The COVID-19 skeptic explains that the pandemic is over, scientists and figures say a long way off

“Vaccines are not needed,” “the pandemic is largely over,” in a blog post in the fall. explained in the article A former employee of the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which has developed COVID-19 vaccines in many countries, Dr. Michael Yeadon.

It was then that the United Kingdom (UK) and the US were getting ready to authorize the use of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.

Juggles numbers and unconfirmed assumptions

Lithuanian social media visitors did not pay attention to these statements at the time, but in the first days of 2021 they did. on your website described by Algimantas Lebionka, PhD in Biomedicine.

Facebook statistics show that his record was opened 180 thousand. times, it has already been shared by 4.7 thousand. people.

M.Yeadonas explained in the article: “Vaccines are not necessary to deal with a pandemic. I’ve never heard so much nonsense about vaccines. It does not vaccinate people who are not at risk of getting sick. Nor does he think of vaccinating millions of healthy people with a vaccine that has not been thoroughly tested in humans. “

He criticized the UK government agency SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, a group of scientists that advises on emergencies), which played a key role in shaping quarantine policy in the country.

Lacking substantial experience, as there are no clinical immunologists among the members, the group “made two fundamental errors in its assumptions”, leading to radically incorrect conclusions that “tortured the population for the past seven months.”

One of the errors, according to the controversial British scientist, is the assumption that 100 percent. the public can be infected with the virus and no one has prior immunity.

After all, although SARS-CoV-2 is indeed a new virus, coronaviruses are not new at all, nor are viruses without ancestors.

According to Yeadon, there are at least four endemic cold-causing coronaviruses circulating in the UK and elsewhere. It is said that those who had previously been infected with any of them acquired a strong and long-term immunity, and not only to these but also to similar viruses, and therefore to SARS-CoV-2.

Another mistake is the belief that the proportion of the infected population can be determined by checking how many people have antibodies.

It is not the case that all infected people start to produce such antibodies, and those who have had immunity for a long time will not get “enough”.

Also, according to Yeadon, tests can sometimes show COVID-19 even though the person has contracted one of the other coronaviruses.

Researchers observed a processthat takes place in the bodies of infected people.

They found increased activity of an immune cell called a T cell (a lymphocyte that likely plays an important role in the acquired immune system).

Based on this, Yeadon calculated that COVID-19 could already be infected by about 25 percent. to just over 30 percent. society, not the 7 percent mentioned by SAGE, and warns that a pandemic is just beginning.

Assuming around 30 percent. people have pre-existing immunity, with the addition of minors who are resistant to the disease (about 40%) and another 25-30% who are already sick, the researcher estimated that 65-72% already have immunity to COVID-19.

If the public’s susceptibility to immunity is only 28-35%, it is there can no longer be a widespread outbreak, then “the virus disappears and disappears”.

Therefore, he concludes that the pandemic is indeed over and can be managed by a properly functioning NHS (UK National Health System), so there is an urgent need to allow permission to return to normal life.

Yeadon also noted the speed with which COVID-19 vaccines were being developed (which typically takes several years to test), the various side effects, and the fact that the RNAi technology used for the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines It is new, its safety and effectiveness have not been confirmed.

The scientist suggests an option: a vaccine or an isolate.

Reading biochemist M. Yeadon’s biography can give the impression that he knows what he is saying and that his comments are credible.

It was with such inscriptions that his ideas were shared on social networks such as „Instagram“AND “Facebook”.

British indeed job Pfizer has been in charge of respiratory and allergy research since 1995, and has been a vice president since 2006, but has not worked there since fall 2011.

Scientist more than once was criticized about misleading reports about COVID-19 and statements about fighting the pandemic.

Among other things, explained that nearly half of COVID-19 tests are false positives. Yeadon’s words before they were denied.

Their conclusions are also wrong about the end of the pandemic and vaccination. According to the Associated Press, Yeadon did not take into account the large number of new infections and deaths from COVID-19 in many countries.

On October 16, when the aforementioned M. Yeadon post appeared on the blog, in the UK almost 700 thousand were registered. infected COVID-19.

From the end of September, this curve, which until then had been quite flat, began to rise and soon shot up.

That is why the UK authorities have taken stricter quarantine measures.

Monday, January 4 there were already almost 2.663 million cases of the disease.and Prime Minister Boris Johnson hinted that in some places the quarantine could be further tightened.

The UK, with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in Europe, became the first country to approve the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and introduce it to humans.

The situation in Lithuania is similar: the figures were 7 thousand, respectively. and 145 thousand.

Some time ago in this statistic we have become leaders in the European Union.

Gloomy and global stats – in the closing days of last year The number of cases of SOVID-19 in the world has exceeded 80 million and 1.75 million have already died from the disease. people.

According to experts, COVID-19 will continue to spread uncontrollably without being subject to various restrictions until enough people have been vaccinated.

“I have worked as an infectious disease doctor my whole life. For really many years of work, I do not remember another infectious disease, from which there would be as many deaths as we currently have in Lithuania from COVID-19 – a few days ago portal 15 minutes said Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Vilnius University, Faculty of Medicine, Vytautas Usonis. – There were not too many flu epidemics, meningococcus was a lot of stress, whooping cough …

Choose it. Until now we have had no other option, there was a way: isolation. In the case of a vaccine, there are isolation measures or effects on the human immune system, such as vaccination. But so far it seems like everything is moving absolutely in one direction. As much as the anti-axes have been talking and trying to talk, look, so far there is more discussion that someone hasn’t had a chance to get vaccinated! ”.

Brooke Nichols, professor at Boston University, for the PolitiFact research website, founded by the Poynter Institute of a renowned American journalism school and investigative organization noted the need for vaccines.

According to another researcher, Emily Bruce, it is not yet known whether previous seasonal coronavirus infections produce sufficient immunity.

The ability of T cells to protect against COVID-19 has not been fully studied.

According to Richard Watanabe, a professor at the University of Southern California, the immune system is very specific, so when faced with one virus, it does not necessarily learn to protect itself from another.

The development of so-called mass immunity requires at least 70% immunity. members of society.

Without vaccination, it would take a long time to reach this rate.

Furthermore, according to B. Nichols, vaccines would help protect against new waves of infection in the future. And even if crowd immunity developed without vaccination, anyone who wasn’t vaccinated could easily become infected.

The vaccine was developed by Pfizer / BioNTech several countries, and these days and the World Health Organization confirmed after several months of testing.

Volunteers who participated in the research admitted to feeling various side effects (pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle and joint pain, chills, fever), but this was not a reason for not recognizing the vaccine as safe and effective.

There is also a lot of information about how so-called mRNA vaccines work, how they work, described in a database created by Lithuanian doctors and scientists.

The post was prepared in 15 minutes. in collaboration with Facebook, which aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.