as side effects. As the University of Oxford’s Vaccine Knowledge Project says, “reporting an adverse event after vaccination does not prove a link with the vaccine.”
It goes on to say: “When a vaccine is given to a very large number of people in a population, it is likely just by chance that a few of them will develop some kind of medical problem around the time of vaccination, but this does not prove ‘cause and effect’.”
Because any Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be rolled out so widely, it’s likely there will be people who get ill at the same time as having the injection, which may or may not be side effects of the vaccine itself. It’s important that such incidents are recorded, even if they are mild, short term, or don’t happen as a result of the vaccine.
Tracking adverse events is standard practice.
This contract does not affect the fact that a Covid-19 vaccine will not be rolled out until it has been judged effective and safe in many rounds of testing and evaluation. The MHRA told us that a “COVID-19 vaccine will only be approved once it has met robust standards on safety, quality and effectiveness through clinical trials and approved for use by the MHRA.”
This software will be part of an ongoing process to monitor any vaccine’s safety, and not part of approving it in the first place. It won’t be used to assess the data, but according to the MHRA will work by “reducing the amount of manual coding for each report, thereby saving resource in processing cases and ensuring they are rapidly available for scientific analysis.”
The MHRA told Full Fact that “With any major new vaccine campaign we always develop a proactive vigilance strategy, and COVID vaccines are no exception.”
“This is not because we think they will be unsafe. Based on the available published reports from the Phase One and Two clinical trials, we don’t currently anticipate any specific safety concerns with COVID-19 vaccines.”
The agency added that it expected to receive “around 1 Yellow Card report per 1,000 doses administered”. The yellow card scheme is the UK’s system for collecting and monitoring information on potential safety concerns involving medicines or medical products, so these can be evaluated. This is one way that the safety of a vaccine is continually monitored even after the trials are finished, and the vaccine is administered to the public.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because although this is a genuine contract, it doesn’t mean the Covid-19 vaccine is likely to cause any dangerous side effects—this is a normal part of how the safety of approved vaccines and drugs is continually monitored in this country.
You’ve probably seen a surge in misleading and unsubstantiated medical advice since the Covid-19 outbreak. If followed, it can put lives at serious risk. We need your help to protect us all from false and harmful information.
We’ve seen people claiming to be health professionals, family members, and even the government – offering dangerous tips like drinking warm water or gargling to prevent infection. Neither of these will work.
The longer claims like these go unchecked, the more they are repeated and believed. It can put people’s health at serious risk, when our services are already under pressure.
Today, you have the opportunity to help save lives. Good information about Covid-19 could be the difference between someone taking the right precautions to protect themselves and their families, or not.
All emphasis mine
- Reported adverse reactions are not necessarily the same as side effects, and may have no connection to the vaccine.
They may or may not have a connection to the vaccine, only time will tell.
- “adverse events”, are not quite the same thing as side effects.
Notice no explanation was given about the difference between adverse reactions and side effects. Splitting hairs to maintain the ‘fact-checking’ narrative against us.
In the limited trials that have been done, almost all subjects developed side effects, some mild, some serious.
- “…it is likely just by chance that a few of them will develop some kind of medical problem
around the time of vaccination, but this does not prove ‘cause and effect’.”
By saying this, any side effects that manifest themselves can and will be brushed aside as nothing more than coincidence.
- The MHRA told us that a “COVID-19 vaccine will only be approved once it has met robust standards on safety, quality and effectiveness through clinical trials and approved for use by the MHRA.”
The MHRA applied for emergency approval, and with these vaccines being rushed into production in a matter of months, no long-term human trials have been conducted, so no-one knows what side effects might appear weeks, months of years later.
- “…we don’t currently anticipate any specific safety concerns with COVID-19 vaccines.”
With the very limited trials that have been undertaken, they have no idea what safety concerns might come to light.
- The agency added that it expected to receive “around 1 Yellow Card report per 1,000 doses administered”.
They are expecting one adverse reaction in every thousand people vaccinated. If the entire country accepted the vaccine, that could be up to 68,000 adverse reactions, some of which will inevitably be life-threatening.
- it doesn’t mean the Covid-19 vaccine is likely to cause any dangerous side effects
Is this a roundabout way of saying they do in fact expect a significant number of adverse reactions?
Former Pfizer vice president Dr Mike Yeadon recently commented:
“There is absolutely no need for vaccines to extinguish the pandemic. I’ve never heard such nonsense talked about vaccines. You do not vaccinate people who aren’t at risk from a disease. You also don’t set about planning to vaccinate millions of fit and healthy people with a vaccine that hasn’t been extensively tested on human subjects.”
The bottom line of this appears to me at least, to mean if people become ill after having a Covid vaccine, it will just be recorded as an unfortunate coincidence and nothing more. Yeah right.
About the author: Andy Rowlands is a British Principia Scientific International researcher, writer and editor who co-edited the new climate science book, ‘The Sky Dragon Slayers: Victory Lap‘
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