(LifeSiteNews) — The sad death of Colin Powell should bring more needed attention to the phenomenon of breakthrough COVID infections of the fully vaccinated.
You can choose to believe the establishment that breakthrough infections are nothing to worry about, just a minor inconvenience because COVID vaccines are not, and cannot be, 100% effective. Or you can consider real world data that show how serious breakthrough infections really are.
Department of Defense study
A recent release of data from an important study by the Department of Defense (DOD) merits very serious attention. It is called the Project Salus study. One indication of how important the data are is that the official website giving the data was taken down. (It is still available on this site.) A logical interpretation is that the federal agencies running the pandemic, namely NIH, CDC and FDA, were upset with the data I am about to give you. Why? Because the data undercuts the establishment’s argument in favor of COVID vaccines and its downplaying of breakthrough infections. It should be noted that this study has received no attention by mainstream media.
The title of the report is “Effectiveness of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Against the Delta Variant Among 5.6 Million Medicare Beneficiaries 65 Years and Older.” It is dated September 28, 2021.
The DOD study got access to the medical data for those people who were fully vaccinated. Of that group, 2.7 million got the Pfizer shot and 2.9 million got the Moderna one. Here are key findings:
- There were 161,000 breakthrough cases.
- There were 33,000 hospitalizations.
- There were 10,400 intensive care unit admissions.
- There were 3,381 deaths for a death rate of 2.1%.
The first reaction from establishment vaccine advocates is that all these numbers are very small percentages of the total sample of 5.6 million fully vaccinated people. That is correct. All that illustrates is the tyranny of small percentages when looking at health impacts of vaccines.
But there are reasons why the DOD data undercount the true negative impacts of breakthrough infections. The principal one is the study followed CDC procedure in not counting any negative health impacts occurring within 14 days of the last vaccine shot. This is important, because some analyses have found that high fractions of negative health impacts, such as vaccine induced blood problems happen within a few days of vaccination. This omission is a deliberate deception aimed solely at undercounting negative health impacts of vaccines.
It should also be noted that this study did not examine serious adverse health impacts, including death, resulting from vaccines without any COVID infection long before and possibly long after breakthrough infections. This has been detailed by this author.
Another consideration is that the DOD study was on a cohort of about 10 percent of the entire Medicare population. And it is reasonable to believe that the 65 and older demographic very likely was vaccinated to a very high degree. The New York Times said in August that at least 80 percent of people 65 and older are vaccinated in the US. Thus, the total number of deaths for this large group resulting from breakthrough infections could be large; perhaps over 10,000. Indeed, it has been widely reported that over 80 percent of COVID deaths are in that demographic. The tragic end to Colin Powell, age 84, who had two major underlying medical problems also pertains to the 65 and older population. They are especially vulnerable to having immune systems unable to block a breakthrough infection when the vaccine immunity seriously degrades. Powell surely had his initial vaccinations many months earlier.
Another cause of undercounting breakthrough deaths is that many are likely counted only as COVID deaths, not taking into account full vaccinated status
Taking all these factors into account, the total number of breakthrough deaths for the nation is likely in the 10,000 to 20,000 range. And it is rising as more vaccinated people have declining vaccine effectiveness.
The study emphasized that the above data represented a marked improvement of analogous data from the March to December 2020 period when COVID was rampant and before vaccinations. For example, the death rate of 2.1 percent for breakthrough infections of the vaccinated compared to 12 percent in the pre-vaccination period. Fine. That is correct. But consider that some 3,000 deaths for the 9/11 calamity was considered of enormous news media importance. So, why are the 3,381 deaths reported in the DOD study of little mainstream media interest?
State data
In Massachusetts, it was reported this month that the total number of breakthrough cases was 44,498, with 345 deaths (.8%).
In South Carolina, it was reported this month that there had been 14,992 breakthrough cases with 350 deaths, showing a much higher death rate (2.3%).
In Oregon, it was reported this month that out of 28,075 breakthrough cases, there were 237 deaths (.8%).
For Indiana, the reported number of breakthrough cases was 39,000 with 334 deaths (.8%).
In Minnesota, the total cases reported were 32,796 with 185 deaths (.6%).
As of October 12, CDC reported 7,178 breakthrough deaths, with 85% over 65 years of age. It no longer counts all breakthrough cases, just deaths and hospitalizations. However, CDC data are notoriously unreliable. So, extrapolating the data for the above six states to the entire nation (using population data) results in 14,510 breakthrough deaths for 1.6 million cases and a death rate of .9%. This is lower than the 2.1 percent in the DOD study; this might be explained by many breakthrough infections happening in people younger than 65 and some under-reporting of breakthrough deaths probably because they are counted as COVID deaths.
Please SIGN this critical petition which urges the Catholic Church to demand that Big Pharma develop, produce and distribute ethical (non-abortion tainted) COVID vaccines for Catholics...and, anyone else who feels morally obliged to refuse abortion-tainted vaccines!
Over the past 10 months, the Catholic Church's teaching office (the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - CDF) has quietly directed the Catholic faithful to protest against the use of aborted babies in the production or testing of available COVID vaccines in the West -- all of which use aborted fetal cell lines in either their development or testing phase.
