[HN Gopher] Autopsy-based characterization of myocarditis after ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Autopsy-based characterization of myocarditis after anti-SARS-
       CoV-2-vaccination
        
       Author : Octokiddie
       Score  : 285 points
       Date   : 2022-12-15 14:38 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (link.springer.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (link.springer.com)
        
       | puffoflogic wrote:
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | I don't know if you're joking or not.
        
           | prvc wrote:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
        
           | chomp wrote:
           | Based on their comment history, they are trolling.
        
         | tux3 wrote:
         | Assuming the post is irony, is this what you'd call a false
         | flag? :)
        
         | echelon wrote:
         | Everything should be open for research, and that shouldn't be
         | political. I took the vaccine, but I'd like for more research
         | to be done.
         | 
         | This journal has an impact factor of 5, too, so they're not
         | terrible.
        
         | chedca21 wrote:
         | But wait 15 minutes to see if your child gets anaphylaxis from
         | them. We could have tested for allergy before giving the
         | vaccine but its more convenient to have you wait around after.
         | 
         | Don't worry if you experience allergic shock we have
         | epinephrine on standby. It might not work and its use is
         | associated with Alzheimer's onset but don't worry! Safe and
         | effective!
        
           | thewizardofaus wrote:
           | "But wait 15 minutes to see if your child gets anaphylaxis
           | from them. We could have tested for allergy before giving the
           | vaccine but its more convenient to have you wait around
           | after."
           | 
           | The waiting period of 15 minutes after a vaccine has always
           | been recommended. It's standard medical recommendation and
           | safety.
        
             | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
             | These type of complaints has actually been really
             | enlightening for me regarding how many people can't even be
             | bothered to get the flu vaccine or their tetanus shots.
        
               | LarryMullins wrote:
               | I got a tetanus shot a year ago and they didn't ask me to
               | wait around afterwards. They just handed me the paperwork
               | and showed me the door (this was after they had already
               | stitched me up.)
               | 
               | I see the CDC website says that a 15 minute wait after
               | getting a tetanus shot is recommended due to a fainting
               | risk. But I bet this is not widely observed. I surmise
               | they had already judged me to not be a fainting risk,
               | since I didn't faint when they were sewing me.
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | The CDC discusses anaphylaxis as a possible side effect
               | of the tetanus shot too[1]. It would seem the difference
               | between the two is an adherence to protocol as opposed to
               | risk profiles.
               | 
               | According to the CDC the rate of anaphylaxis is
               | incredibly low with the COVID shot[2].
               | 
               | [1] https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/general-
               | recs/adve... [2]
               | https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7002e1.htm
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | moralestapia wrote:
         | >6 researchers from an established medical institution in
         | Germany, publishing a study on a reputable journal
         | 
         | >a bunch of stochastic terrorists
         | 
         | What an interesting way to see the world. /s
        
       | TrispusAttucks wrote:
       | Remember that time when everyone called you a conspiracy theorist
       | if you mentioned that mRNA vaccines were inducing myocarditis in
       | some individuals.
       | 
       | Remember how they've been wrong about everything. Trust your
       | instincts. Ignore propagandabots.
        
       | estewart wrote:
       | The last paragraph in the article literally indicates there is no
       | causal relationship or proof of any direct link between the
       | vaccination and myocarditis.
       | 
       | > "Finally, we cannot provide a definitive functional proof or a
       | direct causal link between vaccination and myocarditis."
        
         | jerkstate wrote:
         | But we know for certain that they were all very safe drivers /s
        
           | manwe150 wrote:
           | Just curious, but are you referring to the recent Canadian
           | study that showed people who self-selected for vaccination
           | may also be associated with being safer drivers? https://www.
           | amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(22)00822-1/fulltex...
        
             | sfusato wrote:
             | There's a good take on this study here:
             | https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/the-unvaccinated-had-
             | more-...
        
               | puffoflogic wrote:
               | TL;DR: The study is fraudulent as it didn't normalize for
               | distance or time driving, which has a extremely strong
               | correlation to traffic fatalities. What the study
               | actually found is that the unvaccinated drive more, and
               | reporting it the other way was intentional fraud.
        
         | PragmaticPulp wrote:
         | It's also important to note that although they looked at 35
         | autopsies for people who died in the period after vaccination,
         | only 4 of them had signs of myocarditis. 10 of them had very
         | clearly unrelated causes of death (e.g. pre-existing
         | conditions, easily identifiable external causes). I don't think
         | people realize just how frequent death, including unexplained
         | death, can be when you're looking at population-level sample
         | sizes:
         | 
         | > In four patients who received a mRNA vaccination, we
         | identified acute (epi-)myocarditis without detection of another
         | significant disease or health constellation that may have
         | caused an unexpected death.
         | 
         | They found some interesting clues that suggest it _might_ be
         | related to accidental intravascular injection:
         | 
         | > Interestingly, we recorded inflammatory foci predominantly in
         | the right heart, which may suggest a gradual blood-stream
         | derived dilution effect and based on this finding it is at
         | least tempting to speculate that inadvertent intravascular
         | vaccine injection may be contributive.
        
         | jamespo wrote:
         | Very few of the instant commenters read the study first it
         | seems.
        
           | ada1981 wrote:
           | Haters will say it's GPT-3ed.
        
         | DeusExMachina wrote:
         | It states that _they cannot provide_ a definitive proof or a
         | causal link, not that there isn 't one.
        
           | giarc wrote:
           | As we say in epidemiology (and other fields), absence of
           | evidence, isn't evidence of absence.
        
             | ngvrnd wrote:
             | but it is somewhat suggestive of absence.
        
               | SoftTalker wrote:
               | No, it really doesn't suggest anything either way.
        
         | nulld3v wrote:
         | The study does suggest there might be a causal relationship. It
         | is not able to provide definitive proof however.
        
         | hammock wrote:
         | The study also states:
         | 
         | > In general, a causal link between myocarditis and anti-SARS-
         | CoV-2 vaccination is supported by several considerations: (A) a
         | close temporal relation to vaccination; all cases were found
         | dead within one week after vaccination, (B) absence of any
         | other significant pre-existing heart disease, especially
         | ischaemic heart disease or cardiomyopathy, (C) negative testing
         | for potential myocarditis-causing infectious agents, (D)
         | presence of a peculiar CD4 predominant T-cell infiltrate,
         | suggesting an immune mediated mechanism
        
           | ceejayoz wrote:
           | > In general, a causal link between myocarditis and anti-
           | SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is supported by several
           | considerations: (A) a close temporal relation to vaccination;
           | all cases were found dead within one week after
           | vaccination...
           | 
           | > Standardized autopsies were performed on 25 persons who had
           | died unexpectedly and within 20 days after anti-SARS-CoV-2
           | vaccination.
           | 
           | This is a weird way of demonstrating a link. They picked them
           | specifically for that, it can't be evidence of something. If
           | they selected 25 people who died of myocarditis _regardless_
           | of vaccination status or recency, and all 25 turned out to
           | have been recently vaccinated, _that_ would be scary data.
        
             | Gibbon1 wrote:
             | The two things that stand out to me.
             | 
             | From published articles in the JAMA; vaccination related
             | myocarditis in young men has much lower mortality and
             | morbidity than from other causes. So were really talking
             | about two different things here.
             | 
             | The second is rates of myocarditis after vaccination and
             | the population base rate aren't the same thing either. The
             | base rate one assumes includes cases triggered by
             | something. So the base rate incorporates the rate of
             | triggering events. So these rates are also not the same
             | thing.
        
             | cool_dude85 wrote:
             | >This is a weird way of demonstrating a link. They picked
             | them specifically for that, it can't be evidence of
             | something. If they selected 25 people who died of
             | myocarditis regardless of vaccination status or recency,
             | and all 25 turned out to have been recently vaccinated,
             | that would be scary data.
             | 
             | It's perfectly valid as an idea, although a lot of
             | statistical work would need to be done to show that it
             | wasn't just happenstance and/or rule out other causes. But
             | a link, sure.
             | 
             | Consider a depoliticized example: you do 30 autopsies on
             | people who had recently been to a particular location,
             | let's say a certain grocery store in town. Enough people go
             | to this grocery store that it's not uncommon for way more
             | than 30 recent visitors to be dead unexpectedly by random
             | chance. Further, let's say in the general population, a
             | tiny fraction of people die of a certain food-borne
             | illness. You have a pretty good guess what that fraction
             | is.
             | 
             | You do these autopsies and you find that 5 of the people
             | died of this food-borne illness. Much higher than the
             | proportion in the population. Now, you have a lot of
             | additional work to do before you prove that something at
             | the store is causing high rates of the illness: check on
             | comorbidities, other correlated factors, plenty still to be
             | done. But, have you established a potential link? Sure. And
             | you picked them specifically because they died after going
             | to this store.
             | 
             | Also, your idea can work too, also with appropriate
             | statistical work, experimental design, all that. Yours is
             | perhaps a bit better suited to answering a question like:
             | of those who die of myocarditis, what proportion have been
             | recently vaccinated? While a proper study the way the
             | authors did is more like: of those who are recently
             | vaccinated and die unexpectedly, what proportion have
             | myocarditis? Both are valid questions and both certainly
             | get at aspects of the link between the vaccine and
             | myocarditis.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | > Consider a depoliticized example: you do 30 autopsies
               | on people who had recently been to a particular location,
               | let's say a certain grocery store in town. Enough people
               | go to this grocery store that it's not uncommon for way
               | more than 30 recent visitors to be dead unexpectedly by
               | random chance. Further, let's say in the general
               | population, a tiny fraction of people die of a certain
               | food-borne illness. You have a pretty good guess what
               | that fraction is.
               | 
               | It's not just "pick 30 recently dead who went to the
               | store", though.
               | 
               | You've picked 30 people who died after eating at the
               | grocery store's salad bar, and used that as evidence that
               | the salad bar is dangerous, without checking how many
               | _skipped_ the salad bar and died anyways.
        
               | cool_dude85 wrote:
               | >You've picked 30 people who died after eating at the
               | grocery store's salad bar, and used that as evidence that
               | the salad bar is dangerous, without checking how many
               | skipped the salad bar and died anyways.
               | 
               | The answer to this question would also be socially and
               | politically relevant and warrant its own study. But that
               | doesn't make the author's study unsound or unable to
               | serve as evidence, like you said.
        
         | krona wrote:
         | The causal link (direct or otherwise, does it really matter to
         | most people) between vaccination and myocarditis has been
         | established elsewhere and acknowledged by the CDC.
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | "we cannot provide" is very different from "there is no"
         | 
         | It is extremely important, the distinction between these two.
         | 
         | Claiming something doesn't exist requires careful extensive
         | statistics, this study didn't do that, they're saying it out
         | loud.
        
         | phkahler wrote:
         | But in the intro: >> Thus, myocarditis can be a potentially
         | lethal complication following mRNA-based anti-SARS-CoV-2
         | vaccination.
         | 
         | I would assume that means there is something going on.
         | 
         | To your point, medical researchers are IMHO kind of bad at
         | accepting reality if they don't have a complete understanding.
         | So if data show death by specific cause after vaccination, they
         | will reject that conclusion if there is no proven mechanism for
         | it. Rather than critique the study, they simply demand more
         | information than anyone has.
        
         | layman51 wrote:
         | That's not what it says. I will give you an example. Before the
         | 1980s or so when the first serious studies on second-hand smoke
         | exposure were conducted, anybody could have also written that
         | "we cannot provide a definitive causal link between second-hand
         | smoke and lung cancer." Today, it is common sense.
        
           | ROTMetro wrote:
           | No, it's not common sense. It's science, proven over decades
           | and presented to people in an understandable way so that were
           | willing to adopt it as a belief they hold.
           | 
           | Common sense nonsense: You can fall off the edge of the world
           | You should put ice on burns We only use 10% of our brain
        
       | canadiantim wrote:
       | I'm surprised this sort of post is even allowed to be discussed
        
         | dontwearitout wrote:
        
         | whatshisface wrote:
         | Myocarditis is rare and has been a part of the discussion from
         | even before the vaccines were released, or at least the
         | professional discussion. They were why the vaccines were not
         | recommended for all ages to begin with.
        
           | gfodor wrote:
           | The vaccines were and still are mandated for people not at
           | risk of severe disease, and myocarditis has been framed as a
           | side effect not worth worrying about despite the fact that it
           | literally can kill you. Not to mention without understanding
           | the mechanism of action, we cannot estimate the number of
           | true deaths that occurred without a myocarditis diagnosis.
        
             | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
             | > Besides pneumonia, myocarditis is another manifestation
             | reported during SARS-CoV-2-infection [24].
             | 
             | I mean, your point only makes sense if you ignore that
             | COVID causes the same myocarditis and ignore that the
             | vaccine has been proven to reduce severity and duration of
             | symptoms. This study was of 5 autopsies, unless you can
             | prove this was incredibly widespread concern I don't
             | understand why you think it would be better people get
             | COVID.
             | 
             | On a slightly different note I find it incredibly funny how
             | the refrain was "they died with COVID, not from", but now
             | it's "they died because of the vaccine, not with".
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | The data on myocarditis has been clear and significant
               | for quite some time: 1 in approximately 5000 young men
               | under 40 by shot two. Without a full understanding of the
               | underlying mechanism of action, we can't be that
               | confident of number of deaths due to the vaccine, but
               | given the size of the deployed population and the
               | recurrent nature of the shots it's not unreasonable to
               | think we killed tens of thousands of people with them.
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | > it's not unreasonable to think we killed tens of
               | thousands of people with them.
               | 
               | It's not unreasonable to think otherwise as well given
               | that it was a rare occurrence and typically mild. Also,
               | there were no young men in this study. "Median age at
               | death was 58 years (range 46-75 years)", so you're
               | drawing your own conclusions without data here.
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | I'm not drawing conclusions - you invented that claim.
               | The data I'm referring to is available in several other
               | studies, with regards to estimated myocarditis rates in
               | young men. But if you agree with me that it's not
               | unreasonable to think that is the scope of fatalities, I
               | would urge you to integrate that new prior into things
               | like the ethics of mandating this drug for college.
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | > it's not unreasonable to think we killed tens of
               | thousands of people with them.
               | 
               | I mean, what is this if not a conclusion you're trying to
               | draw?
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | Saying it's not unreasonable means there is some
               | significant probability that we may ultimately determine
               | this to be the case. The conclusion is about the range of
               | probabilities, not the actual state of reality. But
               | probabilities matter when you are deploying policies like
               | mandating kids take this drug to go to college.
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | > there is some significant probability that we may
               | ultimately determine this to be the case
               | 
               | I still don't see proof of that.
               | 
               | > But probabilities matter when you are deploying
               | policies like mandating kids take this drug to go to
               | college.
               | 
               | Again, this study doesn't involve "kids".
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | You already implies you agree with my claim about it not
               | being unreasonable when you said "as well." I guess you
               | retract that?
               | 
               | And again: this study is just one of many studies that
               | have lead to my prior. The rate of myocarditis is well
               | established, the population size is well established, the
               | open question is the fatality rate. The unreasonable part
               | comes from putting a lower bound on the death rate based
               | on some assumptions around these studies which have done
               | autopsies and the estimates on subclinical heart
               | interactions from the drug. There are several studies on
               | all of these things. The back of the napkin math to me is
               | on the order of tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths.
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | > You already implies you agree with my claim about it
               | not being unreasonable when you said "as well." I guess
               | you retract that?
               | 
               | Yes, I was trying to show polite respect for your point
               | and not actually endorse it, but to be clear, I don't
               | believe there is enough evidence to assume that tens of
               | thousands of young people died, especially not with this
               | article, and especially when you consider that the
               | acknowledged gap in your knowledge is the fatality rate.
        
             | chomp wrote:
             | I know of a few people who have opted to not get the
             | vaccine. One lost his wife. Still not vaccinated. You might
             | need some more qualifiers for the word "mandated."
             | 
             | Myocarditis is a side effect not worrying about because you
             | have the same or greater chance of getting it if you get
             | infected with COVID: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/1
             | 0.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA....
             | 
             | It's also really really rare in both cases.
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | The US executive branch attempted to make it so that your
               | unvaccinated friend had to choose between taking the
               | vaccine or being able to work at most companies.
        
             | littlestymaar wrote:
             | > about despite the fact that it literally can kill you.
             | 
             | There are many many things that can literally kill you.
             | Heck, even anosmia can literally kill you under the right
             | circumstances.
             | 
             | What matters is the total number of vaccine-related
             | myocarditis cases, and the total number of vaccine-related
             | myocarditis death balanced with the number of covid
             | related-death (including Covid-induced fatal myocarditis,
             | because the virus itself has this effect), that's how you
             | get a cost-benefit analysis.
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | False, the idea that pure net deaths is the only way to
               | think about all that happened is the common thread that
               | people have been clinging to for far too long. It is time
               | to wake up, and remember principles of bioethics, the
               | risk of authoritarian coercive forces, and the nature of
               | dehumanization campaigns. You do not mandate rapidly
               | formulated, under-tested, frontier technology emergency
               | drugs for all humans to work and live _especially_ once
               | there is evidence they may have a consistent mechanism of
               | action that can cause sudden death, and especially once
               | you learn the risk from the disease is highly dependent
               | upon demographics and other comorbitities in a way risk
               | from this side effect isn't.
        
               | littlestymaar wrote:
               | Sorry to annoy you with the basics of public health
               | policy.
               | 
               | And the cost-benefit analysis being different for
               | different age classes and comorbidity is exactly the
               | reason why the vaccines was slowly expanded to larger
               | demographics after starting with the most vulnerable
               | people.
               | 
               | In fact, the side effects of the vaccine have been much
               | more thoroughly tracked than many pollutants that are
               | routinely introduced in everybody's life and which
               | somehow never trigger such a reaction from you others who
               | care so much about all this when it comes to vaccines.
               | The amount of hazardous material that are being put in
               | everything from food to cosmetics or kids' toys is
               | appalling, but all you guys have to complain about is
               | vaccines... You claim to care about under-tested frontier
               | technology, but somehow aren't bothered with sunscreen or
               | bisphenol S, why is that?
        
             | manwe150 wrote:
             | We can estimate from excess death statistics that this is
             | basically a non-risk for most people. Unlike getting ill
             | with COVID, which we can also estimate from excess death
             | statistics is a notable risk factor for most people.
        
               | colechristensen wrote:
               | Young people were at extremely low risk from covid. It is
               | entirely possible that the vaccine killed more people
               | than it saved under a certain age. It is not certain but
               | it is plausible as the covid deaths for young people were
               | so low.
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | I agree with my sibling here is that your confidence is
               | misplaced that we did not kill many teenagers
               | unnecessarily.
        
             | whatshisface wrote:
             | Anything that gets your immune system going can trigger an
             | autoimmune crisis, including, you guessed it viruses -
             | which also use RNA to cause your cells to produce spike
             | proteins, by the way.
        
               | jgalt212 wrote:
               | Very true. And it's probably impossible to get an
               | accurate count of the young people who fall into the
               | following groups.
               | 
               | unvaccinated and got COVID-induced myocarditis
               | 
               | vaccinated and got COVID-induced myocarditis
               | 
               | vaccinated and got vaccine-induced myocarditis
               | 
               | vaccinated and no myocarditis
               | 
               | unvaccinated and no myocarditis
               | 
               | Am I missing any groups?
        
           | devmunchies wrote:
           | > Myocarditis is rare
           | 
           | In absolute terms, yes. But relative to other vaccines, it's
           | much more common.
           | 
           | I also read that the chances are like 1 in a million per dose
           | (not the right number, you get the point) but since its _per
           | dose_ your chances are actually like 1 in 40,000 after 3-4
           | doses.
        
         | Mountain_Skies wrote:
         | Eventually there aren't enough fingers to plug all the holes in
         | the dike.
        
       | anotheraccount9 wrote:
       | N is too small (but that's fine). The study is surely opening up
       | an interesting window for future research.
       | 
       | Could it be a side effect of (accidental) intravenous injections,
       | leading to a more pronounced immune reaction?
        
       | DoreenMichele wrote:
       | _Overall, autopsy findings indicated death due to acute
       | arrhythmogenic cardiac failure._
       | 
       | Arrhythmia can be an indicator you need zinc.
       | 
       |  _Proatherogenic factors, released during Zn deficiency, increase
       | the incidence of arrhythmias, strokes, CM, and many other CV
       | system pathologies_
       | 
       | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.68607...
       | 
       | Prior discussion with a researcher points to zinc as significant
       | wrt covid.
        
       | seydor wrote:
       | Regardless of any possible danger of vaccination, one has to also
       | consider that vaccination doesnt prevent infection, which is
       | important. As more studies come to light it s becoming evident
       | that Covid damages our bodies in many ways, even with mild
       | infections, it weakens our immune systems and the damage is
       | cumulative every time we catch it. We should be preventing
       | infections , with measures that are appropriate, instead of
       | trying to mitigate the symptoms as we do with vaccines.
        
