Writing in The BMJ Opinion blog, associate editor Peter Doshi calls for more information and details from the raw data that the two current COVID-19 vaccine makers, Moderna and Pfizer, did not report.
Homing in on what the drug companies classified as “suspected COVID” but not counted because they were not PCR test-confirmed, Doshi says: “With 20 times more suspected than confirmed cases, this category of disease cannot be ignored simply because there was no positive PCR test result. Indeed, this makes it all the more urgent to understand.”
He continues,” A rough estimate of vaccine efficacy against developing COVID-19 symptoms, with or without a positive PCR test result, would be a relative risk reduction of 19% (see footnote) — far below the 50% effectiveness threshold for authorization set by regulators.”
If all available numbers are counted, then the true vaccine efficacy is an abysmal 29%, he says — and if any of those numbers were false negatives, the efficacy would be even lower. Another concern: If you look at influenza-like illnesses such as adenoviruses that erroneously might be listed as COVID, there is even more to question on the vaccines’ actual efficacy.
SOURCE: The BMJ January 4, 2021