11 Jan 2024
COVID Vaccines Saved Lives
Dr Musa Mohd Nordin
KPJ Damansara Specialist Hospital
The Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPIM) is up to mischief again to misinform the public. I debunked their pseudoscience in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The answers to their 19 questions about the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines can be viewed here and they have not offered any rebuttal or counter-arguments since. (1)
In their latest disinformation campaign against the COVID vaccines, they have demanded an immediate withdrawal of mRNA vaccines following alarming safety concerns.
As is usual for the anti-vaccine lobby, their self-proclaimed experts speak in broad generic terms, hollow rhetoric, with no evidence-based science.
One alleged that “Everywhere we see people dying, most of them are suffering, they cannot work” (2)
This fear-mongering strategy of theirs, devoid of any facts or figures, creates panic among the gullible and ill-informed lay public.
It presents an opportunity for them to market their herbs, brain tonics, worm medicines, megavitamins and their foreign expert, Peter McCullough’s newly developed detoxification supplement called nattokinase to detoxify the spike proteins. Experts have rubbished the mRNA vaccine detoxification supplement (3)
None of these alternative remedies have undergone double-blind randomized control trials, the benchmark of evidence-based medicine to verify their efficacy and safety. Another darling of the anti-vaccine campaign, Pierre Kory, had at least 2 of his scientific papers on worm medicine, ivermectin, retracted due to poor statistics
or just faking the numbers. (4)
Within eight months, the covid vaccination campaign in 141 countries prevented 2.4 million excess deaths by August 2021. (5)
If the COVID vaccines had been equitably distributed, another 670,000 more lives could have been saved.
The deaths averted had an economic value of $6.5 trillion, about 9% of the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the 141 countries.
A one-year study between the period 8 Dec 2020 – 8 Dec 2021, estimated that the covid vaccines prevented 14·4 million deaths in 185 countries. (6)
If the WHO target of 40% eligible population fully dosed was met, another 599,300 deaths could be averted.
In the COVAX Advance Market Commitment countries, an estimated 7·4 million deaths were averted. If the 20% vaccination coverage target set by COVAX had been met by the low-income countries, another 81,750 deaths could be prevented.
In the Malaysian context, the former director of the Institute for Clinical Research, Datuk Dr Kalaiarasu Peariasamy said that COVID vaccines prevented between 16,000 – 17,000 deaths. (7)
The vaccine deaths alleged by the Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPIM) and their cohort of self-proclaimed experts are more likely to be covid deaths, highest in the unvaccinated, of which the world and Malaysia has unfortunately clocked 7 million and 37,000 deaths respectively.
The two studies illustrate the profound impact of the live-saving covid vaccines. And more lives could have been saved if the vaccines had been distributed more rapidly and equitably to most parts of the world.
“In terms of lives saved and economic value, the COVID-19 vaccination campaign is likely the most impactful public health response in recent memory.” (5)
References:
(1) https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/560681
(2) https://www.aussie17.com/p/breaking-consumersassociation-of
(3) https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.33PA8L4
(4) https://retractionwatch.com/2021/11/09/bad-mathcovid-treatment-paper-by-pierre-kory-retracted-forflawed-results/
(5) https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31812/w31812.pdf
(6) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PII
S1473-3099(22)00320-6/fulltext
(7) https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2022/07/81649 0/covid-19-vaccinations-prevented-thousandsdeaths