       | librish wrote:
       | A question for vaccine skeptics:
       | 
       | For it to be a reasonable choice to not want to take the vaccine
       | wouldn't you need to balance the risk of death / complications
       | from the vaccine against the risk of death / complications from
       | covid multiplied by the risk of getting covid?
       | 
       | There seems to be a lot of "aha I knew it" whenever any side-
       | effect of the vaccine is found, but aren't the side-effects of
       | covid well established, on average more severe, and much more
       | common?
        
         | addingadimensio wrote:
         | Everyone got the vaccine and everyone still got covid. you have
         | to get the vaccine and then covid and then more vaccine and
         | then more Covid and you're saying it's clear to you what the
         | benefit risk is in this jumble of vaccinations and Covid
         | vaccines really you know what it is you're sure you read the
         | paper of the research it's out there for everyone to just look
         | at?
        
         | ren_engineer wrote:
         | >For it to be a reasonable choice to not want to take the
         | vaccine wouldn't you need to balance the risk of death /
         | complications from the vaccine against the risk of death /
         | complications from covid multiplied by the risk of getting
         | covid?
         | 
         | a huge chunk of the population already got covid during the
         | entire year no vaccine existed and have natural immunity, so
         | that's not really a factor at this point. The risk of getting
         | covid for them is already baked into the calculation because
         | they got it when there was no other option. They can now decide
         | whether the additional risk of the vaccine is worth it
         | 
         | you can't even make the case for mandates based on "stopping
         | the spread" anymore because the vaccines failed at that as
         | well, so it's no longer a public health issue and becomes a
         | personal health decision. Or at least it should be
        
           | acdha wrote:
           | > a huge chunk of the population already got covid during the
           | entire year no vaccine existed and have natural immunity, so
           | that's not really a factor at this point.
           | 
           | The new variants are effective at evading immunity from
           | earlier variants so, no, that's not moot. Even without
           | evasion you'd still need to consider how quickly immunity
           | wanes, too. The vaccines are holding up well for avoiding
           | hospitalization but you're still looking at multiple per year
           | given how much COVID has been mutating.
           | 
           | https://erictopol.substack.com/p/the-new-covid-wave
        
           | seydor wrote:
           | > during the entire year no vaccine existed and have natural
           | immunity,
           | 
           | That's not true anymore. Recent variants dont induce a lot of
           | immunity that s why reinfections are common. In fact the
           | opposite is true in some cases
           | 
           | https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq1841
           | 
           | That said, the vaccines don't prevent infection either
        
         | gfodor wrote:
         | Depends on who and when. The idea of vaccinating my young kids
         | in late 2022 is an absurd proposition to me personally - and if
         | the state mandated it, we would leave. This will change once we
         | understand what is happening with these fatalities and correct
         | it.
        
         | adamiscool8 wrote:
         | According to my governments stats, the COVID-19 hospitalization
         | rate for my age + health cohort, when modestly adjusted for
         | their known undercount of cases, is less than 1 in 3000.
         | 
         | Also by their stats, more than 1 in 2000 4-dose mRNA vaccine
         | series have resulted in a serious adverse event reported by a
         | health professional.
         | 
         | Then, factoring in the additional risk of acquiescing bodily
         | autonomy to an opaque bureaucracy -- considering what herding
         | behaviors have been blatantly manufactured over the last few
         | years, and the conflicting interests involved.
         | 
         | I think declining is a very reasonable choice.
        
           | librish wrote:
           | What constitutes a 'serious adverse event' in this data? Do
           | you mind linking the source? Having a 1 in 3000 chance of
           | getting so sick you need to be hospitalized seems quite bad.
        
             | manwe150 wrote:
             | In case they don't answer, I would guess they are referring
             | to VAERS data, and some random guy who once claimed it
             | underreports everything by 40x. This is not logistically
             | plausible (where would you hide 40x more patients than
             | expected arriving at hospitals?), and I have seen some
             | recent studies suggest that the underreporting factor is
             | actually <1x (meaning it is overreported) when doing
             | statistically random sampling. But that does not stop
             | people from repeating the claim ad nauseam.
        
               | ejb999 wrote:
               | the 40x is possible, and even likely - but that is often
               | twisted to suggest that if there were (for example)
               | 10,000 reported deaths in vaers, then it must mean there
               | were 400,000 actual deaths from the vaccine - yes, there
               | is a lot of under-reporting, and maybe even a 40x factor,
               | but those unreported events are usually of the trivial
               | kind - i.e. 'I had a sore arm after getting the shot' -
               | likely trivial symptoms are under-reported by quite a bit
               | - not plausible that there are 40 deaths for every
               | reported one.
        
               | adamiscool8 wrote:
               | In Canada, all reports to our Public Health Infobase must
               | be made by a health care professional. I do suspect
               | underreporting, given social and collegial pressure on
               | practitioners to not undermine vaccination efforts, but I
               | accept the given stats linked above at face value for the
               | purposes of my model.
        
             | adamiscool8 wrote:
             | The true hospitalization risk from COVID could be 1/4th to
             | 1/10th that given that cases are widely estimated to be
             | 4-10X what was reported.
             | 
             | The serious adverse event definition and rates are defined
             | here: https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/vaccine-
             | safety/ut...
             | 
             | 1 in 9000 doses reportedly results in a SAE, so if you are
             | mandated to take 4 doses, your risk becomes ~0.04% or
             | ~1/2500.
             | 
             | This also does not factor in the risk of "adverse events of
             | special interest", which can be serious or non-serious
             | (though neither seems great for the end user).
             | 
             | And looking at how this page has been updated since the
             | last time I saw it, another red flag is how they separate
             | those out - with a dead link to boot. In my opinion a
             | continuation of efforts that seem intent on obfuscating the
             | ability to make individual risk calculations through this
             | pandemic.
        
               | librish wrote:
               | I'm looking at your link but I can't find anything about
               | serious events controlled for age group (to make it a
               | fair comparison to your covid hostpitalisation number).
               | Is the data in there somewhere?
        
               | adamiscool8 wrote:
               | Would be nice, but all they volunteer is that the adverse
               | event rate is highest in the 30-50 year olds. Given that,
               | I don't think it makes a material difference
        
               | librish wrote:
               | What makes you think that? Serious events for regular
               | covid was _heavily_ skewed towards the elderly.
        
         | pexabit wrote:
         | Since the vaccine does not work the analysis is actually much
         | simpler. Vaccinated people can and do get COVID and get all
         | kinds of sick from COVID. Maybe they don't die as much (though
         | looking at the graph of COVID deaths you wouldn't actually be
         | able to detect when vaccinations began). But all the other bad
         | stuff? No evidence of any protection.
        
           | Daishiman wrote:
           | You are so astoundingly wrong that I'm just glad people like
           | you get coerced into getting vaccinated so society doesn't
           | have to live your terrible risk assessments.
        
             | pexabit wrote:
             | What is your back of the envelope math here? Clearly, the
             | vaccine does not prevent infection. There is no evidence it
             | reduces the incidence of harmful sequelae following
             | infection. So how does this add up to support mandatory
             | vaccination for young men?
        
         | seydor wrote:
         | I took 3 doses of vaccine but it is no longer effective at
         | preventing infections. Studies that keep coming out show that
         | Covid can have a lot of damaging consequences every time you
         | get infected and they accumulate
         | (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02051-3). I have a
         | job and lifestyle that allows me to limit crowded spaces by a
         | lot during wintertime. I will try to avoid getting covid ever
         | again as much as possible, and the vaccine doesn't help much in
         | that. I think the danger from vaccine is very small, but , as
         | in everything, i want to wait a few years before i can trust
         | it.
         | 
         | But to those that plan to get immunized by simply getting Covid
         | again I 'd say "good luck" because they are going to need it
        
         | bakoo wrote:
         | > Aren't the side-effects of covid well established, on average
         | more severe, and much more common?
         | 
         | There is no doubt that we'd have a lot more deaths without the
         | vaccines. I suspect that is true for at least some of the
         | lockdowns too.
         | 
         | In my experience, people aren't very good at assessing risks.
         | Actively doing something that comes with a certain risk is
         | often perceived as being more dangerous than passively hoping
         | to avoid what is objectively known to be the greater risk.
         | 
         | If those risks are then contested or associated with a high
         | degree of uncertainty, making an active choice often becomes a
         | question of deferring the decision to someone you really trust.
         | If you don't trust anyone, you're not likely to do anything.
         | 
         | An anecdote - I know a few people who didn't get the vaccine,
         | or got it a lot later than everyone else, and more often than
         | not they have had bad health care experiences in the past. When
         | you've been on the receiving end of one or more mistakes of
         | that kind, it isn't difficult to understand how waiting to see
         | what happens seems like the smarter choice.
        
         | puffoflogic wrote:
         | > For it to be a reasonable choice to not want to take the
         | vaccine wouldn't you need to balance the risk of death /
         | complications from the vaccine against the risk of death /
         | complications from covid multiplied by the risk of getting
         | covid?
         | 
         | That would not be a correct comparison, because the vaccine
         | does not prevent you from getting covid. The risks to balance
         | are:
         | 
         | A) The risk of myocarditis and other fatal and non-fatal side-
         | effects from the vaccine, TIMES how many times you get the
         | vaccine, PLUS the cumulative risks of COVID infections over
         | time (which you can get despite being "vaccinated"). B) Just
         | the risks of COVID infections over time.
         | 
         | A is strictly more dangerous than B no matter what the risks of
         | COVID are. Every comment saying, "oh but COVID can cause X risk
         | of death and Y risk of myocarditis and blah blah blah" is
         | completely irrelevant, because all of these risks accrue just
         | as much to the vaccinated. Even if the vaccine is, say, 15%
         | effective, which is very generous given the evidence, then that
         | means that if the risks of the vaccine are 15% as much as the
         | risks of COVID, then (A) is still more dangerous. The risks of
         | the vaccine are more than 15% the risks of COVID, as the
         | evidence is piling up.
         | 
         | Then there's the little fact that the vaccinated are slightly
         | more likely to be reinfected with COVID than the unvaccinated.
         | But the studies on this are still being suppressed, so you can
         | do the math without it and still come up with vaccination being
         | more dangerous for much of the population.
        
         | Mikeb85 wrote:
         | > but aren't the side-effects of covid well established, on
         | average more severe, and much more common?
         | 
         | You forgot to account for the risk of getting the virus. If you
         | choose to get the vaccine, the probability is 1. But what's the
         | probability of getting Covid? Definitely less than 1.
         | 
         | For certain age groups (young men), the risk of complications *
         | probability of getting the vaccine (1) was more than the risk
         | of complications from COVID * the probability of getting it
         | (let's say 0.25 or so).
         | 
         | Remember, COVID hasn't been shown to be particularly dangerous
         | to young people...
        
           | CorrectHorseBat wrote:
           | It's been only 3 years and basically everyone I know has had
           | COVID, some more than once. I don't think it's significantly
           | less than 1.
        
             | Mikeb85 wrote:
             | https://time.com/6170735/how-many-people-have-had-covid-19/
             | 
             | It's 60%. Probably.
             | 
             | Meanwhile most vaccinated people have had 2-4 shots. Also
             | keep in mind immunity doesn't last forever, so you need to
             | balance the risk of the shot within a certain timeframe
             | versus the risk of Covid times the risk of complications
             | within the same timeframe. You also can't compare the
             | lifetime risk of Covid versus only 1 shot, both occur
             | within a timeframe since immunity from the shot isn't
             | forever.
        
               | CorrectHorseBat wrote:
               | 60% of the population over a 5 month period had
               | detectable levels of antibodies in their blood, so it's
               | at least 60%. IIRC they are only detectable for a few
               | months (but that maybe also depend on the way of testing
               | I don't know) which would means it's closer to 100% than
               | to 60%.
               | 
               | The risk comparison is indeed not trivial, but I think
               | it's a safe bet that you're going to get covid.
        
             | brianshaler wrote:
             | Given there is likely a correlation between behaviors to
             | reduce likelihood of infection (avoiding crowds, properly
             | wearing effective masks) and willingness to get vaccinated,
             | I would wager the odds of catching covid at least once
             | would be elevated among people opposed to vaccination.
        
           | Daishiman wrote:
           | > Remember, COVID hasn't been shown to be particularly
           | dangerous to young people...
           | 
           | I have friends in their early 30s who still haven't recovered
           | their sense of smell. Knoew a 25-year-old who spent 4 weeks
           | with terrible symptoms. I'm a marathon runner and lift and in
           | my early 30s and this disease kicked the shit out of me and
           | had 4 with reduced physical function.
           | 
           | It is very obviously worse than the worst flus almost
           | everyone had and the flu is sufficiently dangerous that it
           | has a nontrivial effect in human quality of life.
        
           | brianshaler wrote:
           | > let's say 0.25 or so
           | 
           | Where did you get this data?
           | 
           | > Remember, COVID hasn't been shown to be particularly
           | dangerous to young people...
           | 
           | What are the top 3 leading causes of health-related deaths in
           | your choice of demographic (15-24? 25-49?) in your choice of
           | 2020 or 2021?
        
             | Mikeb85 wrote:
             | > What are the top 3 leading causes of health-related
             | deaths in your choice of demographic (15-24? 25-49?) in
             | your choice of 2020 or 2021?
             | 
             | Covid was only #3 for all age groups in the USA during the
             | pandemic (and remember, old people are the mostly likely to
             | die at any given point, because, well, they're old).
             | https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-
             | death.htm
             | 
             | Meanwhile, Covid is far behind accidents, suicide, drug
             | overdoses and homicide for young people:
             | 
             | https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/levels-
             | and-...
        
               | brianshaler wrote:
               | I apologize, when I said your choice of demographic I
               | meant your choice of demographic that encompasses "young"
               | as per the topic of your original comment.
               | 
               | Yes, when including the elderly, cancer and heart disease
               | are greater causes of health-related deaths. Is COVID-19
               | not the #1 health-related cause of death for "young"
               | people?
               | 
               | > accidents, suicide, drug overdoses and homicide
               | 
               | Not long ago this discussion was about health risks, such
               | as infectious diseases or medical complications. But yes,
               | young people can be pretty reckless.
               | 
               | We were doing arithmetic, such as multiplying the risk of
               | myocarditis and hitherto uncorrelated medical
               | complications by 1.0, and then a number that is likely
               | several orders of magnitude larger ( _death_ by COVID,
               | not even the much, much more likely disablement of  "long
               | covid") by a number you erroneously claimed was 0.25 and
               | was perhaps around 0.6 _almost a year ago_ (anti-body
               | study, 9 /2021-2/2022).
        
           | puffoflogic wrote:
           | You forgot to add in the risks of getting COVID _and_ being
           | vaccinated. Every time anyone  "does the math" on this
           | somehow they count the vaccine as having 100% efficacy, which
           | is an obvious lie.
           | 
           | Also, if you choose to get the vaccine, then the multiplier
           | for vaccine risks isn't 1, it's 2, or 4, or 6, however many
           | times you get the vaccine.
        
           | aeternum wrote:
           | Yes and it shouldn't just be risk of getting the virus, as it
           | looks like the ability of the virus to migrate to the heart
           | also matters.
           | 
           | With environmental infections, it's possible that most people
           | fight the virus within other parts of the body, with the
           | vaccine it looks like the immune response occurred in the
           | heart for many in this study, specifically right heart,
           | possibly due to proximity or accidental intravascular
           | injection:
           | 
           | >we recorded inflammatory foci predominantly in the right
           | heart, which may suggest a gradual blood-stream derived
           | dilution effect and based on this finding it is at least
           | tempting to speculate that inadvertent intravascular vaccine
           | injection may be contributive
        
           | usefulcat wrote:
           | > COVID hasn't been shown to be particularly dangerous to
           | young people...
           | 
           | In the short term yes, in the long term, that is not known.
        
             | putnambr wrote:
             | In addition, ask any young person involved in sports how
             | catching COVID has affected their training and performance.
             | For mostly sedentary people it might feel like catching a
             | bad cold and then recovering. If you're actually
             | consistently pushing your lungs to their max there's
             | definitely long-lasting (maybe not long-term) damage there.
        
               | addingadimensio wrote:
               | Covid hasnt infected the lower respiratory tract since
               | what Delta? come on keep up with the strains.
        
             | addingadimensio wrote:
             | Where is the long-term research that being vaccinated X
             | number of times reduces the long-term damage of getting
             | Covid X number of times you guys are just guessing I mean
             | go for it but please no more fucking vaccine passports you
             | fascist fucks
        
             | ejb999 wrote:
             | >>In the short term yes, in the long term, that is not
             | known.
             | 
             | Same can be said about the vaccine. The full story has not
             | been written yet.
             | 
             | Investigate everything, make it available to the public,
             | let people decide for themselves what to put in their body.
        
           | librish wrote:
           | COVID is much less dangerous to younger people but there are
           | still very real risks involved, especially non-lethal ones.
           | Assuming a 25% probability of catching it, how are you coming
           | to the conclusion that the risk of the vaccine is higher?
        
             | Mikeb85 wrote:
             | > risk of the vaccine is higher?
             | 
             | I said within a certain demographic... For old people, the
             | vaccine is obviously worth it. Boys/men from age 10-30,
             | probably not. Hell, a bunch of EU countries literally
             | stopped giving young people the Moderna vaccine:
             | 
             | https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/11/10/germany-
             | f...
        
               | librish wrote:
               | Yes, I'm asking within the demographic of say 20-50 how
               | are you coming to the conclusion that the risk is not
               | worth it?
        
           | kitsunesoba wrote:
           | > Remember, COVID hasn't been shown to be particularly
           | dangerous to young people...
           | 
           | Having seen the impact of covid on young family members and
           | others in my extended social circles, I believe that there's
           | a long tail of effects that we won't be able to see the full
           | picture of for years to come. There's a lot more that should
           | be considered in the decision than just risk of death.
        
             | seydor wrote:
             | But the vaccine does not help with those effects, and
             | importantly it doesnt prevent infection.
        
             | mikem170 wrote:
             | I'm a numbers guy. I happened to just stumble onto this
             | article [0], summarizing a study on the vaccines and long
             | covid:
             | 
             | > Compared to an unvaccinated individual, the risk of long
             | Covid in a fully vaccinated individual was cut by only
             | about 15 percent, the study found.
             | 
             | > Dr. Greg Vanichkachorn, director of the Mayo Clinic's
             | Covid Activity Rehabilitation Program in Rochester,
             | Minnesota, who was not involved with the new study, said
             | the results were not "too surprising."
             | 
             | > "We know that the majority of folks with long Covid have
             | not had severe infections," he said.
             | 
             | Not very much help against long covid on average, nothing
             | like the protection against hospitalizations in vulnerable
             | populations.
             | 
             | [0] https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/vaccines-
             | offer-li...
        
             | CadmiumYellow wrote:
             | Something I've been wondering about: has anybody tried to
             | separate out the effects of the pandemic itself from the
             | symptoms of long covid? So many of the symptoms of long
             | covid are incredibly nonspecific. I believe there was a
             | study on long covid patients that found that the only long
             | covid symptom that had a significant correlation with
             | actually having tested positive for covid was loss of smell
             | and taste. There is a lot of evidence that social isolation
             | and sedentary lifestyles are detrimental to our health and
             | we now live in a world where loads of people barely left
             | the house or spoke to anyone other than their immediate
             | family members for the better part of two years. We're
             | seeing widespread effects throughout society in everything
             | from education to crime to the amount of violent incidents
             | on airplanes. It's likely that millions of people who do
             | not have long covid are currently in some form of mental
             | health crisis related to the pandemic. Overdose deaths and
             | suicides are up.
             | 
             | I'm not suggesting that long covid doesn't exist, but I
             | wonder how much of that long tail of effects can actually
             | be causally linked to covid infection (obviously not
             | talking about things like lung damage, though I do wonder
             | if stress and isolation could have affected previously
             | healthy people's immune systems). My personal experience
             | with mental health issues suggests that they can have
             | severe and wide-ranging physical effects that are as bad as
             | any disease.
        
           | geraneum wrote:
           | > If you choose to get the vaccine, the probability is 1
           | 
           | Curiously, probability of what specifically is 1 in that
           | case? I am assuming by 1 you mean 100%, right?
        
             | Mikeb85 wrote:
             | SMH
        
           | putnambr wrote:
           | From OC:
           | 
           | > wouldn't you need to balance the risk of death /
           | complications from the vaccine against the risk of death /
           | complications from covid multiplied by the risk of getting
           | covid?
           | 
           | For certain demographics the probability of getting infected
           | might be that low, but at least in every social young adult I
           | know, the risk is averaged to well over 1.0. I've been
           | infected twice, before and after the jab, and in both cases
           | the infection was worse (months of recovery, VO2Max
           | reduction) than the acute vaccine side effects (weekend of
           | feeling shitty). Pre-vaccine I'd say it took around 5 months
           | to fully feel recovered, e.g. able to run a 4-miler without
           | feeling like passing out, where-as post-vaccine and prior
           | infection I was well recovered at the 6-week mark.
        
