The CDC on Vaccine Safety

The CDC has distinguished itself as a fount of misinformation and misleading statistics during the epidemic, trading actual science and objectivity for ideology and messaging.  Particularly egregious examples are the incessant lying about the value of masks and atrocious mis-attribution of deaths to CV-19.  The CDC has also regularly exaggerated the effectiveness of the vaccines.  It has been slow to respond to the widespread false claims about vax safety, although that is more the purview of the FDA.  Recently the CDC issued a statement on a potential safety signal relating to stroke in the elderly.  This was immediately jumped on by the vax safety nuts (hereafter referred to as “VSNs”), and that is exactly what they are, which I found nonesensical because they clearly failed to actually read the statement and understand its implications.  The statement is here.  (CDC Statement)

The CDC and the FDA have a variety of methods and systems to monitor drug, medical device and vaccine safety.  One of those monitors, which uses a network of health systems, suggested that there might be an increased risk of stroke associated with the vaccine.  The particular monitoring group is described here.  (VSD Page)   The CDC for once was fairly transparent and disclosed the risk signal.  This was immediately taken as proof that the vax were responsible and people quoted one part of the statement while ignoring the rest.  After describing the potential signal the CDC immediately notes the followup in extensive other research which has failed to corroborate or support any such association.  The most meaningful of these studies is one I summarized recently, across the entire Medicare fee-for-service population.

Particularly hilarious is that the VSNs ignored the fact that their favorite source for vax safety misinformation, VAERS, show no such potential association.  VAERS is worthless and should be retired, but if you are a VSN and want to quote VAERS as a source, at least be consistent.  All potential safety signals from trustworthy sources should be fully investigated.  This one, as the statement notes, has already been tested in several extremely large studies, and found to not exist.  But, as usual, that won’t stop the whackos from spreading their conspiracy theories, false anecdotes and outright lies.

Of course, the CDC also took the opportunity to pimp the use of the vaccines, including additional boosters, which at this point I believe is pointless, as effectiveness appears very low for further boosters and most people have been infected, which provides a better immune response.

For the millionth time, if you don’t like the CV-19 vax, be happy they aren’t very effective; don’t make up safety shit.