Sadly, this direction has been so quiet that almost no-one knows about it.
At the same time, however, the Pope (see below), along with many other senior prelates, has been loudly promoting the uptake of these same unethically-produced vaccines amongst the Catholic faithful with only a whisper of protest.
It's clear that there is a major disconnect in the Church between word and action on this major moral issue.
But, instead of being a follower, the Church should be a leader in this area -- demanding the development of ethical vaccines (and, other ethically-developed products) for Catholics.**
In fact, there are already Catholic scientists, like Dr. Alan Moy, who are working with adult stem cells to help achieve ethical alternatives, but they have received "very little interest" from the Church, to-date.
And, to be fair, some individual bishops, like Archbishop J. Michael Miller of Vancouver, Canada, have vocally supported non-abortion tainted vaccines, with Archbishop Miller going so far as to donate towards ethical research.
But, it's time to try again and ask Church leaders in the Vatican and its US counterpart, the USCCB (the Catholic bishops' conference in the United States), to be fully consistent in word and deed on the issue of aborted fetal cell lines used to produce vaccines.
Jews have kosher foods and Muslims have halal foods. And, people from both traditions demand such foods - and, their demands are respected. As an example, please click and scroll down here to see all of the halal certificates which McDonald's needs to operate in Saudi Arabia.
So, certainly the Catholic Church could and should loudly demand that pharmaceutical companies develop and produce ethical vaccines for Catholics.
Indeed, the Church could and should ask the faithful to loudly demand ethical vaccines from Big Pharma (by providing phone numbers and email addresses, for example). And, or, the Church could and should commit to sponsoring the development of pro-life pharmaceuticals.
It should be noted here that the Catholic Church teaches that there is NO moral obligation, whatsoever, to accept a vaccine.
But, regrettably, for those who wish to take an ethically-produced COVID vaccine, even the Church's direction is hard to understand, precisely because it is contradictory.
On the one hand, the CDF says that acceptance of an abortion-tainted vaccine constitutes passive/remote material cooperation in the evil of abortion.
On the other hand the CDF also says that the acceptance of abortion-tainted vaccine is morally permissible when no ethically developed and tested vaccine is available.
At the same, however, the CDF paradoxically says that those who accept an unethical vaccine have the moral obligation to protest against it.
But then...there's the recent video of Pope Francis and other senior bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals promoting the COVID vaccines, without protesting against their gravely immoral development and testing, nor calling on Big Pharma to produce an ethical alternative.
So, where the current slate of COVID vaccines is concerned, the Church is apparently saying that you can cooperate with evil if some good may result...if you have no ethical alternative...but, you have to protest the evil...while participating in it.
And, well, the very people who are telling us to protest the unethical vaccines are, themselves, actually promoting them as, "an act of love."
That's confusing!
This kind of contradiction - saying one thing and doing another - is unacceptable because it assumes as normal the situation where only unethical vaccines are available for Catholics.
We are asking the Church to stop this seeming servility towards Big Pharma, and start a loud and active campaign promoting the development and production of ethical vaccines.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition urging Pope Francis and other Vatican authorities, as well as USCCB authorities, to loudly demand that Big Pharma develop and produce ethical vaccines for Catholics, untainted by abortion.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'‘Wholly unethical’: US ‘personhood’ org condemns COVID vaccines derived from aborted babies' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/wholly-unethical-us-personhood-org-condemns-covid-vaccines-derived-from-aborted-babies/
'In ‘rupture’ with Church’s ‘absolute opposition’ to abortion, Vatican hosting pro-aborts at pro-COVID jab conference' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/in-rupture-with-churchs-absolute-opposition-to-abortion-vatican-hosting-pro-aborts-at-pro-covid-jab-conference/
'‘I will never comply with evil’: Pro-lifer Abby Johnson on abortion-tainted vaccines' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/i-will-never-comply-with-evil-pro-lifer-abby-johnson-on-abortion-tainted-vaccines/
'Canadian archbishop donates to ethical coronavirus vaccine research' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/canadian-archbishop-donates-to-ethical-coronavirus-vaccine-research/
**Actually, to be fully consistent with the Church's teaching on this issue, the Catholic Church should demand that Catholics be offered an "ethical" choice for every major product, from food to cosmetics, from to clothing to medicine, and beyond.
Declining vaccine effectiveness
The deaths are important because they show the true limitation of current COVID vaccines. It is now recognized that the effectiveness of them quickly diminishes over time. Generally speaking, after about six months they become ineffective. It was found in this study that breakthrough infection rates 5-6 months post-vaccination are twice as high as 3-4 months post-vaccination. Also noted was that the data showed that mRNA vaccine effectiveness falls short of what was predicted in the drug company studies that got them FDA sanctioned. And that the Moderna vaccine was better than the Pfizer one in sustaining effectiveness.
An unpublished graph of CDC data (made available on a Rational Ground newsletter, October 14, 2021) showed a marked increase in COVID deaths in hospitals starting in April 2021, rising from 3.1 to 15.1 percent for vaccinated patients in May 2021. This corresponds to the five months since the onset of the mass vaccination program; a period when vaccines lose their effectiveness. As time goes on, more people lose protection from vaccines causing more breakthrough infections.