             | addingadimensio wrote:
             | Wow that's so scientific considering those are completely
             | different strains of Covid and one infection you got immune
             | naive and one you got after an infection and a vaccination.
             | It's so clear as mud
        
             | AnimalMuppet wrote:
             | > but at least in every social young adult I know, the risk
             | is averaged to well over 1.0.
             | 
             | But the rate of being _vaccinated_ is also over 1.0, since
             | people keep getting boosters.
        
         | torstenvl wrote:
         | > _to be a reasonable choice to not want to take the vaccine
         | wouldn 't you need to balance the risk of death / complications
         | from the vaccine against the risk of death / complications from
         | covid multiplied by the risk of getting covid_
         | 
         | No.
         | 
         | Reasonable people make choices _all the time_ that don 't bear
         | out under a cost-risk-benefit analysis like you propose. Those
         | choices are still reasonable, despite perhaps not being
         | strictly rational.
         | 
         | And certainly not as a matter of public policy. The value of
         | individual freedom of choice is inherent unless there's an
         | overwhelming and compelling reason to violate it.
         | 
         | There is far, _far_ greater danger in society forcing issues of
         | bodily autonomy to a vote than there is in someone eating too
         | much sugar.
        
           | eftychis wrote:
           | The choices are acceptable, not reasonable. At least by the
           | strict definition of reasonable -- we seem to be changing
           | that definition similar to the world "literally."
           | 
           | > The value of individual freedom of choice is inherent
           | unless there's an overwhelming and compelling reason to
           | violate it.
           | 
           | This is a slippery slope easily. People should be given the
           | choice.
           | 
           | And as people we have also the choice to judge people on
           | their choice's results.
           | 
           | Especially if it causes other people to die. Right now we
           | have failed as humanity at least 6,637,512 people and
           | counting.
        
           | delecti wrote:
           | The comment you replied to didn't mention mandates of any
           | sort. It started with:
           | 
           | > For it to be a _reasonable choice to not want_ to take the
           | vaccine
           | 
           | "Basically everyone should get the vaccine" is a meaningfully
           | different statement from "we should force people to get the
           | vaccine".
           | 
           | Also, whether a _person_ can be reasonable while making
           | unreasonable choices isn 't really the point either. The most
           | reasonable option on this particular choice for the
           | overwhelming majority pretty clearly seems to be to get the
           | vaccine. It is similarly disingenuous to move the goal posts
           | from "the most reasonable _decision_ is to get the vaccine "
           | to " _you are an unreasonable person_ to not get the vaccine
           | ".
        
             | torstenvl wrote:
             | No. Reasonable decisions are literally defined as "what a
             | reasonable person would do." What is disingenuous and
             | dishonest is moving goal posts from "a reasonable choice"
             | to "the _most reasonable_ decision. "
             | 
             | It's true that the post didn't mention mandates, but any
             | time a group of people are putting themselves in the
             | position to decide whether a person's individual choice
             | about their own body is "reasonable" or not, you are pretty
             | damn mandate-adjacent.
        
           | librish wrote:
           | My question wasn't about public policy or mandates, I'm
           | asking what data an individual is looking at to come to the
           | conclusion that not getting vaccinated is the right choice.
        
             | kyleyeats wrote:
             | I swore off getting it after the very first instance I
             | heard of someone getting covid after the vaccine. That was
             | my only data point.
        
         | stainablesteel wrote:
         | yeah that's reasonable, and a perfect way to do it is to go by
         | age groups
         | 
         | covid is hurting/killing people who are weak, elderly, and
         | immunocompromised. So covid is the bigger worry here, they
         | should get vaccinated
         | 
         | young kids mostly don't even notice they have covid, and young
         | people in general, ~<30 y/o, don't have any issues from covid.
         | So the vaccine is a bigger risk, and the natural immunity they
         | gain from getting the disease is more advantageous than the
         | vaccine ever would be for their demographic
        
         | chedca21 wrote:
         | The risk: benefit analysis that supports vaccination is
         | considering the earliest standards of care we had which were
         | criminally misguided - no steroids allowed, plug patient
         | respiration up with a machine to not spread the virus ,
         | 
         | These protocols are what killed people mostly and ultimately
         | they are what is being used to justify universal
         | recommendations for a vaccine.
        
         | josephcsible wrote:
         | > multiplied by the risk of getting covid
         | 
         | Wouldn't you actually multiply by (the risk of getting covid
         | without the vaccine, minus the risk of getting covid with the
         | vaccine)?
        
         | bobobob420 wrote:
         | Im not a skeptic but has to do with the mandate. Has to do with
         | distrust in government, corporations, etc. not fully honest
         | conversations about vaccine etc ..
        
         | CodeWriter23 wrote:
         | No I don't need to balance anything based on your criteria. I
         | and I alone decide what goes into my body. Anyone who is scared
         | to walk outside and face hundreds of thousands of pathogens on
         | a daily basis should remain at home. If you want a vaccine, go
         | ahead and get one.
        
           | pg314 wrote:
           | Thankfully your attitude wasn't prevalent in previous
           | generations or polio and smallpox would still be rampant.
        
         | daneel_w wrote:
         | Every person I've asked (here in Sweden) who opted out of
         | COVID-19 vaccination made their decision based on one year of
         | case data covering the two first waves, which to them concluded
         | that statistically they were at no risk based on their age and
         | health status. Despite taking e.g. tetanus boosters, TBC
         | vaccine etc., they are still being referred to as
         | "antivaxxers".
        
           | librish wrote:
           | At no risk for what?
        
         | LarryMullins wrote:
         | > _For it to be a reasonable choice to not want to take the
         | vaccine wouldn 't you need to balance the risk of death /
         | complications from the vaccine against the risk of death /
         | complications from covid multiplied by the risk of getting
         | covid?_
         | 
         | Reasonable is subjective. I got the covid vaccine and had no
         | concern for side effects. But I, like most people, don't bother
         | getting the flu shot every year and I think that's perfectly
         | reasonable despite me having no qualms about side effects. I
         | simply don't care about the flu. Not getting the flu shot is
         | one less reoccurring chore in my life that I don't have to
         | bother with.
        
       | kaio wrote:
       | Key takeaway:
       | 
       | >>The reported incidence of (epi-)myocarditis after vaccination
       | is low and the risks of hospitalization and death associated with
       | COVID-19 are stated to be greater than the recorded risk
       | associated with COVID-19 vaccination [29].
        
         | mizzack wrote:
         | "stated" is an interesting choice there, especially when using
         | "recorded" a few words later. It reads as being a bit
         | untrusting of the COVID death numbers.
        
           | hammock wrote:
           | Are the covid death numbers trustworthy? (honest Q)
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | They're probably low, if anything.
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undercounting_of_COVID-19_pan
             | d...
             | 
             | The chart on https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/exc
             | ess_deaths.htm shows _all cause_ deaths before and during
             | the pandemic; there 's an _extremely_ clear difference, and
             | it coincides closely with the spikes in COVID cases we 've
             | seen.
             | 
             | This method of reporting avoids all the complexities around
             | "died with COVID" vs "died of COVID", people who never get
             | tested before dying, etc.
        
               | hammock wrote:
               | >it coincides closely with the spikes in COVID cases
               | we've seen.
               | 
               | Aren't there about 100 other confounders that could be in
               | the mix there
        
               | joshuahedlund wrote:
               | If it was one general noisy correlation, I would agree.
               | But there are multiple spikes that go up and down and
               | match almost precisely with the multiple waves of covid,
               | persisting through many shifts in other factors (like
               | downstream effects of different levels of lockdown) with
               | almost no change in the trends for all other deaths
               | beside it. It's about as close of a correlation as you
               | can ever hope for with real-world data.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | Which of them do you propose would cause the American
               | public (and others worldwide; we see excess deaths
               | increased everywhere, whether they required masking or
               | closed schools or did very little to mitigate) to
               | suddenly start dying in significantly higher numbers -
               | again, of _any_ cause - for the last two years - and
               | especially so at the same time large COVID waves are
               | occurring?
        
               | flutas wrote:
               | > Which of them do you propose would cause the American
               | public (and others worldwide; we see excess deaths
               | increased everywhere, whether they required masking or
               | closed schools or did very little to mitigate) to
               | suddenly start dying in significantly higher numbers -
               | again, of any cause - for the last two years - and
               | especially so at the same time large COVID waves are
               | occurring?
               | 
               | I can give one example, which happened to my dad...
               | 
               | "Sorry, we have to reschedule that surgery to remove the
               | tumor because we're anticipating a covid spike and need
               | the bed availability."
               | 
               | Repeat until he died due to cancer spreading.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | That sort of thing is relatively trivial to tease out of
               | the stats, because in addition to excess deaths we have
               | per-disease statistics as well.
               | 
               | See the chart about 2/3 down on https://www.healthsystemt
               | racker.org/brief/covid-19-continues..., titled "Average
               | daily deaths in the United States, by cause (2020 -
               | Present)". We don't see a massive spike in other causes
               | of death (including cancer, which is a flat line at
               | ~1,600/day throughout), and no one's likely to
               | misidentify a cancer or heart attack death on a death
               | certificate.
               | 
               | There are certainly cases like your dad's, where delayed
               | screenings and treatment had individual impacts, but none
               | of the stats available to us show this explaining a
               | meaningful amount of the 1.3M excess deaths observed.
        
         | nyolfen wrote:
         | the more interesting unaddressed question is, _for whom_? i am
         | a young-ish healthy person, i have basically no risk of ending
         | up in the hospital for covid. what is the risk tradeoff for
         | people similar to me, rather than an abstraction of the entire
         | population? what is the risk tradeoff for a young child, who
         | effectively has zero risk of serious covid?
        
           | aaomidi wrote:
           | Why do people keep thinking young people have no risk of
           | ending up in the hospital for Covid? So many people have, and
           | so many have died?
        
             | rednerrus wrote:
             | ~26,000 people under 30 have died of COVID since the
             | epidemic began.
        
               | nyolfen wrote:
               | how many of them had an existing underlying condition?
               | the broad numbers suggest ~85%
               | https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e3.htm
        
             | nyolfen wrote:
             | statistically, it is extremely unlikely[0] for an otherwise
             | healthy young person to end up in the hospital for covid,
             | much like myocarditis -- i am simply interested in which is
             | more likely for specific population subsets
             | 
             | [0] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/figures/mm6915e3
             | -F1.g... -- from
             | https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e3.htm
        
               | eli wrote:
               | The numbers are so small that it is hard to say --
               | several long-term studies are ongoing. All the evidence
               | suggests the risk of Covid is far greater. I'm sure you
               | know this, but covid causes significantly more cases of
               | myocarditis than the vaccine.
        
               | rednerrus wrote:
               | The vaccine isn't preventing COVID, it's just limiting
               | symptoms. Does it lower the risk of myocarditis from
               | COVID?
               | 
               | I just looked. The Vaccine doesn't lower your risk of
               | getting myocarditis if you still become infected by
               | COVID.
        
             | addingadimensio wrote:
             | Because it's true
        
           | mikeyouse wrote:
           | That's not even the complete question though -- because by
           | all accounts, Covid actually results in a higher incidence of
           | myocarditis than the vaccine does.. Given the tenor of the
           | conspiracy theories here, the landscape of questions is too
           | nuanced for HN I guess. Ideally, the vaccine recommendation
           | would weigh:
           | 
           | Incidence and seriousness of myocarditis (ISM) naturally / in
           | absence of covid or vaccine, ISM following vaccine, ISM
           | following Covid, ISM after being vaccinated but later
           | catching Covid, relative risk of death / or the other litany
           | of problems following unvaccinated covid infection, same but
           | with vaccinated covid infection and the increased chances of
           | avoiding infection after being vaccinated.
           | 
           | It's possible that vaccines are leading to more myocarditis,
           | covid is certainly leading to more myocarditis, most cases of
           | myocarditis are undetected and resolve on their own with no
           | health impact at all.. as expected, weird antivaxxers are
           | harping on point 1 to the detriment of anyone actually
           | interested in public health.
        
             | nwienert wrote:
             | Not true for men under 40, myocarditis higher from vaccine.
        
           | CharlesW wrote:
           | > _what is the risk tradeoff for a young child, who
           | effectively has zero risk of serious covid?_
           | 
           | This is only true if you consider death the only "serious"
           | outcome. Around 25% of children and adolescents who get
           | COVID-19 will get "long COVID", with long-term effects we've
           | just begun to understand. Plenty of "young-ish healthy
           | people" have suffered debilitating effects.
        
             | blub wrote:
             | Vaccines don't make a major difference against Long Covid.
             | 14-25% reduction in risk I read.
             | 
             | At this efficiency level they're not an adequate preventive
             | measure.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | nyolfen wrote:
             | surprisingly high! how many of those children were
             | vaccinated?
        
         | kyleyeats wrote:
         | It's actually a non sequitur because you can still get Covid
         | after getting the vaccine. It's not an either/or at all, and in
         | fact most people who got the vaccine did get Covid.
        
           | ROTMetro wrote:
           | But had lower incidence of hospitalization.
        
       | kaio wrote:
       | Key takeaway:
       | 
       | >>The reported incidence of (epi-)myocarditis after vaccination
       | is low and the risks of hospitalization and death associated with
       | COVID-19 are stated to be greater than the recorded risk
       | associated with COVID-19 vaccination [29].
       | 
       | I hope the research continues to make it even more safe.
        
       | danhak wrote:
       | We coerced young, low-risk people into receiving these treatments
       | despite known side effects on pain of losing their education or
       | employment or being able to enter privately-owned establishments
       | (irrespective of the wishes of the owners of those privately-
       | owned establishments).
       | 
       | We justified it with the specious argument that they were putting
       | _other people_ at undue risk by remaining unvaccinated. We
       | claimed that vaccinated people would not spread the virus.
       | 
       | And we gave the companies producing these vaccines blanket legal
       | immunity from any potential liability.
        
         | Eisenstein wrote:
         | We require young people to get vaccinated as a rule in order to
         | obtain education. Every medical intervention involves risks. So
         | does taking a shower or taking the bus to school. We all have
         | to take risks and some of them are mandated for the good of
         | society.
         | 
         | There were very good indications that the vaccine would prevent
         | spread.
         | 
         | Public policy decisions which cost lives are not unusual and
         | although tragic, are often necessary. For instance should we
         | use the entire yearly budget of a hospital to cure one child,
         | or let that child die in order to fund daily operations? These
         | questions have no 'right' answer and no matter what was decided
         | there is going to be criticism and errors which result in less
         | than optimal or even tragic outcomes.
         | 
         | Looking back in hindsight and using the knowledge we now have,
         | I would say that the biggest errors made during the pandemic by
         | public policymakers (besides disbanding the pandemic team and
         | having a leader who was looking at everything in the lens of a
         | what was personally good for him at that moment) was in
         | messaging.
         | 
         | If we can use this to craft a better way to handle public
         | messaging in the future then perhaps we can avoid a lot of the
         | negative societal effects which we are now dealing with --
         | specifically lack of trust in scientific institutions, division
         | based on ideology and not evidence, and the spread and enabling
         | of conspiratorial thinking.
        
           | adamiscool8 wrote:
           | >We all have to take risks and some of them are mandated for
           | the good of society.
           | 
           | What are some other risky and irreversible interventions
           | mandated upon the individual for the good of society?
        
             | lrem wrote:
             | Schools spring to mind.
        
             | Eisenstein wrote:
             | Anything we allow parents to do to or for their children or
             | force their children to do qualifies.
        
               | adamiscool8 wrote:
               | We generally don't allow parents to force risky
               | irreversible things onto their children. But also, the
               | view of all citizens as simple children of the State
               | seems...problematic.
        
               | Eisenstein wrote:
               | > We generally don't allow parents to force risky
               | irreversible things onto their children.
               | 
               | We absolutely do, but that is a completely different
               | conversation.
               | 
               | If that doesn't work for you I am sure you can't object
               | to conscription as a societal burden.
               | 
               | Where are you going with this line of discussion? Or did
               | you just want me to think of something that wasn't
               | medical?
        
           | addingadimensio wrote:
        
             | Daishiman wrote:
        
           | blue039 wrote:
           | > We require young people to get vaccinated as a rule in
           | order to obtain education. Every medical intervention
           | involves risks. So does taking a shower or taking the bus to
           | school. We all have to take risks and some of them are
           | mandated for the good of society.
           | 
           | Absolutely insane take. A virtually untested vaccine with
           | questionable testing practices and curious ties to certain
           | donors of senators is not the same thing as getting your MMR
           | or taking a shower.
           | 
           | Insane. Absolutely insane. I hope you never have a chance to
           | drive policy even in your own neighborhood. We rushed a
           | vaccine with untested technology out and gave it to everyone
           | without even a curious eye waved over the test results. Every
           | death is on the FDAs hands. It is one thing to say the
           | elderly and infirm should take this risk. To give this risk
           | to otherwise healthy students is borderline homicidal.
           | 
           | Downvote me all you want apologists. There are 70,000 pages
           | from Pfizer that have yet to be reviewed. I'm sure it'll be a
           | watergate level controversy. HN is a literal clown factory of
           | psuedo-intellectual idiots.
        
             | dang wrote:
             | Could you please not fulminate and call names in HN
             | comments? You can make your substantive points without any
             | of that, and it would be in your interest, because comments
             | like this only discredit your viewpoint.
             | 
             | I realize how frustrating it is to hold a minority view,
             | but why hand people flaming reasons to dismiss you? All it
             | does is weaken your own position, and you're poisoning the
             | ecosystem by doing it. You can weaken your position if you
             | want to, but it's not ok to poison the ecosystem.
             | 
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
           | hammock wrote:
           | >There were very good indications that the vaccine would
           | prevent spread.
           | 
           | Now that we know that to be not true, do you support removing
           | the covid jab from the schedule required in school?
        
             | Eisenstein wrote:
             | I do not have children so I have no stake in the matter and
             | I do not feel that Id am sufficiently informed about the
             | particulars at this point to have an opinion.
        
               | mikem170 wrote:
               | I happened to stumble across this [0], on the
               | effectiveness of a third covid vaccination for 18-29 year
               | olds, while looking for recent (omicron) studies
               | quantifying how well vaccines keep people out of
               | hospitals, and thought I'd pass it along:
               | 
               | > To prevent one COVID-19 hospitalisation over a 6-month
               | period, we estimate that 31207-42836 young adults aged
               | 18-29 years must receive a third mRNA vaccine. Booster
               | mandates in young adults are expected to cause a net
               | harm: per COVID-19 hospitalisation prevented, we
               | anticipate at least 18.5 serious adverse events from mRNA
               | vaccines, including 1.5-4.6 booster-associated
               | myopericarditis cases in males (typically requiring
               | hospitalisation). We also anticipate 1430-4626 cases of
               | grade >=3 reactogenicity interfering with daily
               | activities (although typically not requiring
               | hospitalisation). University booster mandates are
               | unethical because they: (1) are not based on an updated
               | (Omicron era) stratified risk-benefit assessment for this
               | age group; (2) may result in a net harm to healthy young
               | adults; (3) are not proportionate: expected harms are not
               | outweighed by public health benefits given modest and
               | transient effectiveness of vaccines against transmission;
               | (4) violate the reciprocity principle because serious
               | vaccine-related harms are not reliably compensated due to
               | gaps in vaccine injury schemes; and (5) may result in
               | wider social harms. We consider counterarguments
               | including efforts to increase safety on campus but find
               | these are fraught with limitations and little scientific
               | support.
               | 
               | As an fyi, I also bumped into stats saying that it was
               | something like 5-6 times less likely for vaccinated
               | people to end up in the hospital (although most people
               | who end up in the hospital are elderly), and vaccinations
               | seem to confer only 15% benefit against long covid. I was
               | hoping to find something breaking hopsitalization down by
               | age and comorbidities in addition to vaccination status,
               | but have had no luck so far.
               | 
               | [0] https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2022/12/05/jme-2022
               | -108449
        
         | prpl wrote:
         | it's not entirely likely the dead were at a low-risk of death
         | by the actual virus
        
         | gwd wrote:
         | You know what also causes myocarditis? COVID-19 [1].
         | 
         | So the choices were:
         | 
         | 1. Don't pressure young people to get vaccinated. Nearly
         | everyone who's unvaccinated eventually catches COVID-19. Some
         | of them would have severe reactions and die; or spend time in a
         | hospital, taking up space and delaying care for others, causing
         | those other people to die. Nearly all of them would pass
         | COVID-19 on to other people, many of whom would be older and
         | die. Some of them would develop myocarditis and die.
         | 
         | 2. Pressure young people to be vaccinated for COVID-19. Some of
         | them would develop myocarditis and die.
         | 
         | #2 is strictly better than #1.
         | 
         | Sometimes in life there are no good options; only not-so-great
         | options and very bad options.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.beaumont.org/health-
         | wellness/blogs/myocarditis-r...
        
