Hard jab questions

Re: “More dubious Covid figures,” (BP, Sept 26).

Of statistics, Mark Twain once keenly observed that “facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable”. I was reminded of this quote when Ray Baan pointed out that the Minister of Public Health used some optimistic mathematics regarding Thailand’s hopes of vaccinating 90% of the population; or actually perhaps 74%, as the writer pointed out.

However, there is some new hard data coming in from highly vaccinated countries which raise serious questions as to the long-term efficacy of our current generation of Covid vaccines. A metanalysis of global data yields that, as of Sept 18, 2021, the US was 63% vaccinated, Germany was 66% vaccinated, and Israel is at least 68% vaccinated. Yet, the US has roughly 300% more infections now than at this time last year, and Germany and Israel had +56% and +65% increases in their infections; within the recent dates of Aug 19th to Sept 15th. Meanwhile, in the same period of time, South Africa was only 19% vaccinated, Nigeria approximately 2.5% vaccinated, and Kenya 4.4% vaccinated, yet their change in cases (known infections) are down -65%, -55%, and -64% respectively, according to a metanalysis of public data published on Sept 20, 2021, by journalist Roney Atkinson in the UK.

According to the same recent public Covid data metanalysis, in Scotland, 70% of Covid fatalities and 58% of hospitalisations were recently discovered to be among the fully vaccinated. Any interested reader can pull the raw data themself, but the results broadly urge society to ponder the virtues not only of natural immunity, but also the virtues of what elected officials around the world tend to tell citizens about these vaccines only after signing lucrative (and often opaque) contracts. JASON A JELLISON