This serious decline in vaccine effectiveness should lead rational, objective people to conclude any vaccine that provides only a few months of protection should not be described as a medical solution worthy of wide use and mandates. And, in terms of ineffectiveness against the Delta variant, does it make sense to believe that requiring repeated booster shots of the same vaccines will produce better results? At best, they may only delay breakthrough infections.
The worsening of health outcomes after vaccination has been interpreted as resulting from damage to the immune system caused by vaccines. This is referred to as Antibody Dependent Enhancement in the medical research literature. It refers to immune system weakening from vaccines.
As to declining vaccine effectiveness, it should be noted that two studies from Israel and Qatar that were published in the New England Journal of Medicine supported this threat to the fully vaccinated. And in Israel the rise of COVID-19 cases in fully vaccinated people has been reported. According to Dr. Haviv, the vaccinated account for 85-90% of all new hospitalizations and 95% of “severe” cases at the Herzog Medical Center in Jerusalem.
Impacts of being vaccinated
There have also been reports that very high fractions of hospital admission in the US are for fully vaccinated people. One whistle blower reported that while the vaccination rate was less than 50% in the community where she worked, about 90% of hospital admissions had been fully vaccinated.
And it has been reported from several states that 40% of hospitalized COVID patients had been fully vaccinated, including from New York. Since July 1, nearly 40% of all Onondaga County residents who tested positive for the novel coronavirus had been fully vaccinated.
Recently reported for Maryland was that over the past three months in Anne Arundel County, about 30% of the people hospitalized with COVID are fully vaccinated. In neighboring Howard County health officials said roughly 30% to 40% of people hospitalized with COVID are fully vaccinated. That is a lot of breakthrough infections.
A recent report from Public Health England shows that 163 of the 257 people (63.4%) who died of the Delta variant within 28 days of a positive COVID test between February 1 and June 21 had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Natural immunity
A very important finding of the DOD study that in itself deserved attention by mainstream media was that the one variable that explained substantial resistance to serious negative health impacts from breakthrough infections was natural immunity resulting from prior COVID infection.
If we want to face reality with honesty, then natural immunity must be viewed as the enemy of mass vaccination. That governments refuse to credential natural immunity as they increasingly mandate vaccination is a disgraceful rebuttal of medical science. Indeed, there is now indisputable medical evidence that natural immunity is more effective, especially against variants, and longer lasting than vaccine immunity. All this makes it a threat to mass vaccination.
St. Lukes University Hospital in Pennsylvania has recognized natural immunity by offering their workers with it at least a one-year deferment to get vaccinated. With workers in many sectors refusing vaccination even with loss of their jobs, with a huge impact on our economy and society, perhaps the federal government and major companies will be compelled to act in a similar fashion by recognizing natural immunity.
Vaccine immunity impacts
Finally, this newly reported research is worth noting: a high viral load has been found in “158 of 232 unvaccinated (68%…) and 156 of 225 fully vaccinated (69%…) symptomatic individuals.” This means there was no difference between the symptomatic vaccinated and unvaccinated in terms of who was carrying, and therefore spreading, the virus. It also found high viral loads in “7 of 24 unvaccinated (29%…) and 9 of 11 fully vaccinated asymptomatic individuals (82%…).” This means, among asymptomatic individuals, the vaccinated had a higher percentage with a high viral load.
A valid conclusion is that the unvaccinated who catch the virus are more likely to be at home in bed with symptoms, while the vaccinated who catch the virus (breakthrough infection) may often have no symptoms and hence continue their daily routine unknowingly spreading the virus. This is why many medical experts refer to the vaccinated as super spreaders. Indeed, the eminent Dr. Robert Malone, inventor of mRNA vaccines, has emphasized that vaccinated people in their normal activities are “going to be spreading the virus like crazy.”
As to breakthrough infections and deaths, what must be remembered is that there is likely to be a lot of COVID virus circulating, mostly Delta variant now. And that is happening as fully vaccinated people have declining vaccine effectiveness. And booster shots just delay such a loss. All of this means increasing breakthrough cases, some of which result in death, especially in the most vulnerable, that is, the elderly, those with compromised immune systems (like Colin Powell), and those with serious comorbidities, including obesity. Vulnerable vaccinated people should consider a weekly dose of ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine, and daily doses of vitamins C and D and zinc and quercetin. All these would serve to prevent COVID infection and strengthen your immune system.
Dr. Joel S. Hirschhorn has a doctorate in engineering but has worked on health issues for decades. He is the author of Pandemic Blunder and many articles on the pandemics. As a full professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he directed a medical research program between the colleges of engineering and medicine. As a senior official at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the National Governors Association, he directed major studies on health-related subjects; he testified at over 50 US Senate and House hearings and authored hundreds of articles and op-ed articles in major newspapers. He has served as an executive volunteer at a major hospital for more than 10 years. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and America’s Frontline Doctors. He has lectured at many universities, including the Army War College.