           | ccn0p wrote:
           | One of the cruxes of the issue is what constitutes
           | "pressure". Should we block children from going to school in
           | order to "pressure" them forcing the risk of #1 on them
           | rather than allowing parents to make their own choices?
        
           | addingadimensio wrote:
           | You still get Covid after you are vaccinated. Fun fact if you
           | are vaccinated before you catch Covid you cannot develop an
           | immunity to the nucleocapsid is this good is this bad I don't
           | know tune in in 10 years when we know more
        
             | udp wrote:
             | _> if you are vaccinated before you catch Covid you cannot
             | develop an immunity to the nucleocapsid_
             | 
             | Do you have a reference?
        
           | RansomStark wrote:
           | That's not necessarily the case, if fact it might be the
           | exact opposite.
           | 
           | 1. Don't pressure young people to get the vaccine, some will
           | end up in hospital, some will die.
           | 
           | 2. Pressure young people to get the vaccine and 6 times as
           | many of them end up in hospital from the vaccine, taking up
           | more space, and putting more pressure on the system [0], some
           | of them will die [1][2]
           | 
           | [0] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.212628
           | 66v...
           | 
           | [1] https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-
           | news/tragedy...
           | 
           | [2] https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/death-
           | boy-14-three-...
        
             | Daishiman wrote:
        
         | lanstin wrote:
         | As we also coerce babies into screening for various diseaaes
         | and for vax against the diseases that afflict societies without
         | this science. That is how it works. That is why we mostly don't
         | die from infectious diseases for the first time since we built
         | cities.
        
           | gfodor wrote:
           | Not for an emergency use drug that doesn't maintain herd
           | immunity for a disease that is minimally harmful to children
           | and is under immense selective pressure to break out of the
           | vaccine.
           | 
           | Maybe you've got a bad mental model because of the word
           | "vaccine." This is not a vaccine of the kind we give
           | children, in terms of what it prevents and the extent of data
           | and knowledge we have of its side effects.
        
             | spacefracas wrote:
             | This is incorrect. Of the vaccines that are given to
             | children, none prevent infection. All significantly prevent
             | disease and death.
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | This feels like pure revisionism. The purpose of the
               | vaccination programs for children is not to prevent
               | severe disease or death, though that is a nice benefit.
               | The purpose, and manifested effect, is to maintain
               | population herd immunity due to the fact these vaccines
               | radically reduce the chance of the child acting as a
               | vector. The consequence is a vastly reduced incidence
               | rate across the whole population due to this network
               | effect vs a scenario with no mandate. This was widely
               | understood to be the ethical justification for mandating
               | these vaccines: it led to a collective benefit,
               | counterfactually preventing massive suffering across many
               | individual, a benefit which outweighs the risk to the
               | individual from taking these drugs. This fundamental
               | premise is entirely not the case for this vaccine
               | program, which does not come close to helping with herd
               | immunity for a disease we now acknowledge is endemic, and
               | also happens to have a wildly different relative risk
               | profile for children vs the other vaccines we mandate.
        
         | Ensorceled wrote:
         | > We claimed that vaccinated people would not spread the virus.
         | 
         | Who is "we", I have never seen anything other the claims that
         | there were claims. Can you point me to an epidemiologist that
         | made this claim.
         | 
         | > And we gave the companies producing these vaccines blanket
         | legal immunity from any potential liability.
         | 
         | We have ALWAYS given vaccine companies blanket legal immunity.
         | This isn't a new thing and there are good reasons for it.
        
           | hammock wrote:
           | >Who is "we", I have never seen anything other the claims
           | that there were claims. Can you point me to an epidemiologist
           | that made this claim.
           | 
           | https://twitter.com/guccibase/status/1488297386208378889
           | 
           | Included in the video: Rochelle Walensky, Monica Gandhi
        
             | Ensorceled wrote:
             | Ah, by "we", you mean politicians.
             | 
             | These clowns are also all saying it's 100% effective which
             | was known to be false from day 1.
        
               | hammock wrote:
               | You asked for an epidemiologist. I gave you two of the
               | world's foremost practicing infectious disease experts :
               | Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, Mass General chief of
               | Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital;
               | and Monica Gandhi MD, MPH, Associate Chief of the
               | Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine
               | at UCSF.
               | 
               | It seems you're being intellectually dishonest
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | Monica Gandhi has been _repeatedly_ wrong, claiming herd
               | immunity in India right before somewhere between 1-3
               | million died, to the point of having to apologize for it.
               | https://twitter.com/MehdiHasanShow/status/148940441066927
               | 719...
        
           | addingadimensio wrote:
        
           | simonsarris wrote:
           | Do you truly not remember? That was exactly the claim made at
           | the start of vaccination. From December 2020:
           | 
           |  _Fauci Predicts U.S. Could See Signs Of Herd Immunity By
           | Late March Or Early April_
           | 
           | https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-
           | updates/2020/1...
           | 
           | > "I would say 50% would have to get vaccinated before you
           | start to see an impact," Fauci said. "But I would say 75 to
           | 85% would have to get vaccinated if you want to have that
           | blanket of herd immunity."
           | 
           | Months later, May 2021:
           | 
           |  _Masks off? Fauci confirms 'extremely low' risk of
           | transmission, infection for vaccinated_
           | 
           | https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/dr-fauci-confirms-
           | extreme...
        
         | scarmig wrote:
         | Why should the companies be held liable? This was a government
         | project enforced by the gun; the companies didn't force anyone
         | to take their vaccines, and there's not a way they could have
         | made them meaningfully safer given the timelines.
        
           | burner990 wrote:
           | My employer wouldn't let me go to the office or even any
           | offsites or outdoor actives (i.e. a picnic) until _very_
           | recently. (Despite my approved religious exemption and
           | "requiring" all employees to work in the office).
           | 
           | If that isn't coercion to take an experimental vaccine i
           | don't know what is.
        
             | curiousgal wrote:
             | > _approved religious exemption_
             | 
             | The wording is a telltale sign that the exemption is pure
             | BS.
        
               | TheCrownedFox wrote:
               | You might not like that the exemption exists, but it's
               | legal in the USA. Would you rather that religious beliefs
               | were not respected by the government?
        
               | oneoff786 wrote:
               | I would prefer the government was completely indifferent
               | to religious beliefs. Because any belief can be construed
               | as religious if you're willing to take the position that
               | religion is stupid and you don't care about optics.
               | 
               | So yeah, I would prefer beliefs not garner you special
               | privileges
        
               | TheCrownedFox wrote:
               | What special privileges are being garnered? The topsy-
               | turvy world of the religious person existing as the
               | exception rather than the rule is quite odd to me. But
               | regardless, in the USA the religious exemption policy is
               | incredibly diverse and welcoming, you are correct on
               | that. You do not even need to communicate with your God
               | in expressible ways to other people. What should be the
               | limit on someone's divine communication and the
               | restrictions upon the government they live under?
        
               | oneoff786 wrote:
               | > What special privileges are being garnered?
               | 
               | The exemption
               | 
               | > What should be the limit on someone's divine
               | communication and the restrictions upon the government
               | they live under?
               | 
               | None. But your definition of divine communication should
               | not override otherwise unrelated rules.
        
               | TheCrownedFox wrote:
               | I would posit that the special privilege has been given
               | to the non-religious, in that they have been able to
               | openly discriminate against religious people in violation
               | of existing laws.
               | 
               | I would suggest looking into the EEOC regulations
               | mentioned by someone else in this thread and Title VII of
               | the 1964 civil rights act.
        
               | oneoff786 wrote:
               | By posting that you have discriminated against my
               | religious beliefs. So you're just as bad as an offender.
               | So it's really a moot point.
        
               | TheCrownedFox wrote:
               | Is it your position then that it's either your personal
               | belief or a divine communication from your God that the
               | government should be able to discriminate based on
               | religious beliefs, against existing human rights
               | legislation?
        
               | burner990 wrote:
               | That's the legal wording from EEOC[1]. I'll chalk up your
               | religious prejudice to ignorance.
               | 
               | [1]: https://www.eeoc.gov/wysk/what-you-should-know-
               | about-covid-1...
        
             | lazyasciiart wrote:
             | Seems reasonable to me. They want everyone to be at the
             | office and vaccinated, but they're not allowed to fire you
             | because "religion", so they made special accommodations to
             | let you continue working without making all of their other
             | employees have to be around you. You appear to be mad that
             | your "exemption" wasn't enough to make them pretend you
             | were vaccinated?
        
               | burner990 wrote:
               | But no accommodation to go to the company (outdoor)
               | events and hear talks from the executives?
               | 
               | > You appear to be mad that your "exemption" wasn't
               | enough to make them pretend you were vaccinated?
               | 
               | I had blood test proof of antibodies but its just about
               | "feel goods".
               | 
               | And they didn't require boosters, just the first 2 doses
               | from over a year ago, so yes its non-sensical and purely
               | political (not based on science).
        
             | threeseed wrote:
             | a) I wouldn't class it as experimental when hundreds of
             | millions of people have taken it.
             | 
             | b) It sounds like your employer did the right thing to
             | balance your rights versus those of the people you work
             | with.
        
               | addingadimensio wrote:
               | If an experiment is big enough it becomes a statistic
        
           | krona wrote:
           | Then why did most of them sell it for profit?
        
       | marsven_422 wrote:
        
       | someweirdperson wrote:
       | > Of note, it has been recently reported that intravenous
       | injection of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is able to induce an acute
       | (epi-) myocarditis in a preclinical model
       | 
       | There have been lots of vaccinations shown in various TV reports
       | over the last years. Watching carefully, there's two different
       | variants: a) jab, aspirate, inject, b) jab, inject. Maybe it is
       | just stock footage and not from covid shots, and everyone has
       | been checking carefully for not finding blood?
        
       | lame-robot-hoax wrote:
       | Note: the ages in this study ranged from 46 to 75 for those who
       | died.
        
       | SnowProblem wrote:
       | Why is it so hard to find data showing how often people are
       | dying, no matter the cause, broken down by vaccination status and
       | age? Surely that would help clear things up. Lots of countries
       | publish COVID-19 mortality rates which show benefits for
       | vaccinated but that's really not helpful for understanding
       | overall risk of vaccines. The UK is the only country I could find
       | that publishes this data and unless I'm missing something things
       | look really bad. Table 2 in [1] shows a 2-3x higher mortality
       | rate for vaccinated vs. unvaccinated in almost all groups this
       | year. Perhaps the unvaccinated are healthier on average, maybe,
       | but 2-3x healthier? Yeah, don't think so. What's going on?
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde....
        
       | fallenasleep wrote:
       | This meta analysis cited in the OP is good for context:
       | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9000914/
       | 
       | >"The overall incidence of myopericarditis from 22 studies (405
       | 272 721 vaccine doses) was 33*3 cases (95% CI 15*3-72*6) per
       | million vaccine doses, and did not differ significantly between
       | people who received COVID-19 vaccines (18*2 [10*9-30*3], 11
       | studies [395 361 933 doses], high certainty) and those who
       | received non-COVID-19 vaccines (56*0 [10*7-293*7], 11 studies [9
       | 910 788 doses], moderate certainty, p=0*20). Compared with
       | COVID-19 vaccination, the incidence of myopericarditis was
       | significantly higher following smallpox vaccinations (132*1
       | [81*3-214*6], p<0*0001) but was not significantly different after
       | influenza vaccinations (1*3 [0*0-884*1], p=0*43) or in studies
       | reporting on various other non-smallpox vaccinations (57*0
       | [1*1-3036*6], p=0*58). Among people who received COVID-19
       | vaccines, the incidence of myopericarditis was significantly
       | higher in males (vs females), in people younger than 30 years (vs
       | 30 years or older), after receiving an mRNA vaccine (vs non-mRNA
       | vaccine), and after a second dose of vaccine (vs a first or third
       | dose)."
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | gfodor wrote:
        
         | theteapot wrote:
         | I really do believe myocarditis is an issue with the mRNA
         | vaccines, but how can you claim both "Many died" and "First we
         | need an accurate death count"? How do you know many died if
         | there is not an accurate count?
        
         | littlestymaar wrote:
         | I'm not sure why you'd want a trial, since you've already
         | decided its outcome. In reality all you want is a lynching.
        
         | kyleyeats wrote:
         | Before all that let's discontinue our demonization of the
         | unvaccinated.
        
           | decremental wrote:
           | They'll just hate people who didn't get the covid vaccine for
           | not getting memed into it.
        
           | gfodor wrote:
           | Where is that still happening? (Genuine q)
        
             | hammock wrote:
             | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05607-y
             | 
             | > We find evidence in support of discriminatory attitudes
             | against the unvaccinated in [nineteen different countries
             | including the US]
             | 
             | > Findings suggest that...the vaccinated react with
             | discriminatory attitudes against...the unvaccinated. Elites
             | and the vaccinated general public appealed to moral
             | obligations to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake but the
             | present findings suggest that discriminatory attitudes
             | including support for the removal of fundamental rights
             | simultaneously emerged
        
             | fein wrote:
             | In the USA on a government level? No idea, at least it
             | isn't a thing around where I live, but I also sit at home
             | and get paid to write software. No idea what applying for
             | jobs in some industries might look like.
             | 
             | On the social level? People have fractured families over it
             | and/or forced(you can't see your grand children unless
             | you're vaxxed, for example)/coerced family members into
             | getting it despite their otherwise refusal. I still know
             | people who won't let non vaccinated people come over for
             | events. It's a much rarer thing now, but the damage has
             | been done.
        
               | MrMan wrote:
               | I think it's an excellent sorting mechanism
        
               | zhrvoj wrote:
               | Division bell...
        
               | LarryMullins wrote:
               | Yep. I'm now estranged from half my extended family
               | because of the awful way they treated my unvaccinated
               | brother. They invited him to visit for Thanksgiving,
               | knowing he was unvaccinated and saying it was okay. Then
               | after he drove 8 hours to visit, they changed their mind
               | and wouldn't let him into their house. They gave him a
               | sandwich and told him to eat it on the porch. They're
               | dead to me after that.
        
             | kyleyeats wrote:
             | Unvaccinated people can't go to a good school, join the
             | military or enter the country.
        
         | klipt wrote:
         | I think you're jumping the gun a bit here. If vaccines save
         | 10,000 people and kill 10 people, that's still a net positive.
         | That's the kind of moral calculus public health has to deal
         | with all the time.
        
           | moralestapia wrote:
           | That's good, but what about forcing people to take it?
        
           | krona wrote:
           | The age stratified risk was known almost a year before
           | needles entered the arms of teenagers.
        
           | boredumb wrote:
           | Yes but does the government have the ability to coerce or
           | force you to do something with a '1 in 1000' death rate, if
           | not, what is the number we are allowing in the name of public
           | health.
        
           | chedca21 wrote:
           | The vaccines confer an antibody response, which isn't all
           | that important in terms of combating disease: "Antibodies
           | that offer protection'? Let's pause right here. When was it
           | ever proven that antibodies offer protection? In fact, the
           | opposite has been observed. Don't we remember another
           | prominent scientist (and a Nobel Prize winner in 1960) Sir
           | Frank Macfarlane Burnet telling us the following regarding
           | the role of antibodies (or rather lack thereof) for immunity
           | in children who lacked antibody production due to a genetic
           | condition called agammaglobulinemia:
           | 
           | "To everyone's surprise [children with agammaglobulinemia]
           | showed a normal measles course with a typical rash which
           | faded at the normal time and was followed by just as
           | substantial immunity against reinfection as would be shown by
           | any other convalescent. Antibody production is therefore not
           | necessary either for recovery from or for the development of
           | immunity to measles." (Burnet and White. Natural History of
           | Infectious Disease. Cambridge University Press, 1940) "
           | 
           | https://www.tetyanaobukhanych.com/blog/should-you-be-
           | afraid-...
           | 
           | FDA could have used T-cell expression as a standard of
           | efficacy but chose not to despite knowing antibodies were
           | being over sold as hallmarks of immunity.
           | 
           | Tetyana Obukhanych is a doctor of immunology from Rockefeller
           | NYU. Pharma companies spun up multiple "blogs" to smear her
           | when she started speaking out.
        
             | Narretz wrote:
             | If what you are saying is true, then the whole mechanism of
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humoral_immunity is not
             | working. So the human body maintains a complete system that
             | produces useless antibodies?
        
               | manwe150 wrote:
               | What he is saying is not true. The large vaccine trials
               | have always been about testing the effectiveness at
               | combating disease directly (measuring rates of reported
               | illness or hospitalization), with antibody titers used as
               | a quick secondary check. His comment assumes the reverse
               | happened. We still know surprisingly little about how
               | long antibodies are measurable in the blood and for how
               | long and how effective they are at what prevalence rate,
               | etc.
        
           | brodouevencode wrote:
           | (I don't disagree with your sentiment, fwiw)
           | 
           | For 1.5 years we had the notion of "1 death is 1 too many"
           | shoved down our throats at every turn to justify some pretty
           | heinous encroachments on personal freedom.
        
             | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
             | Is that really it? Over 1 million American's have died so
             | far. That seems like it warrants some efforts to mitigate.
        
               | brodouevencode wrote:
               | I never said that any mitigation was unnecessary. There
               | is a such thing as going overboard. There are still
               | outdoor areas that are closed off despite there being no
               | credible cases of outdoor transmission.
               | https://www.latimes.com/projects/california-coronavirus-
               | case...
        
           | gfodor wrote:
           | I'm not jumping the gun - the net deaths can be negative yet
           | it is still the case that what we witnessed was a massive,
           | arguably unprecedented failure of medical ethics, the defense
           | of body autonomy, the scientific process, the culture of
           | healthy skepticism and debate, and basic decency and
           | opposition to dehumanization campaigns. All due to fear and
           | righteousness, as it often is.
        
             | AlexandrB wrote:
             | If the numbers come out that net deaths are sharply
             | negative, do you think we should similarly condemn those
             | that spread fear and misinformation about the safety and
             | efficacy of the vaccine? Or are "skeptics" immune from
             | repercussions for their actions in this case?
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | The former group has been condemned, banned, ostracized,
               | and dehumanized. To the degree any of them were acting on
               | bad faith or in violation of their oaths, yes they should
               | be condemned.
               | 
               | But the deepest crimes lie elsewhere, by those in power
               | who coerced others into taking drugs they did not want,
               | who used ends-justify-the-means reasoning to violate
               | ethics as physicians or public health officials, and who
               | now continue to try to suppress, deflect, and gaslight us
               | from recognizing the real events which actually occurred
               | and which we are morally obligated to correct for our
               | children.
        
               | AlexandrB wrote:
               | Agree to disagree, I guess. I'd rather give the benefit
               | of the doubt to those acting on the best information
               | available at the time rather than "influencers" raising
               | "concerns" based on nothing but their gut instincts.
               | 
               | Or to put it another way, how many vaccine skeptics were
               | pushing for the heavy use of masks, better HVAC systems
               | in buildings, and social distancing when possible?
               | Because I've noticed a large correlation between those
               | that spoke out against vaccines and those that spoke out
               | against _any_ preventative measures at all - regardless
               | of how benign.
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | You're just cherry picking - there have been plenty of
               | people raising basic concerns about the bioethics of
               | mandating an emergency use medicine using a new
               | technology for a rapidly evolving respiratory virus.
               | There have also been prominent public officials saying
               | things like "the unvaccinated cannot be trusted." You
               | should not let tribalism get in the way of seeing the
               | full picture of what happened.
        
               | chedca21 wrote:
               | Did their stances actually contribute to public health
               | policy, if so then they bare responsibility
               | unfortunately. Armchair biosecurity advocates should be
               | left off the hook.
        
             | manwe150 wrote:
             | I would agree with klipt: why were so many influential
             | figures allowed to spread disinformation based apparently
             | on misunderstanding mathematics, the scientific process,
             | and just caring about general health and welfare?
             | 
             | It was said once that 5 deaths is a tragedy, but 500k is
             | just a statistic (as a justification of genocide). This is
             | possibly why the 5 deaths in the article possibly from the
             | vaccine is apparently more terrifying.
        
           | whitepaint wrote:
           | > If vaccines save 10,000 people and kill 10 people, that's
           | still a net positive.
           | 
           | You need to take age into account, no?
        
             | lame-robot-hoax wrote:
             | In this study the ages ranged from 46 to 75 For those who
             | died.
        
       | jeffbee wrote:
       | I was reading it open-mindedly but the use of "jab" is pretty
       | suspicious. Anyone found using this term can be pretty much
       | dismissed outright, right?
        
       | fxtentacle wrote:
       | These are very low numbers with only 5 vaccine+death cases found
       | in an area with 8mio citizens.
       | 
       | But they convincingly argue that accidentally injecting the
       | vaccination into the bloodstream towards the heart may cause a
       | heart infection similar to those seen in people who got sick with
       | Covid.
        
