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A large US study published Monday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases looked at data from over 7 million self-reported instances of negative side effects from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. As of Feb 28, 2022, over 530 million doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the USA. 92% of negative side effects were not serious, and less than 1% of people who reported side effects seeked any medical care.
The data in the study came from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which is run by the CDC and the FDA.
Out of all the negative side effects reported via VAERS, 20% were headache, 17% were fatigue, 16% were fever, 16% were chills and 15% were pain, according to the study. The study says about 4,500 deaths were noted, mostly among people 60 and older. Those deaths were reported without any clear association with vaccination. No unusual patterns were detected. The data reflects a rate of deaths which researchers would expect to find when studying any older population this size.
Myocarditis and anaphylaxis were the only reported significant side effects which were related to the vaccines. Anaphylaxis rates were less than 1 in 100,000. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in January suggested that among the group with the most reports of myocarditis — males ages 16 and 17 — the rate was about 1 out of 9,500.
On Monday, the Florida Department of Health, from an abundance of caution, became the first state to officially recommend against the Covid-19 vaccines for healthy children.
TAKE HOME
Evidence continues to mount in favor of the safety of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. For young men under thirty, who are healthy, the risk of myocarditis from vaccination is small but real. Covid vaccination is safe in this and all other groups. The best risk benefit analysis does not support the need for Covid-19 boosters in healthy Americans under the age of 18.
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Scientists found genetic material owned by Moderna in the Covid-19 virus's spike protein.
They identified a tiny snippet of code that is identical to part of a gene patented by the vaccine maker three years before the pandemic. It was discovered in SARS-CoV-2's unique furin cleavage site, the part that makes it so good at infecting people and separates it from all the other coronaviruses.
The structure has been one of the focal points of debate about the virus's origin, with many scientists claiming it could not have been acquired naturally.
In the latest study, published in Frontiers in Virology, researchers compared Covid's makeup to millions of sequenced proteins on an online database.
Covid-19 is the only coronavirus to carry 12 unique letters that allow its spike protein to be activated by a common enzyme called furin, allowing it to spread between human cells with ease.
Analysis of the original Covid genome, which has a total of 3,300 nucleotides, found the virus shares a sequence of 19 specific letters with a genetic section owned by Moderna.
The US-based pharmaceutical firm filed a patent for this sequence in February 2016 as part of its cancer research division.
The patented sequence is part of a gene called MSH3 that is known to affect how damaged cells repair themselves in the body. The twelve shared letters make up the structure of Covid's furin cleavage site, with the rest being a match with nucleotides on a nearby part of the genome.
There is a one-in-three-trillion chance Moderna's sequence randomly appeared through natural evolution.
TAKE HOME
More evidence for the now dominant theory that the Covid-19 virus originated in the Virology Lab which is located in Wuhan, China.