       | nluken wrote:
       | "Interestingly, we recorded inflammatory foci predominantly in
       | the right heart, which may suggest a gradual blood-stream derived
       | dilution effect and based on this finding it is at least tempting
       | to speculate that inadvertent intravascular vaccine injection may
       | be contributive."
       | 
       | Does this indicate that the authors believe aspirating the
       | vaccine during administration would reduce the risk of
       | myocarditis? I don't have a biological background so I would be
       | interested in hearing someone else's take on this but that
       | sentence seems to indicate that the authors think ensuring
       | correct administration would lower the risk of post-vaccine
       | complications (which from what I've seen, remains low but non-
       | zero). If that's the case, then perhaps the issue isn't as much
       | with the vaccine itself as how it's being administered.
        
         | gfodor wrote:
         | For a long time this theory always made the most sense to me,
         | and frankly I assume I must just be missing something since
         | it's so obviously criminal if there was a chance this was true
         | that it wasn't blasted from the rooftops from the CDC (for the
         | public to help correct it when they got their vaccine.)
        
         | hammock wrote:
         | Yes. Complication from jab administration is something that has
         | been widely discussed (not widely reported though). The
         | clinical trials were supposed to show that the jab (and
         | therefore the mRNA, and the resultant spike protein generated,
         | which is known to be toxic) stayed in the muscle local to the
         | injection site.
         | 
         | What is widely speculated is that on some not-insubstantial
         | portion of injections, the jab makes it into the bloodstream.
         | This would explain why we see spike protein collecting in the
         | heart, reproductive organs and other parts of the body.
         | 
         | And because of how the jab works - inducing spike protein
         | genesis as well as an immune response - when the immune system
         | finds spike protein on the cells that are creating it (supposed
         | to be just your arm muscle but ends up being your heart and
         | other things), it starts attacking those cells. Which leads to
         | inflammation, blood clots, etc.
        
           | thehappypm wrote:
           | I wonder if a similar mechanism is responsible for the blood
           | clotting risk with the J&J shot, which uses a viral delivery
           | mechanism.
        
           | CadmiumYellow wrote:
           | This is extremely fascinating to me as a layperson. Can you
           | explain how this effect would be unique to mRNA? Like, could
           | you get a flu shot and end up with some of the inactivated
           | flu virus spreading around the body and sticking to other
           | organs? Or is the spike protein collecting in other organs
           | solely because the mRNA is telling those cells to produce it,
           | whereas with a typical vaccine the dead virus could get into
           | the bloodstream but it would simply float around the body
           | without piling up anywhere til it's taken out by the immune
           | system?
        
           | dontwearitout wrote:
           | A nurse friend of mine raised this as a concern. The protocol
           | for intramuscular injections used to be (and in some places
           | still is) to draw the plunger back a bit first to verify that
           | you're in muscle, and haven't hit a small vein. If you pull
           | blood, you find new spot.
           | 
           | In practice this doesn't happen for covid vaccines, and her
           | personal hypothesis was that many of the adverse reactions
           | (myocarditis, or just being hit hard) were due to the vaccine
           | partially being administered into a vein.
        
         | nradov wrote:
         | One mouse study found that not aspirating when injecting the
         | vaccine did increase the risk of myocarditis.
         | 
         | https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab707
         | 
         | That research hasn't been reproduced in humans but it's worth
         | further study. Currently the CDC recommends against aspiration,
         | primarily due to pain.
        
       | athenot wrote:
       | What this article does describe, is _how_ the fatal  "adverse
       | events" take place. It's useful to deepen our understanding of
       | the mechanisms of action for undesireable outcomes. And of course
       | it's one piece of a much larger puzzle.
       | 
       | Some seem to be interpreting this article as a confirmation that
       | vaccines are inherently not safe. The thing is, _every_ therapy,
       | whether preventative or curative carries an element of risk. This
       | paper is not weighing on the relative safety of the immunization.
       | 
       | To someone uncomfortable with the vaccine, this is of course
       | unsettling to discuss, as it reinforces a fear. It's akin to
       | discussing how exactly people's organs got smashed when they got
       | killed by getting ran over by a bus. People who distrust busses
       | will further cement their fears about them.
        
       | nulld3v wrote:
       | I am vaccinated but I am upvoting this post because I believe
       | that it is important to investigate these cases to determine how
       | to improve future vaccines. I really don't like how this topic
       | seems to be treated like some fringe conspiracy theory. Maybe it
       | is just a conspiracy, but we won't ever know until sufficient
       | research has been done.
       | 
       | Currently, I still believe that people should vaccinate, even if
       | vaccines cause mortality/harm in some cases. As long as vaccine
       | side effects cause less deaths and less harm than the virus,
       | vaccination is still the way to go.
       | 
       | My position depends on us having a good understanding of the
       | vaccine's effects however, and right now I feel like we don't.
        
         | 2devnull wrote:
         | Yes, it's never either or. For one good example of the
         | complexity, see this video [1] where Paul Offit notes the
         | problems with the current bivalve that vaccines.
         | 
         | [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-v_vXMI91nw
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | blub wrote:
         | The association between heart problems and mRNA vaccines is a
         | settled matter - outside social media at least.
         | 
         | The Paul Ehrlich institute which is monitoring vaccine side-
         | effects has a nice detailed report on vaccine safety with
         | details on heart problems and all sorts of other things.
         | 
         | Most affected are men and male teens between 12-17 and
         | Moderna's causing more problems than Biontech. This was the
         | main reason why the German vaccination committee recommended
         | that men under 30 get Biontech.
        
         | gregcrv wrote:
         | Has there been any plan to compensate victims of the vaccines?
         | either deaths or heart inflammation or other side effects? Any
         | plan to approve and understand vaccine's effects should also
         | come with proper system to compensate and acknowledge the
         | risks.. But I feel that this has been avoided from the start to
         | remove any liability.
        
         | ycombinete wrote:
         | I agree with you, there's a weirdly political zealotry when it
         | comes to such things.
         | 
         | I took the Sinopharm vac as I felt hesitant to take what I
         | considered to be brand new tech in the MRNA vaccines (I ended
         | up taking the MRNA one as well but that was for travel reasons
         | where I live). And people online acted like I was a conspiracy
         | theorist, for preferring the tried and tested tech of the
         | traditional vaccine.
        
         | vfclists wrote:
         | > Standardized autopsies were performed on 25 persons who had
         | died unexpectedly and within 20 days after anti-SARS-CoV-2
         | vaccination. In four patients who received a mRNA vaccination,
         | we identified acute (epi-)myocarditis without detection of
         | another significant disease or health constellation that may
         | have caused an unexpected death.
         | 
         | Myocarditis was found in 4 out of 25 people who had received
         | the vaccine and died within 25 days of it, and none had showed
         | any sign of related disease.
         | 
         | What are the odds of any 4 out 25 people in the age range of
         | the group with no record of any related illness having acute
         | myocarditis?
         | 
         | It is so typical of HN that your vapid comment should rise to
         | the top.
         | 
         | > Currently, I still believe that people should vaccinate, even
         | if vaccines cause mortality/harm in some cases. As long as
         | vaccine side effects cause less deaths and less harm than the
         | virus, vaccination is still the way to go.
         | 
         | Where is the evidence of this, given that many governments have
         | withdrawn the vaccines or even banned for them for young
         | people, a category you probably fall into?
        
           | nulld3v wrote:
           | > What are the odds of any 4 out 25 people with no record of
           | any related illness dying of myocarditis.
           | 
           | Note that I'm not saying vaccines do not cause myocarditis,
           | I'm saying that even if vaccines may cause myocarditis but
           | cause fewer myocarditis cases than COVID deaths, then it is
           | still worth vaccinating.
           | 
           | > Where is the evidence of this, given that many governments
           | have withdrawn the vaccines or even banned for them for young
           | people, a category you probably fall into?
           | 
           | Hence my next sentence right?
           | 
           | > My position depends on us having a good understanding of
           | the vaccine's effects however, and right now I feel like we
           | don't.
           | 
           | That said, although I didn't mention it in my comment, my
           | current understanding of the statistics does make me believe
           | that the vaccine causes less cases of myocarditis than COVID
           | deaths.
        
         | t0bia_s wrote:
         | There is a lot of studies on this topic. Somehow not covered in
         | media. Which makes me even more curious.
         | 
         | Gill J.R. et al: Autopsy Histopathologic Cardiac Findings in 2
         | Adolescents Following the Second COVID-19 Vaccine Dose, Arch
         | Pathol Lab Med (2022) 146 (8):925-929
         | https://meridian.allenpress.com/aplm/article/146/8/925/47778...
         | 
         | Risks of myocarditis, pericarditis, and cardiac arrhythmias
         | associated with COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infectionhtt
         | ps://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01630-0#Aff1
         | 
         | Vaccine-Associated Myo/Pericarditis in Adolescents: A
         | Stratified Risk-Benefit Analysis
         | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13759
         | 
         | Schauer J. et al: Persistent Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging
         | Finfings in a Cohort of Adolescents with Post-Coronavirus
         | Disease 2019 mRNA Vaccine Myopericarditis, The Journal of
         | Pediatrics, March 25, 2022
         | https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(22)00282-7/fulltext
         | 
         | Chua G.T.et al: Epidemiology of Acute Myocarditis/Pericarditis
         | in Hong Kong Adolescents Following Comirnaty Vaccination, Clin
         | Infect Dis 2022, Sep 10. 75(4):673-681
         | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34849657/
         | 
         | Le Vu S.et al: Age and sex-specific risks of myokarditis and
         | pericarditis following Covid-19 messenger RNA vaccines, Nat
         | Commun, 2022, 13:3633, 25 Jun 2022
         | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9233673/
         | 
         | Goddard K.et al: Risk of myokarditis and pericarditis following
         | BT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccination, Vaccine 2022, Aug
         | 19, 40(35): 5153-5159
         | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9273527/
         | 
         | https://www.sst.dk/en/english/corona-eng/vaccination-against...
         | 
         | Bardosh K.et al: COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters for Young Adults: A
         | Risk-Benefit Assessment and Five Ethical Arguments against
         | Mandates at Universities, 12 Sep 2022, preprint
         | https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4206070
         | 
         | Oster M.E. et al: Myocarditis Cases Reported After mRNA-Based
         | COVID-19 Vaccination in the US From December 2020 to August
         | 2021, JAMA 2022,327(4):331-340, 25 Jan 2022
         | https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2788346
         | 
         | Lai F.T. et al: Carditis After COVID-19 Vaccination With a
         | Messenger RNA Vaccine and an Inactivated Virus Vaccine, Ann Int
         | Med, March 2022
         | https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/M21-3700?rfr_da...
         | 
         | Massari M. et al: Postmarketing active surveillance of
         | myokarditis and pericarditis following vaccination with
         | COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in persons aged 12 to 39 years in Italy:
         | A multi-database, self-controlled case series study, Plos
         | Medicine, July 2022 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34849657/
         | 
         | SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination and Myocarditis in a Nordic Cohort Study
         | of 23 Million Residents
         | https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/...
         | 
         | Age and sex-specific risks of myocarditis and pericarditis
         | following Covid-19 messenger RNA vaccines
         | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31401-5
        
           | asdf123wtf wrote:
           | What does "not covered in media" mean to you?
           | 
           | While this topic doesn't dominate the news cycle, I've seen
           | plenty of reporting on it.
        
         | kodyo wrote:
         | If you're over 80, you should probably get vaccinated.
        
         | manwe150 wrote:
         | I agree it is good we keep funding studies to try to better
         | understand and predict the effects of the vaccines. What would
         | it mean to feel like we have a good understanding though? How
         | would we quantify "god"? We have observed that the side-effects
         | have minimal deviation from the normal variations observed in
         | the population for those effects. And we also know it is highly
         | dependent on individual characteristics as to who exhibits the
         | worst side-effects or best antibody response.
        
           | nulld3v wrote:
           | > What would it mean to feel like we have a good
           | understanding though? How would we quantify "god"?
           | 
           | That is a hard question and honestly I don't have the
           | knowledge to answer it.
           | 
           | > We have observed that the side-effects have minimal
           | deviation from the normal variations observed in the
           | population for those effects. And we also know it is highly
           | dependent on individual characteristics as to who exhibits
           | the worst side-effects or best antibody response.
           | 
           | Yeah, I get that the vaccine can cause side effects for a
           | very small minority of the population. I think what I want is
           | for vaccine side-effects to be treated more like plane
           | crashes. I get that bad things happen, but if it isn't cost-
           | prohibitive, I would like to know why these things happened,
           | even if they happen extremely rarely.
        
         | vannevar wrote:
         | The problem here isn't the study---of course we should study
         | possible vaccine side effects. The problem is the massive leaps
         | of logic being made by people who have (quite wrongly, based on
         | available evidence) become convinced that the vaccines are a
         | greater threat to healthy people than the virus is. As unlikely
         | as it is that an otherwise healthy young person will die from
         | covid, it is even less likely that they'll die from a vaccine
         | side effect. That's just a statistical fact at this point, we
         | have millions of both covid cases and vaccinations to back that
         | up.
         | 
         | This study looked at 25 cases of unexpected death in people
         | aged 46-75 and found 5 cases of myocarditis. Without any
         | control group to compare to, there is literally nothing that
         | can be drawn from this study about the risk presented by the
         | vaccine, and the authors admit as much:
         | 
         | "The nature of our autopsy study necessitates that the data are
         | descriptive in quality and does not allow any epidemiological
         | conclusions in terms of incidence or risk estimation."
        
           | sudden_dystopia wrote:
           | They are making these leaps of logic because people have
           | refused to look into it...
        
           | encryptluks2 wrote:
           | There is a lot of evidence that the system to report vaccine
           | injuries is largely ignored and people that report issues are
           | ostracized for doing so. It also begs to question how often
           | injuries would go unreported or misreported because of the
           | difficulties of being linked to the actual cause, and many
           | doctors may be unwilling to claim a vaccine caused an injury
           | just due to the stigma around vaccine injuries, especially in
           | regards to COVID-19.
        
             | Daishiman wrote:
             | I really hope you're not talking about VAERS, because
             | that's about the flimsiest mechanism you could conceive.
        
           | skissane wrote:
           | > The problem is the massive leaps of logic being made by
           | people who have (quite wrongly, based on available evidence)
           | become convinced that the vaccines are a greater threat to
           | healthy people than the virus is.
           | 
           | In some cases, it may well be true that the vaccine is a
           | greater risk than the virus. For example, in Australia, the
           | official recommendation is that healthy people under 30 _not_
           | receive a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine, since Australian
           | health officials believe the risk from vaccine side effects
           | (such as myocarditis) in that age group outweighs the risk of
           | COVID-19 itself. [0] Furthermore, for healthy people in the
           | 30-49 age group, the official Australian position on fourth
           | doses is  "permitted but not recommended", since it is
           | unclear if the risk of COVID-19 is greater than that of the
           | vaccine. This is different from the recommendations made by a
           | number of other countries (US, UK, Canada, Singapore), but it
           | appears Australian health authorities weigh the risk of
           | vaccination side effects versus the risk of COVID-19
           | differently than they do.
           | 
           | [0] https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-you-won-t-get-
           | another-co...
        
             | blub wrote:
             | I've been watching the vaccine discussions on HN these
             | years and one can see that too many people are stuck
             | fighting vaccination windmills from days gone by, while
             | downplaying vaccine risks which by now are established and
             | continue to be investigated as this publication shows.
             | 
             | Meanwhile many EU countries have understood that heart
             | problems are a real risk and have adjusted recommendations
             | accordingly. They've also stopped obsessing about
             | vaccinating people.
             | 
             | The vaccination crusade's dead folks, please stand by for
             | the next pandemic.
        
               | failuser wrote:
               | So you argue that you should increase the risk of death
               | or disability by COVID by not vaccinating. Got it.
        
               | throw4659261 wrote:
               | Pfizer really has you in the palm of their hand lmao
        
               | meindnoch wrote:
               | It's the paradox of intelligence: smart people are more
               | prone to fight tooth and nail, and do all kinds of mental
               | gymnastics, rather than to admit that they too have been
               | misled. People of average or below average intelligence
               | tend to accept it much more easily.
               | 
               | I don't know if there's already a name for this
               | phenomenon...
        
               | marvin wrote:
               | Would love to see the incidence of this by IQ. My
               | intuition says it spikes in slightly smarter-than-average
               | folks.
        
             | wsc981 wrote:
             | Denmark doesn't recommend COVID vaccines anymore to anyone
             | under 50 who is not at risk or work in health sector [0].
             | 
             |  _> People aged under 50 are generally not at particularly
             | higher risk of becoming severely ill from covid-19. In
             | addition, younger people aged under 50 are well protected
             | against becoming severely ill from covid-19, as a very
             | large number of them have already been vaccinated and have
             | previously been infected with covid-19, and there is
             | consequently good immunity among this part of the
             | population._
             | 
             | ------
             | 
             | [0]: https://sst.dk/en/English/Corona-eng/Vaccination-
             | against-cov...
        
               | birken wrote:
               | While I think it is certainly fair to talk about the
               | policies of other countries, I don't think just because
               | another country has a different policy necessarily
               | dictates that policy is better or worse.
               | 
               | Additionally, I think it's very easy to see something
               | like "Denmark doesn't recommend the vaccines to anybody
               | under 50" and conflate that it means that Denmark doesn't
               | think vaccines were ever beneficial to people under the
               | age of 50 (which is the leap in logic you often see on
               | anti-vax sites). But that isn't the case. What was good
               | health policy in 2021 is different from good health
               | policy now, because we have way more information about
               | the virus, better and more effective drug to treat it,
               | new variants, etc.
               | 
               | Two things can be true at the same time: The vaccines are
               | (on net) incredibly beneficial to people and the
               | population as a whole, and yet at the present time there
               | are certain specific populations of people whose optimal
               | number of doses might be fewer than others.
        
               | skissane wrote:
               | > While I think it is certainly fair to talk about the
               | policies of other countries, I don't think just because
               | another country has a different policy necessarily
               | dictates that policy is better or worse.
               | 
               | Sure. But if a person is aware that other countries have
               | different policies, that gives them a legitimate reason
               | to question whether the policy of their own country is
               | correct. If a person looks into the matter, and decides
               | not to follow the recommendations of their own
               | government, because they think some other country's
               | government is more likely to have got it right, such a
               | person isn't necessarily being
               | irrational/irresponsible/etc, nor would it necessarily be
               | irrational/irresponsible/etc for them to share their
               | conclusion with others.
               | 
               | > and conflate that it means that Denmark doesn't think
               | vaccines were ever beneficial to people under the age of
               | 50 (which is the leap in logic you often see on anti-vax
               | sites)
               | 
               | Yes, many people do seem to conflate these two claims:
               | 
               | (1) "for healthy children and young people, the safety
               | risk of _additional_ doses of the vaccine _currently_
               | outweighs the risk of COVID-19 "
               | 
               | (2) "for healthy children and young people, the safety
               | risk of _any_ dose of the vaccine has _always_ outweighed
               | the risk of COVID-19 "
               | 
               | While the claim (1) is disputed, some highly respected
               | medical experts agree with it; the same cannot be said
               | for claim (2).
               | 
               | However, I think this conflation goes in both directions
               | - some people who want to defend (2) do so by conflating
               | it with (1); but conversely, some people attack (1) by
               | conflating it with (2).
               | 
               | Some people can't distinguish _reasonable_ scepticism
               | about vaccinations from _unreasonable_ scepticism.
        
           | kyleblarson wrote:
           | I think a lot of the resentment comes out of "the experts"
           | changing their narratives a dozen times about the efficacy of
           | the vaccines over the last 3 years while browbeating anyone
           | who voiced any amount of skepticism.
        
             | ajross wrote:
             | I see this point so often that it's sort of become a
             | shibboleth for identifying political affiliation. And I
             | still don't really understand it. Have the experts ever
             | been saying anything significantly different than "get your
             | shot"? Have they ever been wrong about that? No on both
             | counts, right?
             | 
             | I'm genuinely curious what you mean here about "changing
             | their narratives a dozen times about the efficacy of the
             | vaccines"?
        
               | kyleblarson wrote:
               | "two weeks to flatten the curve", "if you get the vaccine
               | you won't get covid", "the vaccine is 95% effective",
               | "the vaccine is 80% effective", "the vaccine is 50%
               | effective", "well you'll still get covid but you won't
               | spread it to others", "well actually you can spread it to
               | others"
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | These people also seem to ignore that CIRCUMSTANCES HAVE
               | CHANGED QUITE A BIT over the entire pandemic. Of COURSE
               | recommendations made when the vaccine first came out
               | might need to be modified or updated as more gets learned
               | about possible side effects and how it interacts with
               | different variants.
               | 
               | These people never seem to have a problem with the
               | changes in the polio vaccine over the years, or
               | chickenpox
        
               | mcronce wrote:
               | They also like to yell and scream about how "science
               | can't make up its mind"
               | 
               | Yes, because that's how science works. When new
               | information is acquired, new hypotheses are created and
               | tested.
        
               | gjsman-1000 wrote:
               | People were literally fired from their jobs, removed from
               | 30+ year military careers, over _the science_ , only for
               | _the science_ to keep changing.
               | 
               | If science can't make up its mind and this is "how
               | science works," anyone who thinks anything should be
               | mandated based on science should be shot. You can't tell
               | people something, have it directly and deeply affect
               | their personal lives, then tell them something
               | substantially different 2 years later, without people
               | grabbing pitchforks. Your theoretical definition of
               | science is irrelevant and makes popular perception of
               | "science" a whimsical joke.
        
           | claytongulick wrote:
           | Many other people have replied with great information, but
           | I'm going to respectfully disagree with:
           | 
           | > The problem is the massive leaps of logic being made by
           | people who have (quite wrongly, based on available evidence)
           | become convinced that the vaccines are a greater threat to
           | healthy people than the virus is.
           | 
           | I believe the problem is that we were so convinced that our
           | solution to covid was infallible that we removed a basic
           | human right: the ability to make informed choice about your
           | medical care.
           | 
           | I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I believe that most people
           | involved did this out of a genuine desire to save lives and
           | help people.
           | 
           | The issue is the hubris.
           | 
           | The idea that "I know better than you do what's good for you
           | and for society, so I'm going to force you to do a thing".
           | 
           | This is where we went wrong. The forcing.
           | 
           | If we'd presented vaccination as informed choice, had
           | recommendations but not coercion, I think there would have
           | been a lot less resistance.
           | 
           | We decided that public health was a trump card that allowed
           | us to ignore almost every civil liberty the U.S. was founded
           | on.
           | 
           | We actively limited speech and debate, going to far as to
           | silence and destroy the lives and careers of qualified
           | physicians who dissented.
           | 
           | We restricted freedom of assembly.
           | 
           | We seized property through forced business closing without
           | compensation.
           | 
           | We restricted free movement.
           | 
           | We coerced vaccination in the strongest possible ways shy of
           | physical force.
           | 
           | The list goes on.
           | 
           | We did this out of a hubris that "we know better than you".
           | 
           | It doesn't really matter whether this is true or not, it's
           | fundamentally anti-liberal.
           | 
           | It's made worse by the unfortunate fact that in most cases we
           | were wrong.
           | 
           | Asymptomatic spread wasn't a thing. The initial studies that
           | said it was were based on flawed methodology. Even China
           | isn't counting asymptomatic cases anymore.
           | 
           | Pretty much every model that we based policy off of,
           | predicting extreme fatality rates and recommending
           | extraordinary interventions, were dead wrong.
           | 
           | As others have pointed out, mortality counts were wildly off
           | due to many factors, including how death certificates were
           | filled out (died with covid v/s died from covid).
           | 
           | The vulnerable populations were identified fairly early on,
           | but we chose to implement draconian restrictions for
           | everyone, regardless of their individual risk.
           | 
           | This was the problem.
           | 
           | Hubris.
        
             | TrispusAttucks wrote:
             | Yep.
             | 
             | Fuck authoritarians!
             | 
             | Never forget.
        
           | addingadimensio wrote:
        
             | addingadimensio wrote:
             | Wow down votes and no fucking refutations of the Central
             | point I can tell I'm surrounded by liberals
        
               | dang wrote:
               | We've banned this account for using HN primarily for
               | ideological battle. You can't do that here, and yes that
               | rule holds regardless of which ideology you're battling
               | for or against. It's not what this site is for, and
               | destroys what it is for. Please don't create accounts to
               | break HN's rules with.
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
           | tempsy wrote:
           | Ok, so if you believe your chance of dying of covid is
           | improbably small due to age and overall health, why is it
           | necessary to be vaccinated even if there's only a small
           | chance of side effects? Rare is not zero.
           | 
           | I don't even take OTC pain killers like advil unless I
           | absolutely feel like I have to.
        
             | vannevar wrote:
             | Because a) the risk from covid, while small, is still
             | greater than the risk from the vaccines and b) unvaccinated
             | people are more likely to be infected and become a vector
             | for the virus, infecting other people.
        
               | commandlinefan wrote:
               | > unvaccinated people are more likely to be infected and
               | become a vector for the virus
               | 
               | I've read conflicting accounts of whether that's true or
               | false, but even if it is - what difference does it make?
               | We're not going to reach heard immunity here. Everybody's
               | going to get it, several times throughout their lives, no
               | matter what we do at this point.
        
               | dtauzell wrote:
               | Is there any evidence for (b)? My understanding is that
               | you are just as likely to get vaccinated and "shed" the
               | virus for just as long, but are less likely to be
               | severely sick.
        
               | mtillman wrote:
               | I think you mean "get sick" which is untrue. You are less
               | likely to get sick if vaccinated. You are also less
               | likely to experience severe symptoms if vaccinated.
               | https://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/preventive-
               | care/va...
        
               | bryanlarsen wrote:
               | Your understanding is wrong. Vaccinated and unvaccinated
               | people with symptomatic COVID shed at comparable rates,
               | but vaccinated people are less likely to get symptomatic
               | COVID. The difference wanes considerably if your last
               | shot was > 6 months ago, but is still present.
        
               | bscphil wrote:
               | > unvaccinated people are more likely to be infected and
               | become a vector for the virus, infecting other people.
               | 
               | I'd add to this the fact that it was especially true
               | earlier in the pandemic, and at that time COVID was
               | significantly more likely to be fatal. Even if someone
               | rejects the idea of getting a fourth dose of the vaccine
               | (rightly or wrongly), it's possible to think that the
               | first two doses were an entirely reasonable one-time
               | intervention into an ongoing pandemic that saved many
               | thousands of lives.
        
             | jszymborski wrote:
             | [deleted, I retract my statement]
        
               | tempsy wrote:
               | Myocarditis literally has it's own page on the CDC covid
               | vaccine website https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov
               | /vaccines/safety/my...
        
             | driggs wrote:
             | Because vaccination prevents you from spreading covid to
             | others, whose risk of dying may be higher than yours.
             | 
             | Choosing not to take Advil affects nobody but you. Choosing
             | not to get vaccinated against a highly-contagious virus
             | affects _society_.
        
               | nradov wrote:
               | Vaccination has only limited and temporary effects in
               | reducing the risk of transmission. I would encourage
               | everyone eligible to protect themselves by getting
               | vaccinated but this does very little to prevent it from
               | spreading in _society_.
               | 
               | https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2116597
        
               | woodruffw wrote:
               | Spread is just one social effect. I think the GP meant
               | that there are plenty of other civic motivations, like
               | not overloading medical institutions and minimizing the
               | extent to which society needs to be halted to prevent
               | particularly harmful spread.
        
               | nradov wrote:
               | By all means I would encourage everyone eligible to get
               | vaccinated. But there was never any valid reason to halt
               | society in the first place, so your comment is a _non
               | sequitur_.
               | 
               | Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was routine for
               | medical institutions to be overwhelmed by respiratory
               | viruses. We didn't halt society, we just accepted the
               | consequences and moved on.
               | 
               | https://time.com/5107984/hospitals-handling-burden-flu-
               | patie...
               | 
               | https://peterattiamd.com/covid-19-current-state-omicron/
        
               | woodruffw wrote:
               | There's a significant difference in kind between "a nasty
               | cold or flu season" and the excess mortality rate we've
               | seen during COVID, particularly earlier in the
               | pandemic[1].
               | 
               | There's no non sequitur here: getting vaccinated reduces
               | every demographic's risk of serious illness (even when
               | serious illness is not especially likely!), which in turn
               | reduces the burden on healthcare institutions. That is a
               | _good civic_ reason to get vaccinated that has nothing to
               | do with transmission.
               | 
               | [1]: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_de
               | aths.htm
        
               | vfclists wrote:
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | > Because vaccination prevents you from spreading covid
               | to others...
               | 
               | I agree with your general point, but to be clear, it
               | likely _reduces_ your chances of doing that, to some
               | extent. It does not _prevent_ you from spreading COVID.
        
               | bryanlarsen wrote:
               | Those two sentences are equivalent, not contradictory. We
               | commonly say that condoms prevent pregnancy and STD's,
               | but they're not perfect either.
               | 
               | If the vaccine prevents one case of spread while not
               | preventing another, it has still prevented COVID spread.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | "Not perfect" and "has a small impact" aren't the same.
               | If condoms had the same failure rate in preventing
               | STDs/pregnancy as the COVID vaccines do for preventing
               | infection, we wouldn't use them. Luckily, preventing
               | infection isn't the only goal of vaccines, so it's still
               | worth getting for the protection from severe illness and
               | death.
        
               | bscphil wrote:
               | > If condoms had the same failure rate in preventing
               | STDs/pregnancy as the COVID vaccines do for preventing
               | infection, we wouldn't use them.
               | 
               | No? If they were the best form of contraception we had
               | (which is the relevant comparison w.r.t. vaccines), _of
               | course_ people would use them! It would make abstinence
               | marginally more appealing, of course, but there are
               | already people who don 't want or can't afford a
               | pregnancy who unwisely choose to forgo contraception.
               | There would certainly be an enormous number of people who
               | would choose to use condoms rather than forgo sex
               | entirely.
        
               | driggs wrote:
               | If vaccination prevents you from catching covid, _then it
               | has prevented you from spreading covid_ to those you
               | would have otherwise.
               | 
               | If vaccination causes you to experience an early immune
               | response, versus several asymptomatic days while
               | unknowingly contagious, _then it has prevented you from
               | spreading covid_ to some of those you would have
               | otherwise.
               | 
               | If vaccination results in a less severe infection with
               | lower viral load, _then it has prevented you from
               | spreading covid_ to some of those you would have
               | otherwise.
               | 
               | My reply was intentionally simple in order to drive home
               | a point about _selfish_ versus _societal_ viewpoints.
        
             | lamontcg wrote:
             | Because the risk of e.g. dying of myocarditis from the
             | virus still exceeds the risk of dying of myocarditis from
             | the vaccine.
             | 
             | Particularly with the mRNA vaccines there isn't much in the
             | vaccine that isn't in the virus already.
             | 
             | There has to be a name for this fallacy. It is like we're
             | living in the dark ages where contracting covid is just
             | "God's will" and it doesn't count in risk assessments,
             | while no matter how small the risk is of the vaccine that
             | is all that matters.
        
               | amluto wrote:
               | > Particularly with the mRNA vaccines there isn't much in
               | the vaccine that isn't in the virus already.
               | 
               | I don't find this compelling at all. At the very least,
               | the mRNA vaccines have the lipid nanoparticles
               | themselves, and LNPs are quite clearly biologically
               | active.
               | 
               | And the mRNA gets delivered to cells that would not be
               | infected by the actual virus. One might imagine that such
               | cells would be targeted to at some some extent by CD8+ T
               | cells that learn to recognize spike protein. As far as I
               | can tell, there is nothing published examining what
               | actually happens, but you certainly don't end up with
               | massive death of muscle cells when vaccinated. See, for
               | example, the comments here:
               | 
               | https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/mrna-vaccines-
               | what...
        
               | lamontcg wrote:
               | The lipid nanoparticle itself is basically a cell wall
               | and it fuses with your cell wall and deploys its payload.
               | There isn't a lot there. It isn't like the adenovirus
               | capsid that binds to PF-4 and causes the clotting
               | disorders in J&J and ChAdOx1. It would have to be
               | something related to ALC-0315 and/or ALC-0159 and be
               | active in the very tiny quantities which are
               | administered. Those are lipids and it is most likely that
               | they're eventually just disassembled.
               | 
               | > One might imagine that such cells would be targeted to
               | at some some extent by CD8+ T cells that learn to
               | recognize spike protein.
               | 
               | This is exactly what we want to see happen, and you're
               | going to get CD8+ T-cells from the virus as well (and if
               | you don't, then you're going to get very extremely ill).
               | 
               | The tissue distribution is a reasonably good point, but
               | that should be considered in light of the evidence that
               | the virus itself likes to hide out in places like the gut
               | and that liver and gut activation after vaccination may
               | be protective. And if that argument is wrong, that would
               | be an argument to try to produce nasal mRNA vaccines.
               | 
               | And at this point we do have a really massive amount of
               | data on the safety and efficacy of the mRNA vaccines and
               | we're having to sift the data very closely to find
               | effects lower than one in million. Other vaccines perform
               | worse. I think it probably is because we're getting
               | closer and closer to minimalism.
        
               | woodruffw wrote:
               | It's definitely not a standard name, but I call kind of
               | reasoning error "active/passive bias": we're generally
               | much more afraid of risks that manifest from action
               | (mauled by a shark while swimming, getting in a car
               | crash) than inaction (dying of obesity, getting hit by a
               | car on the sidewalk).
               | 
               | In the case of COVID-19: you have to actively get the
               | vaccine, meaning that people overweight its risks
               | relative to the risks latent in not getting it.
        
               | cnelsenmilt wrote:
               | I think you're right, and an additional factor is that
               | the vaccine is tangible and certain where the virus is
               | invisible and may or may not be present in any given
               | situation (and in unknown quantity).
        
               | lamontcg wrote:
               | At its core it may be more that people can't think past
               | binary logic. Either something works or it doesn't work.
               | Either something is perfectly safe or it is too risky.
               | But that doesn't address why they don't apply the same
               | logic to the virus itself (although there are some people
               | on the flip side who still do).
        
               | pexabit wrote:
               | That isn't relevant because there is no evidence that the
               | vaccine reduces your risk of suffering from myocarditis
               | after infection. (It isn't even necessarily true, but
               | that is a separate matter).
        
               | lamontcg wrote:
               | > The risk of COVID-19 infection-related myocarditis risk
               | was cut in half among people infected after vaccination
               | (received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine).
               | 
               | https://newsroom.heart.org/news/myocarditis-risk-
               | significant...
        
               | 2devnull wrote:
               | Based on the original strain. Not that I would want to
               | argue. There are several nations that do not recommend
               | vaccination for younger people. They could be wrong of
               | course, but to be so certain about science of a rapidly
               | changing virus and wave away methodological difficulties,
               | like measuring myocarditis without an autopsy, strikes me
               | as scientifically naive, perhaps bordering on
               | religiosity.
        
               | mhb wrote:
               | _Because the risk of e.g. dying of myocarditis from the
               | virus still exceeds the risk of dying of myocarditis from
               | the vaccine._
               | 
               | It's good to point that out, but the first term needs to
               | be multiplied by the chance of getting the virus.
        
               | bryanlarsen wrote:
               | That's likely a number greater than 1 since there is a
               | really good chance of contracting the disease multiple
               | times.
        
             | ajross wrote:
             | With all respect, this is terrible logic. You have _two_
             | probabilities to compare, not one to compare to zero! If
             | _and only if_ the vaccine is more dangerous then your
             | "improbably small chance of dying of covid", you should
             | forego the vaccination.
             | 
             | Is it? No. It is not. Not even for the best protected
             | youngest cohort. Get your shot. You're being misled by
             | politics and tiny, difficult numbers.
        
             | neuralRiot wrote:
             | > why is it necessary to be vaccinated even if there's only
             | a small chance of side effects? Rare is not zero.
             | 
             | In my case i vaccinated because i knew i was a transmission
             | node in case of being infected and not noticing, potetially
             | endangering multitude of vulnerable people.
        
             | shagie wrote:
             | That first part is a mistaken belief.
             | 
             | There's also a useful metric for the "chance of dying" -
             | it's known as a micromort. Each micromort is a one in a
             | million chance of dying
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort
             | 
             | A fair bit of statistical work has been done on COVID-19
             | and it is summarized in the wikipedia article.
             | AstraZeneca vaccination against COVID-19 - 2.9
             | micromorts[31]         COVID-19 infection at age 10 - 20
             | micromorts         COVID-19 infection at age 25 - 100
             | micromorts         COVID-19 infection at age 55 - 4,000
             | micromorts         COVID-19 infection at age 65 - 14,000
             | micromorts         COVID-19 infection at age 75 - 46,000
             | micromorts         COVID-19 infection at age 85 - 150,000
             | micromorts [32]
             | 
             | Yes, many people survived - but those are not numbers I
             | want to be betting against on a daily basis.
             | 
             | NYT - Putting the Risk of Covid-19 in Perspective Is the
             | risk of dying from Covid-19 comparable to driving to work
             | every day, skydiving or being a soldier in a war?
             | 
             | https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/well/live/putting-the-
             | ris...
             | 
             | > Converting this to micromort language, an individual
             | living in New York City has experienced roughly 50
             | additional micromorts of risk per day because of Covid-19.
             | That means you were roughly twice as likely to die as you
             | would have been if you were serving in the U.S. armed
             | forces in Afghanistan throughout 2010, a particularly
             | deadly year.
             | 
             | Rare is not zero - but if you are risk adverse, then
             | avoiding things that are fairly high up on the risk counter
             | would be reasonable. Likewise, if there are two options
             | (driving in a car vs driving in a motor cycle), taking the
             | one that adds the least amount of additional risk is
             | reasonable.
        
               | nradov wrote:
               | How do those numbers change when you adjust for presence
               | or absence of pre-existing conditions such as obesity and
               | type-2 diabetes?
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | On the scale that micromorts work, that isn't something
               | that it measures well. Micromorts work best for the acute
               | risk "do X and this is your chance of dying." Adding in
               | things that are chronic risks doesn't factor into
               | micromorts well.
               | 
               | Consider "traveling 230 miles by car is 1 micromort"...
               | but that doesn't account for impaired driving or any of
               | the other factors known to influence likelihood or
               | survival of a car crash.
               | 
               | The numbers would likely change if you further specified
               | them, but they are useful for the broad comparisons and
               | risk analysis.
               | 
               | If you've got someone going skydiving every weekend, what
               | does that do to their life insurance rates? Well,
               | skydiving is 8 micromorts per jump. So that's 400
               | micromorts per year. And that goes into some insurance
               | premium cost calculations.
               | 
               | From Wikipedia:
               | 
               | > Micromorts for future activities can only be rough
               | assessments, as specific circumstances will always have
               | an impact. However, past historical rates of events can
               | be used to provide a ball park, average figure.
               | 
               | Another part of this is a study about risk acceptance.
               | 
               | > An application of micromorts is measuring the value
               | that humans place on risk. For example, a person can
               | consider the amount of money they would be willing to pay
               | to avoid a one-in-a-million chance of death (or
               | conversely, the amount of money they would receive to
               | accept a one-in-a-million chance of death). When offered
               | this situation, people claim a high number. However, when
               | looking at their day-to-day actions (e.g., how much they
               | are willing to pay for safety features on cars), a
               | typical value for a micromort is around $50 (in 2009).
               | This is not to say the $50 valuation should be taken to
               | mean that a human life (1 million micromorts) is valued
               | at $50,000,000. Rather, people are less inclined to spend
               | money after a certain point to increase their safety.
               | This means that analyzing risk using the micromort is
               | more useful when using small risks, not necessarily large
               | ones.
               | 
               | That last sentence is an important one when looking at
               | this.
               | 
               | Would you be willing to be paid $150 to get vaccinated?
        
               | ajross wrote:
               | Please don't. What you are doing is called "P-hacking".
               | Yes, if you keep selecting for subsets of a dataset
               | you'll eventually find one that, just due to random
               | chance, looks like a statistically significant result
               | that proves whatever it is you want to see. That's not
               | the way you do science.
               | 
               | As always, xkcd explains it best: https://www.explainxkcd
               | .com/wiki/index.php/882:_Significant
        
               | lurquer wrote:
               | The global risk of death from childbirth is X.
               | 
               | It isn't p-hacking for a dude to inquire what the chances
               | are for the male subgroup.
        
               | nradov wrote:
               | No that's not P-hacking. The majority of US residents
               | have been infected at this point. The sizes of those
               | population groups both with and without serious pre-
               | existing conditions are so huge that there is minimal
               | chance of an incorrect random result.
               | 
               | Your link is not relevant to this issue so I don't know
               | what point you're trying to make.
               | 
               | To be clear I support vaccination. But patients should
               | make their own decisions free of coercion based on
               | informed consent with full knowledge of the risks on both
               | sides. Don't presume to patronize them with spurious, bad
               | faith comments about "P-hacking". Let's see the actual
               | data.
        
               | ajross wrote:
               | Right, you have a hypothesis. But you don't have data.
               | Trying to tease out evidence for your hypothesis from
               | existing data by slicing the data set up is the very
               | definition of p-hacking. If you refuse to believe
               | existing work on the basis of an unmeasured hypothesis,
               | well, that's a different sort of logical fallacy on top
               | of the bad statistics.
               | 
               | And FWIW, if you want a more complete (but _much_ less
               | amusing) explainer on the subject, wikipedia always comes
               | through: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_dredging
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | This is not at all correct. By your definition looking at
               | anything in greater detail is P hacking.
               | 
               | For example, peanut allergies don't exist because most
               | people don't have reactions to them. You absolutely can
               | ask the question for if peanuts are good or bad for a
               | subpopulation.
               | 
               | The alternative is just sticking your head in the sand.
        
               | kbenson wrote:
               | The difference is in the motivations for asking the
               | question and what's done with the answer (so _agenda_ ).
               | People are assuming and agenda of others in this thread,
               | and are crafting responses to head of that perceived
               | agenda without actually answering the question, which is
               | rarely productive, IMO. Better to _ask_ than _assume_ ,
               | or if the answer is known, provide it with a caveat that
               | it doesn't actually support the specific cases you're
               | worried it might be used for erroneously.
        
               | asterix_pano wrote:
               | I would not call "P-Hacking" wishing to know the stats of
               | the group you're in, especially if there are significant
               | differences between groups.
        
               | vikingerik wrote:
               | These numbers are useless going forward if they are based
               | on the original Covid-19 strains and not the Omicron
               | strains, which now account for virtually every case and
               | are tens of times less lethal.
        
               | gdavisson wrote:
               | That's not true. Death rates are now much lower, but that
               | seems to be mostly due to people having (partial)
               | immunity due to vaccination and/or previous infection,
               | and better treatment. Omicron variants are less
               | intrinsically severe _than delta_ , but delta was more
               | intrinsically severe than the earlier variants, so it's
               | not clear omicron's actually any lower than the original
               | strain, alpha, etc.
               | 
               | For example, according to "Challenges in Inferring
               | Intrinsic Severity of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant" (ht
               | tps://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2119682?query=fe
               | a...): "This meaningful but fairly small difference [vs
               | Delta] implies that omicron, alpha, and wild-type SARS-
               | CoV-2 have similar intrinsic severity."
        
               | Mawr wrote:
               | > "Converting this to micromort language, an individual
               | living in New York City has experienced roughly 50
               | additional micromorts of risk per day because of
               | Covid-19. That means you were roughly twice as likely to
               | die as you would have been if you were serving in the
               | U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan throughout 2010, a
               | particularly deadly year."
               | 
               | This is highly misleading. The _average_ individual may
               | be at such risk, just like humans have ~1.9 legs on
               | average, but that doesn 't mean that everyone walks
               | around with their 1.9 legs.
               | 
               | So those statistics are based on the risk to the general
               | population and therefore have approximately zero
               | relevance to any single person.
               | 
               | Almost by definition, the disease will claim those most
               | vulnerable first, so questioning whether vaccination is
               | worth it for those less vulnerable is valid.
               | 
               | What're the risks of vaccination vs covid for a healthy
               | 25 year old who works from home?
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | This exactly. You would want to see the micromort
               | breakdown for the same populations as covid infection.
               | You might also want to dive deeper and see if there's
               | more specific populations and how they compare.
        
               | VancouverMan wrote:
               | We have to be extremely cautious when considering any of
               | the death-related statistics for this particular
               | situation.
               | 
               | For example, we know that a dubious methodology was used
               | for counting deaths in Toronto (Canada's most populous
               | city, and the fourth most populous city in North
               | America).
               | 
               | This was publicly admitted to by Toronto Public Health
               | itself, as early as June 2020:
               | 
               |  _" Individuals who have died with COVID-19, but not as a
               | result of COVID-19 are included in the case counts for
               | COVID-19 deaths in Toronto."_
               | 
               | https://twitter.com/TOPublicHealth/status/127588839006028
               | 596...
               | 
               | I can't see how that significant city's death stats could
               | be considered reliable or usable for analytic purposes,
               | after considering how the counting was done. The
               | provincial and national stats would also be affected to
               | some extent.
               | 
               | This makes me quite doubtful about the stats coming out
               | of other regions, too.
        
               | shagie wrote:
               | The paper those numbers are based on is Assessing the age
               | specificity of infection fatality rates for COVID-19:
               | systematic review, meta-analysis, and public policy
               | implications
               | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7721859/
               | 
               | The meta-analysis is looking at that question that you
               | are asking.
               | 
               | It also has all the papers that it cites for analysis and
               | an analysis of its own limitations.
               | 
               | > The systematic review encompassed 113 studies, of which
               | 27 studies (covering 34 geographical locations) satisfied
               | the inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-
               | analysis.
        
           | bb88 wrote:
           | Since the Musk takeover, conspiracy theorists on $8Chan have
           | talked about Grant Wahl dying suddenly because of the "clot
           | shot".
           | 
           | Then we find out he died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm.
           | 
           | Then people still refuse to believe it because it doesn't fit
           | their narrative they're pushing. And anyone who dies suddenly
           | must have died because of the vaccine.
           | 
           | https://twitter.com/DiedSuddenly_/status/1603103342481342465
           | 
           | This killed John Ritter, George C. Scott, Lucille Ball and
           | Albert Einstein. But somehow the vaccine is to blame for
           | anyone who dies of it now...
        
             | kennend3 wrote:
             | There is also the "Canadian doctors" story the anti-vax
             | group continue to flog yet it has being proven wrong over
             | and over again.
             | 
             | https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/11/07/why-wont-a-
             | de...
             | 
             | One of the doctors drowned in a river attempting to save
             | his kids, yet the anti-vax group elect to leverage his
             | tragedy for their narrative.
        
               | vfclists wrote:
               | > One of the doctors drowned in a river attempting to
               | save his kids, yet the anti-vax group elect to leverage
               | his tragedy for their narrative.
               | 
               | One out of how many?
        
               | kennend3 wrote:
               | The number of doctors who "died" after getting their
               | fourth dose is a moving target, but the article i posted
               | did a bit of a breakdown:
               | 
               | " The cluster of deaths back in the summer helped kindle
               | what is now a fire -- a conspiracy theory that today
               | peddles a list of dozens of doctors online, including the
               | three who died in July, as well as -- according to its
               | own descriptions -- several who drowned, one who was in
               | the middle of biking 105 kilometres and a doctor who died
               | coming down K2, a mountain deadlier than Everest. "
               | 
               | It started out as "three" doctors, now it is "dozens".
        
             | OrvalWintermute wrote:
             | Are you saying that aneuryms are not a potential adverse
             | event associated with MRNA Covid vaccination [1]?
             | 
             | Furthermore, we know hypertension is also associated with
             | dissections, and there are several documented cases of
             | acute and non-acute hypertension after MRNA covid
             | vaccination [2]
             | 
             | I'm saying that to say there are some possibilities there,
             | but I am also going to say the opposite too.
             | 
             | I don't know that we know enough about the adverse events
             | associated with these vaccinations, and whether or not a
             | vaccine is implicated, or if there was a previous medical
             | condition.
             | 
             | Retrospectively speaking, I don't know that an autopsy
             | would give us any novel answers either, because of the gaps
             | we have around passive medical surveillance vs active
             | medical surveillance.
             | 
             | I am sorry that Mr. Wahl died at such a relatively young
             | age
             | 
             | [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35646499/
             | 
             | [2] https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/HYPERTENSI
             | ONAHA...
        
             | westmeal wrote:
             | People will believe whatever they want to believe, just let
             | them stew.
        
               | phtrivier wrote:
               | Unfortunately, some of them don't stew in silence - and
               | consider anyone who got vaccinated with exactly the same
               | contempt as you do.
               | 
               | Which is all fun and games until you have to, you know,
               | _live_ with them in the real world because they're your
               | family and / or loved ones ?
        
               | bb88 wrote:
               | This works until it leads to politicians asking for grand
               | juries to investigate anyone associated with the vaccine.
               | 
               | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/13/ron-
               | desantis...
        
           | commandlinefan wrote:
           | > even less likely that they'll die from a vaccine side
           | effect
           | 
           | My understanding is that there've always been risks
           | associated with vaccines, and they were always relatively
           | small risks. What I can't find any unbiased information about
           | is how the risks of the Covid vaccine compare with the risks
           | of, say, the mumps or rubella vaccines.
        
         | gamacodre wrote:
         | This has bugged me since the beginning of this mess. It ought
         | to be possible to say "Hey this looks kind of funny, could the
         | vaccines be having weird effects in this .0000001% of the
         | population?" without daggers coming out all around.
         | 
         | It seems perfectly reasonable to me that "The SARS-Cov-2
         | vaccines occasionally cause health problems" _and_ "Almost
         | everyone should get vaccinated/boosted" are both entirely true
         | statements.
        
           | jfengel wrote:
           | Yeah, it sure ought to be.
           | 
           | But the same people who believe that evolution and climate
           | change are hoaxes are also convinced that COVID is a hoax.
           | (The disease is a hoax, the vaccine is a hoax, the hoax
           | disease that doesn't need to be cured by the hoax vaccine is
           | an attack by China -- and the coverup is a hoax.)
           | 
           | And those people are ~40% of the US population, with an
           | outsized thumb on the scale of elections due to accidents of
           | geography and history. So instead of talking cogently about
           | tradeoffs, we're barely fending off turning conspiracy
           | theories into policy. And by "barely" I mean "succeeding
           | slightly more often than we fail".
           | 
           | Yeah, we ought to be able to discuss things cogently. That
           | ship sailed a long time ago.
        
           | danhak wrote:
           | The issue is that there were coercive government mandates.
           | 
           | "Almost everyone should get vaccinated" does not mean the
           | government should coerce everyone into making the correct
           | medical decision by barring them from employment or access to
           | private establishments.
           | 
           | Absent a _very_ compelling reason, people should be free to
           | go against medical advice. People have the right to do
           | whatever they want with their bodies. People have the right
           | to make the wrong choice.
           | 
           | In this case, the reason given for overriding that freedom
           | was a highly specious argument that the unvaccinated were
           | putting _other people_ at significant risk. That argument did
           | not pass the smell test from the very beginning.
        
             | gamacodre wrote:
             | > ...does not mean the government should coerce everyone...
             | 
             | Here you're presuming that the government's role in a
             | pandemic is to wring their hands and issue PSA's. That
             | might be what some folks want them to do these days, but
             | when the legal foundations of public health policy were
             | laid the government was expected to do quite a bit more.
             | 
             | > People have the right to do whatever they want with their
             | bodies.
             | 
             | This might be your opinion, but the majority of your fellow
             | citizens disagree with you. Try asking them about drug use,
             | abortion, suicide, and other "purely personal" matters.
             | 
             | > People have the right to make the wrong choice.
             | 
             | Many wrong choices come with severe state-imposed
             | consequences. We in the US long ago delegated to our
             | elected representatives the authority to force some choices
             | onto individuals, including in a health emergency. We are
             | of course vigorously debating whether they used that
             | authority wisely this time, but it was theirs to use.
        
             | ethanbond wrote:
             | You don't get to dismiss an argument by just declaring that
             | it "didn't pass the smell test." That guidance was exactly
             | in line with every counter-pathogen campaign since, Idk,
             | before germ theory?
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | The worst part is that we have already comprehensively
               | litigated all of this. The spanish flu had people
               | protesting being forced to wear masks and other societal
               | health measures and the Supreme court affirmed the US's
               | right to mandate those kind of large scale health things.
        
             | ajross wrote:
             | > the government should coerce everyone into making the
             | correct medical decision by barring them from employment or
             | access to private establishments.
             | 
             | But... the government has been doing that for decades and
             | decades, since the very invention of the vaccine! Why is
             | that "The Issue" when there's suddenly a pandemic and it's
             | important, vs. when you needed to show your vaccination
             | records to join the military or go to school in the 90's or
             | whatever?
             | 
             | You see that the concern you're showing seems, to those of
             | us on the other side, maybe a little insincere?
        
               | danhak wrote:
               | What about my position seems insincere to you?
               | 
               | You see no philosophical difference between the
               | government mandating vaccination records for schools and
               | public institutions like the military vs. them mandating
               | vaccination records for private establishments such as
               | gyms, irrespective of the wishes of the owners of those
               | establishments?
               | 
               | Should the government have the right to mandate
               | vaccination records for entry to a private home,
               | irrespective of the wishes of the homeowner?
        
               | wpietri wrote:
               | The government has the right (and I'd argue, the duty) to
               | quarantine people with diseases that are both contagious
               | and dangerous if that's the best way to keep them from
               | harming others. More details here: https://www.cdc.gov/qu
               | arantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantin...
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | emmelaich wrote:
               | AIDS/HIV sufferers would like a word with you.
               | 
               | Speaking of which, Fauci's early statements on AIDS in
               | the initial outbreak were interesting.
        
               | wpietri wrote:
               | Your theory is that the best way to prevent AIDS deaths
               | is quarantining people? That seems extreme.
               | 
               | Regardless, it's not one of the diseases listed on the
               | linked page, and it's very different in nature than the
               | ones there, so that sounds like a red herring to me.
        
               | enaaem wrote:
               | Pandemics are not a private issue. It's similar to a war.
               | It can kill a significant percent of the population and
               | it requires collective action to stop it.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | The "vaccine mandates" that have been around since the
               | 90s have been relatively weak or non-existent, via any
               | number of possible exemptions.
               | 
               | Perhaps the military had some say but it's relatively
               | easy to not accidentally enlist.
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | lamontcg wrote:
             | > a highly specious argument that the unvaccinated were
             | putting other people at significant risk.
             | 
             | The unvaccinated were filling up the hospitals which was
             | putting other people at risk.
             | 
             | Your right to gamble with your health ends when you expect
             | to be able to get treatment if the gamble comes out badly.
        
               | gjsman-1000 wrote:
               | Well... the awkward part about this is right now, it is
               | now the _opposite_ problem.
               | 
               | https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/07/opinion/environment/co
               | vid...
               | 
               | https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20221127/more-vaccinated-
               | peo...
               | 
               | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/23/vaccin
               | ate...
        
               | lamontcg wrote:
               | As even that top article points out we'd expect the rate
               | of unvaccinated people to approach the base rate which is
               | 76% of the population having received one dose. And since
               | old people are at more risk and are more vaccinated, we'd
               | expect it to reach even higher eventually. But that
               | happens because eventually the unvaccinated do all pick
               | up natural immunity and the effect we're measuring is
               | that the excess load caused by the unvaccinated is
               | declining. We could have gotten to this point much
               | quicker by having 100% vaccination rates (and 100% of the
               | people still being admitted with COVID would then be
               | vaccinated) but with an order of magnitude less load on
               | the hospital system.
               | 
               | The top article you cite has all this information in it,
               | and even mentions the base rate fallacy. It is
               | criticizing the framing of the pandemic as a "pandemic of
               | the unvaccinated" and trying to focus attention on the
               | elderly, but that is orthogonal to the question of if the
               | unvaccinated are disproportionately clogging up the
               | hospital system. Both statistics are true. Everyone
               | should still get vaccinated to reduce the load on the
               | hospital system (although this concern is now fading as
               | antivaxxers actually do pick up immunity the hard way).
               | We should also focus on the elderly more.
               | 
               | As a simple example: if a population begins entirely
               | susceptible and there's a vaccine from day 1 which is
               | available and reduces the risks of hospitalization by 9x
               | and 90% of the people get the vaccine, then the rates of
               | hospitalization will be split 50/50 between the
               | vaccinated and unvaccinated. Vaccinating the rest of the
               | population would increase vaccination rates by 10% but
               | would decrease overall hospitalization rates by 44%.
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | > Your right to gamble with your health ends when you
               | expect to be able to get treatment if the gamble comes
               | out badly.
               | 
               | I wonder how that would apply to obesity and unprotected
               | sex.
        
               | kurthr wrote:
               | Um, obesity is an individual issue (at least at the
               | current levels of hospital load associated with it) so
               | your insurance and bills go up. Unprotected sex has two
               | people involved and can be assault (if not agreed to) and
               | if done by someone who knows they are HIV positive and
               | infects another who dies... manslaughter.
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | But we've shown that the vaccine doesn't prevent
               | transmission, so not getting it is an individual issue
               | ...
        
               | koolba wrote:
               | > The unvaccinated were filling up the hospitals which
               | was putting other people at risk.
               | 
               | > Your right to gamble with your health ends when you
               | expect to be able to get treatment if the gamble comes
               | out badly.
               | 
               | My right to choose my own treatment outweighs any right
               | you have to _feel_ safer. That includes you feeling safe
               | that the local hospital system will not be at capacity if
               | you have to be admitted.
               | 
               | It's no different than having a bunch of chain smokers,
               | alcoholics, or morbidly obese people clogging the medical
               | system. People have the right to make potentially
               | destructive choices that are not _directly_ harmful to
               | those around them.
        
               | lamontcg wrote:
               | > chain smokers, alcoholics, or morbidly obese people
               | clogging the medical system.
               | 
               | That's the normal load and it is scaled for it[*].
               | 
               | COVID is like a DDoS.
               | 
               | And there is no elastic cloud scaling for nurses, you
               | can't just turn up more instances from a ready pool.
               | 
               | [*] Well maybe not any more, and lets not get into a
               | discussion of the for-profit health care system.
        
         | mrtksn wrote:
         | This paper doesn't claim that mRNA vaccines are dangerous, it
         | investigates through autopsy 35 people in a region of Germany
         | who died within 20 days of vaccination and only 5 of the deaths
         | are found to show myocarditis of which only 3 somewhat might be
         | attributed to the vaccine.
         | 
         | This is not an expose of big Pharma or anything like that, I
         | don't know why the HN comments are acting as if this is some
         | kind of research supporting the anti vaxxer claims.
         | 
         | If you look into the statistics, it actually might be the case
         | that those 35 deaths were attributed to the vaccine. They found
         | for fact that 10 of those died actually died of something else.
         | 
         | This is also why it takes an expert in a field to evaluate the
         | content and make conclusions. Despite the tone in the HN
         | comments, this actually might suggest that the deaths
         | attributed to the vaccine side effect might be significantly
         | higher than the reality but it would take a research to say of
         | this is the case.
        
           | jgalt212 wrote:
           | Fair enough, but everyone was compelled to get the vaccine
           | (regardless of age or risk factors). Given that, the vaccine
           | makers and proponents leave themselves open to such
           | criticisms that would not be valid if the vaccine was not
           | compelled on my 7 year old.
        
             | mrtksn wrote:
             | If everyone was compelled how the vaccination rates are so
             | low?
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | Where do you live that COVID vaccination is compulsory for
             | a seven year old?
             | 
             | In the US, the 5-11 age range has only 38% having had even
             | the first dose. https://www.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-
             | coronavirus-covid-19...
        
           | bena wrote:
           | Tell that to this guy:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34004500
           | 
           | He _is_ acting like it 's support of anti-vaxxer claims. And
           | it is why these articles get shared. Because they contain a
           | very slight, practically negligible affirmation of the
           | smallest portion of their claims. And that, in their eyes, is
           | enough to proclaim victory.
        
             | emmelaich wrote:
             | You're inferring a lot from a someone's brief summary of
             | the paper under discussion.
             | 
             | If you disagree with the summary, maybe address it?
             | 
             | I despise anti-vaxxer lunatics, I still found that comment
             | interesting.
        
             | mrtksn wrote:
             | If I'm going to read anti vaxxer content I need to be paid,
             | I'm so done finding misrepresentations and statistical
             | hackery in propaganda articles. They cherry pick data,
             | resort in fallacies and all kinds of trickery. They give
             | you a shocking graph where you can see that young people
             | are dying en masse only to find out that this graph is
             | achieved through visual or statistical BS. Hours spend to
             | dig out lies, completely avoidable by avoiding that
             | content.
        
               | bena wrote:
               | I'm a little confused here. I'm not trying to convince
               | you of the anti-vaxxer side.
               | 
               | You said:
               | 
               | > "I don't know why the HN comments are acting as if this
               | is some kind of research supporting the anti vaxxer
               | claims."
               | 
               | To which I posted a link of a guy who is acting as if
               | this is some kind of research supporting the anti-vaxxer
               | claims. The comments were trying to head off the exact
               | thing that happened. Because those users know the
               | pattern. They know why this was posted. It was posted
               | specifically as "vindication" for anti-vaxxers. Those
               | comments to point out that this study does not in any way
               | vindicate anti-vaxxers are needed and the people who made
               | them were right to make those comments.
        
               | mrtksn wrote:
               | Oh I wasn't directing my comments to you. My apologies, I
               | just tried to express my reluctance of looking at anti-
               | vaxxer content.
               | 
               | Even if this linked OP is just acting, I still find it
               | very repulsive due to my previous experience. I wasn't
               | referring to that comment anyway.
        
               | bena wrote:
               | All good then, I just didn't want _you_ to think _I_ was
               | advocating for the anti-vaxxer position. So if that wasn
               | 't your intention, apologies to you as well.
               | 
               | And I understand your reluctance. After the nth time, the
               | eyes sort of glaze over as you get slapped with the same
               | bad faith arguments supported by bad logic and supported
               | by abused statistics.
        
           | nulld3v wrote:
           | Yeah, I also currently believe that the statistics work out
           | in favor of the vaccine. I am curious though, on how those 3
           | people died.
           | 
           | My biggest concern is in long-term effects. I understand that
           | it is difficult to study them but that is why I am advocating
           | for continued research.
           | 
           | So basically:
           | 
           | - I understand that in a pandemic situation, you can't wait
           | for research into long-term effects to come out.
           | 
           | - Hence, in a pandemic situation, immediate vaccination
           | should still be recommended.
           | 
           | - Research into long-term effects should continue after the
           | pandemic.
        
             | mrtksn wrote:
             | Is there anything make you believe that the research
             | doesn't continue?
        
               | nulld3v wrote:
               | I am worried how the discussion around the vaccine has
               | turned political and how there are a lot of strong
               | opinions around it. I worry it might affect funding and
               | also "politically taint" people who publish research
               | about it.
        
               | mrtksn wrote:
               | Fair enough but this doesn't mean that the research is
               | finished, just the reporting on it is getting harder.
               | People who actually work with these things instead of
               | pushing their agenda are not really influenced by the
               | politics because what they find is not political. They
               | will not find out that bug Pharma was lying, they will
               | find out how many people actually had myocarditis under
               | what conditions for example.
        
         | lanstin wrote:
         | Well your feeling is wrong. The data gathering to establish the
         | risks is why we don't just update the mRNA monthly based on the
         | latest viral RNA.
        
         | felipellrocha wrote:
         | Same. The impact rate of myocarditis might be extremely small,
         | but if it's caused by the vaccine, it should be investigated,
         | while at the same time, people should get vaccinated. Luckily,
         | the scientific community understands that. Unluckily, the non-
         | scientific community doesn't on both ends. The supporters of
         | the vaccine think you're attacking the vaccine. The detractors
         | think you're suddenly supporting them. No. EVERYONE should be
         | vaccinated. The vaccine has been given to billions, it is
         | exceedingly safe. Can we do better? Yes. Is it marginal? Also
         | yes, but I don't wish miocarditis on anyone.
        
         | treeman79 wrote:
         | Wife got shot. Few days later her arm swelled up. 2 years later
         | it still is. Her and I had already had Covid from before the
         | vaccine. Absolutely refused to get it because of that. She now
         | regrets it. She still gets Covid with every outbreak anyway. So
         | doesn't seem to have helped.
         | 
         | I know a couple of kids that got it and have clots in their
         | brains now. Less sure on timeline on these. But I've not seen
         | this before.
         | 
         | Sure it could all be coincidence.
         | 
         | then there's all the assholes who decided that get the vaccine
         | or become unemployed.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | merpnderp wrote:
         | I keep hearing vaccination being promoted, but the last major
         | study I saw showed no statistically significant difference in
         | natural immunity + vaccination versus simple natural immunity.
         | This also seems to be a topic treated as a fringe conspiracy
         | theory instead of an extremely serious health issue worthy of a
         | large amount of resources dedicated to giving us an answer. One
         | certainly could be forgiven for thinking the vaccine has become
         | a larger political issue than health issue for both sides.
        
         | ghastmaster wrote:
         | > As long as vaccine side effects cause less deaths and less
         | harm than the virus, vaccination is still the way to go.
         | 
         | Assuming the vaccine prevents or lessens the effects of
         | infection, this is logical. A common belief is that the vaccine
         | is virtually useless. If this belief is true or close to true,
         | then taking the vaccine would result in an increase in risk.
        
           | sethammons wrote:
           | Utilitarian ideas like this are the basis of every story of
           | the rogue AI that locks up humanity for its own safety.
        
         | oldgradstudent wrote:
         | > I am vaccinated but I am upvoting this post because I believe
         | that it is important to investigate these cases to determine
         | how to improve future vaccines.
         | 
         | The fact that people feel the need to say that for any
         | criticism of an intervention says that we have long left the
         | realm of science and entered the realm of religion.
         | 
         | Every intervention has benefits and harms.
         | 
         | Not talking about harms makes it impossible to assess the cost-
         | benefit tradeoffs of the intervention.
        
       | chedca21 wrote:
       | https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4425/rr-31
       | 
       | Covid-19: politicisation, "corruption," and suppression of
       | science
       | 
       | "Professor John Ioannidis of Stanford University, quotes an
       | infection fatality rate (IFR) for Covid of 0.00-0.57% (0.05% for
       | under 70s), far lower than originally feared and no different to
       | severe flu" -March 2020
       | 
       | The bigger scandal is how covid case:fatality rate was so much
       | higher in some places than the global average.
       | https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/why-some-doctors-...
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | The fatality rate for a disease that is very often asymptomatic
         | highly depends on testing. The rate will go way down in places
         | where lots of people are required to or just do get treated
         | frequently.
         | 
         | Most asymptomatic cases will go unnoticed in places with less
         | testing so the fatality rate will go way up.
         | 
         | Also how you count whether or not a death gets tagged with
         | covid matters. Lots of people had Covid and plenty of deaths
         | will just coincidentally happen while a person has a minor
         | infection which didn't affect the outcome. How or when do you
         | count that?
        
         | oneoff786 wrote:
         | Professor ioannidis forecasted 10,000 deaths in the US as a mid
         | range guess of what to expect. He's not exactly a good appeal
         | to authority.
        
       | manv1 wrote:
       | People will believe whatever they want to believe.
       | 
       | They only found 5 deaths that had no other real issue besides the
       | vaccine. At that level more people died from shower accidents
       | than vacccine-induced myocarditis (assuming that there was a
       | causal link, which the authors are careful to say they didn't do
       | that analysis).
        
       | fzeroracer wrote:
       | The discussion here is absolutely rancid. So here are the actual
       | the salient points from the study:
       | 
       | > Standardized autopsies were performed on 25 persons who had
       | died unexpectedly and within 20 days after anti-SARS-CoV-2
       | vaccination. In four patients who received a mRNA vaccination, we
       | identified acute (epi-)myocarditis without detection of another
       | significant disease or health constellation that may have caused
       | an unexpected death.
       | 
       | Out of 25 people that died post-vaccination, four patients had
       | signs of myocarditis. That's a fraction of a fraction of people.
       | 
       | > Myocarditis is another manifestation reported during SARS-
       | CoV-2-infection [24]. It is under debate whether myocarditis in
       | COVID-19 is primarily caused by the viral infection or whether it
       | occurs secondary as a consequence of the host's immune response,
       | in particular by T-lymphocyte-mediated cytotoxicity or as a
       | consequence of the cytokine storm observed during COVID-19
       | 
       | We don't know whether or not Myocarditis is a result of the
       | infection or the immune response; in either scenario people who
       | are predisposed to myocarditis would likely have similar
       | reactions during either infection or vaccine.
       | 
       | > However, the vaccine against smallpox, based on a vaccinia
       | virus, is reported to cause (epi-)myocarditis in rare cases
       | 
       | Smallpox vaccines can also trigger myocarditis despite being a
       | more 'traditional' vaccine.
       | 
       | > The reported incidence of (epi-)myocarditis after vaccination
       | is low and the risks of hospitalization and death associated with
       | COVID-19 are stated to be greater than the recorded risk
       | associated with COVID-19 vaccination [29]. Importantly,
       | infectious agents may also cause lymphocytic myocarditis with a
       | similar immunophenotype, thus meticulous molecular analyses is
       | required in all cases of potentially vaccination-associated
       | myocarditis.
       | 
       | The risk factor is low and the chances of hospitalization and
       | death from COVID-19 in even otherwise healthy people is higher
       | versus the risk from vaccination, similar to other vaccinations.
       | 
       | > Finally, we cannot provide a definitive functional proof or a
       | direct causal link between vaccination and myocarditis. Further
       | studies and extended registry are needed to identify persons at
       | risk for this potentially fatal AEFI and may be aided by detailed
       | clinical, serological, and molecular analyses which were beyond
       | the scope of this study.
       | 
       | This is not a definitive link between the two, but rather a call
       | for further investigation and to ensure that at-risk individuals
       | are caught earlier and monitored.
        
         | tiahura wrote:
         | _We don 't know whether or not Myocarditis is a result of the
         | infection or the immune response; in either scenario people who
         | are predisposed to myocarditis would likely have similar
         | reactions during either infection or vaccine._
         | 
         | This is the most straightforward conclusion. Some people's
         | hearts don't like the immune response to Covid. Since everyone
         | is going to get it eventually, avoiding the vax seems based on
         | myocarditis seems illogical.
        
         | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
         | Yes, thank you. Also, important to call out ages here:
         | 
         | > Median age at death was 58 years (range 46-75 years).
         | 
         | I keep seeing "young men" over and over in the comments. These
         | are not the people being studied here.
        
         | gfodor wrote:
         | It seems obvious at this point that there is a mechanism of
         | action of the drug in the vaccine that can harm the heart and
         | it's highly likely this can lead to death. It's time to stop
         | mandating it for kids.
        
           | fzeroracer wrote:
           | Obvious according to who? I literally directly addressed that
           | claim, so I'll quote it again for you:
           | 
           | > Myocarditis is another manifestation reported during SARS-
           | CoV-2-infection [24]. It is under debate whether myocarditis
           | in COVID-19 is primarily caused by the viral infection or
           | whether it occurs secondary as a consequence of the host's
           | immune response, in particular by T-lymphocyte-mediated
           | cytotoxicity or as a consequence of the cytokine storm
           | observed during COVID-19
           | 
           | We don't know whether or not Myocarditis is a result of the
           | infection or the immune response; in either scenario people
           | who are predisposed to myocarditis would likely have similar
           | reactions during either infection or vaccine.
           | 
           | If myocarditis is a result of the immune system response to
           | the spike protein then infection by COVID and/or vaccination
           | can potentially trigger a response, with COVID likely
           | triggering an even worse response with what we know and how
           | it travels through the body. Additionally, as I also
           | mentioned and will quote:
           | 
           | > However, the vaccine against smallpox, based on a vaccinia
           | virus, is reported to cause (epi-)myocarditis in rare cases
           | 
           | Smallpox vaccines can also trigger myocarditis despite being
           | a more 'traditional' vaccine.
           | 
           | We distributed smallpox vaccines and managed to eradicate
           | smallpox thanks to being thorough.
        
             | gfodor wrote:
             | The claim I am making is it appears likely to me that at
             | least some of these cases are fatal, which would mean the
             | underlying mechanism of action for this side effect of the
             | drug can, in the worst case, cause death. This ought to
             | influence the ethics of mandating it at a minimum.
        
               | fzeroracer wrote:
               | What I'm saying is that the mechanism with which the
               | vaccine can cause myocarditis might be the exact same
               | mechanism that triggers myocarditis but worse for people
               | who catch COVID-19, as brought up in the study. If the
               | myocarditis is the result of the immune system's response
               | to the spike protein then both COVID-19 and the COVID-19
               | vaccine will trigger myocarditis in those individuals. In
               | this case the 'mechanism' is the same, but COVID-19 will
               | likely trigger a far worse reaction from what we know
               | about how the disease progresses in certain individuals.
               | 
               | This is the exact point that the article mentions.
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | So the argument is that if the vaccine causes this the
               | same way COVID does, the risk of death would have been
               | higher had they got COVID?
               | 
               | You'll have to excuse my skepticism, because setting
               | things up so that we end up in a situation where it's
               | entirely unfalsifiable if the vaccine caused net harm in
               | an individual has been par for the course. I reject the
               | premise that even if it's an immunological response
               | shared by with COVID we should run with that to the
               | assumption that catching COVID would have yielded a
               | higher risk profile. That takes a far leap ahead of the
               | science.
        
               | fzeroracer wrote:
               | We literally know COVID yields a higher risk profile for
               | myocarditis. This data has been well captured through
               | multiple studies. And that's just solely on the basis of
               | myocarditis and not the other side effects we're also
               | aware of like the damage to lung tissue, blood clotting
               | and more.
               | 
               | To provide an allegory, you are trying to point of the
               | incidence rate of myocarditis in the smallpox vaccine and
               | claiming that the smallpox vaccine was more dangerous
               | than smallpox itself.
        
               | gfodor wrote:
               | You're smuggling in the assumption that the vaccine
               | induced myocarditis is the same underlying phenomenon,
               | with the same risk profile, as the viral induced one.
               | 
               | Let's say, hypothetically, that what was going on here
               | was some % of vaccines were being injected intravenously
               | in error, leading to massively localized spike protein
               | buildup in the heart over a few hour period, with
               | dynamics highly divergent with the progressive, broad way
               | it would run with actual disease, causing a different set
               | of possible outcomes like instant death being very much
               | on the table. In this hypothetical scenario, can you see
               | why your analysis about immunological response being
               | similar, and myocarditis being caused by the disease and
               | vaccine being relevant, would turn out to have in fact
               | been missing the point? And that by failing to do so, we
               | missed a simple protocol change that could have saved
               | many lives counterfactually?
               | 
               | I'm not saying that is what is going on. But what I am
               | saying is if that scenario is logically coherent to you,
               | can you extrapolate why the kinds of responses you are
               | giving here could be falling into the the same trap you'd
               | have recognized if the above scenario was actually what
               | was happening? You're telling me that I should stop
               | thinking something bad is going on here, that we can
               | stop, and am making nonsense arguments like the one you
               | raised with the smallpox vaccine. I reject that - this is
               | important and we should figure it out.
        
       | sfusato wrote:
       | Multiple US universities still mandate the shots for young
       | students in total opposition to Europe, for example: Harvard [0],
       | Yale [1], Tufts University [2], University of California [3], New
       | York University [4], University of Notre Dame [5], Boston
       | University [6]
       | 
       | [0] https://www.harvard.edu/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine-
       | informa...
       | 
       | [1] https://yalecollege.yale.edu/get-know-yale-college/office-
       | de...
       | 
       | [2] https://coronavirus.tufts.edu/healthy-at-
       | tufts/covid-19-vacc...
       | 
       | [3] https://campusready.ucdavis.edu/covid-vaccination
       | 
       | [4] https://www.nyu.edu/life/safety-health-
       | wellness/coronavirus-...
       | 
       | [5] https://ndsmcobserver.com/2022/11/university-announces-
       | addit...
       | 
       | [6] https://www.bu.edu/hr/hr-covid-19-resources/vaccine-
       | required...
       | 
       | Is biology/science different in the US than in Europe?
        
       | lxe wrote:
       | "Graphical abstract"... lol why?
        
         | qorrect wrote:
         | That caught me off guard too. 'Did he ... did he hand draw
         | this' ?
        
       | pianoben wrote:
       | > Standardized autopsies were performed on 25 persons who had
       | died unexpectedly and within 20 days after anti-SARS-CoV-2
       | vaccination.
       | 
       | Sample size of 25 out of a population of... how many tens of
       | millions of young (EDIT: not actually young) men? Seems quite
       | small, and perhaps not sufficient to draw any conclusions. I
       | wonder what the results will show...
       | 
       | > myocarditis is another manifestation reported during SARS-
       | CoV-2-infection [24]. It is under debate whether myocarditis in
       | COVID-19 is primarily caused by the viral infection or whether it
       | occurs secondary as a consequence of the host's immune response,
       | in particular by T-lymphocyte-mediated cytotoxicity or as a
       | consequence of the cytokine storm observed during COVID-19 [25].
       | 
       | Interesting!
       | 
       | > Finally, we cannot provide a definitive functional proof or a
       | direct causal link between vaccination and myocarditis. Further
       | studies and extended registry are needed to identify persons at
       | risk for this potentially fatal AEFI and may be aided by detailed
       | clinical, serological, and molecular analyses which were beyond
       | the scope of this study.
       | 
       | So in total, out of 25 young men, 20 showed signs of cardiac
       | damage. It's suggestive and merits more research. On the other
       | hand, the authors offer no real ideas about _how_ the damage
       | could have happened, other than to observe that since similar
       | damage happens as a result of COVID-19, maybe the immune response
       | is the culprit (provoked by the vaccine, similarly as by the
       | disease).
       | 
       | Far from any sort of smoking gun. It's important to keep that in
       | mind.
        
         | hammock wrote:
         | >the authors offer no real ideas about how the damage could
         | have happened
         | 
         | They do, though. In fact that's the entirely novel value that
         | this study brings. It's in the title: "histopathological
         | characterization of myocarditis after anti-SARS-
         | CoV-2-vaccination." That's a lot of words that means "we can
         | now tell you exactly what microscopic tissue looks like
         | following lethal jab-associated myocarditis."
         | 
         | And the scientists discuss how it happens. For your benefit,
         | I'll describe it here.
         | 
         | These mRNA-vaccinated patients suffered from heart damage
         | because their hearts were attacked by their own immune cells.
         | The mRNA is injected into your muscle cells, turning the cell
         | into a factory producing COVID-19 spike proteins. As a result
         | of the mRNA immunization, your body generates an immune
         | response against COVID-19 spike proteins. Since your own muscle
         | cells were used to make the COVID-19 spike proteins and may
         | have them on the cell surface, your newly-weaponized immune
         | cells targeting the spike protein may start attacking your own
         | healthy muscle cells. This autoimmune attack on their own heart
         | cells then leads to their damaged hearts beating so many times
         | per second that, once the tachycardia unexpectedly started,
         | they died in minutes.
         | 
         | This new German study shows photographic evidence that this
         | happens and has killed people
        
           | c1ccccc1 wrote:
           | Fascinating. Without a detailed knowledge of biology, it
           | seems like this could affect any cell type, why would heart
           | muscle cells specifically be targeted? Are the spike proteins
           | just more likely to get stuck to the surface of certain types
           | of cell?
        
             | hammock wrote:
             | It's a good question. I believe there is some preliminary
             | study around that, and it deserves more
        
           | jamespo wrote:
           | You've paraphrased into "jab-associated" which is dishonest
           | at best.
        
           | pianoben wrote:
           | > And the scientists discuss how it happens. For your
           | benefit, I'll describe it here.
           | 
           | Condescension noted :)
           | 
           | You've described what I understand to be a common(-ly
           | presented online) hypothesis about how an mRNA vaccine might
           | injure heart tissue. The study authors, on the other hand,
           | don't claim that this is how any of the study subjects died.
           | Indeed they explicitly _disclaim_ any causal link between an
           | mRNA vaccine and incidences of myocarditis.
           | 
           | Allow me to rephrase, then - "the authors offer no real ideas
           | about how the Covid vaccines could have caused this damage".
        
           | ceejayoz wrote:
           | The actual wording of the study includes this...
           | 
           | > Finally, we cannot provide a definitive functional proof or
           | a direct causal link between vaccination and myocarditis.
           | 
           | ... which is a much, much more cautious conclusion than
           | you're pretending.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | joshuahedlund wrote:
         | > out of 25 young men
         | 
         | These were not young men
         | 
         | > Three of the deceased persons were women, two men. Median age
         | at death was 58 years (range 46-75 years).
        
           | pianoben wrote:
           | My mistake; I misread something somewhere, and thought that
           | the population was 30-and-younger men.
        
       | jmyeet wrote:
       | It feels like 2021 again.
       | 
       | Small sample size (n = 25), small number of incidents of
       | myocarditis, no causal link found between myocarditis and adverse
       | events (including, but not limited to, death) and no causal link
       | found between mRNA vaccines and myocarditis.
       | 
       | But do you what does cause myocarditis? _Getting Covid_ [1].
       | 
       | Covid and the (highly effective) vaccines are the most clearcut
       | case of evolution in action [2] I've seen in my lifetime.
       | 
       | This isn't really worth worrying about this point. Countries
       | (barring China) have largely decided they're over Covid. Get a
       | vaccine, don't get a vaccine. Nobody cares. Looking for
       | justification for not getting a vaccine however reminds me of
       | creationists trying to equate "intelligent design" as "science".
       | 
       | [1]:
       | https://www.heart.org/en/news/2022/08/22/covid-19-infection-...
       | 
       | [2]: https://quotepark.com/quotes/1800059-larry-niven-think-of-
       | it...
        
       | uoflcards22 wrote:
       | As someone who did choose to get the latest booster despite being
       | a young male (highest risk group for myocarditis I believe), we
       | should _always_ be questioning what we put in our bodies.
        
         | criddell wrote:
         | > we should always be questioning what we put in our bodies
         | 
         | If we did a better job of that, health problems associated with
         | obesity, smoking, drinking, etc... would be reduced and that
         | would have a pretty big impact on cardiovascular health too.
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | Given the information i had at the time, I am fine with my
         | unforced decision to get the first two doses, but I will not be
         | getting a third barring some surprising new information, new
         | variant, etc.
        
         | bittercynic wrote:
         | >...we should always be questioning...
         | 
         | I partially agree, or at least think we shouldn't be
         | discouraged from questioning, but there's only so many hours in
         | a day, and a person can digest a finite amount of information.
         | 
         | I choose to trust US health authorities. Flawed as they may be,
         | I think it would be worse to somehow try to verify every claim,
         | or come to my own conclusions on every single question. I won't
         | judge you for making a choice different from my own, but for
         | me, and I suspect many (most?) people, having a doctor who you
         | trust, following their recommendations, and getting on with
         | your life might be the best strategy.
        
         | lazyasciiart wrote:
         | I thought it wasn't the highest risk group for myocarditis,
         | just the lowest risk for covid which makes it the highest
         | _relative_ risk?
        
       | imode wrote:
        
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