OPINION:
Normal life has returned for most Americans as the COVID-19 pandemic that struck three years ago continues to fade. With more than a million compatriots dead, though, it is fitting to assess the battle to save lives and, even more importantly, to gauge whether President Biden’s relentless campaign of emancipation through vaccination is still smart. At this stage, there is mounting evidence that it is doing harm in addition to good.
First, the harm — manifesting as unintended consequences. Inoculation with mRNA therapies untested for long-term effects across nearly every demographic has apparently resulted in a disturbing phenomenon: Vaccinated individuals with little to fear from COVID-19 — primarily the young and healthy — are coming down with the virus — albeit its less-lethal variants — with greater frequency than their unvaccinated counterparts.
How is this possible? Results of research published in December by Science Immunology could provide an answer. German scientists have found that after receiving the original, double-dose Pfizer vaccine and a supplemental booster, recipients exhibited a decline in virus-neutralizing antibodies and a rise in a virus-tolerant variety — from a 0.04% proportion to 19.27%. Greater virus tolerance — added to the tendency of COVID-19 to mutate — could explain the observed occurrence of vaccinated individuals catching the illness again.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been linked by the drug companies’ own clinical trials to an increase in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections. Some attribute the current nationwide spike in RSV and flu cases to “immunity debt” — the return of these seasonal viruses as the infection-mitigation practices of the pandemic years disappear.
If, however, the mRNA shots’ tendency to swap virus-neutralizing antibodies for less-resistant ones is allowing the other respiratory viruses to flourish, then harm to the immune systems of healthy people may exceed the benefits of vaccination. For the majority of Americans — those neither old nor sick — the nation’s public health campaign to get the jab has, in effect, enlisted them as subjects of a risky scientific experiment.
To be sure, harmful vaccine effects do not erase the good. A study published in December by the Commonwealth Fund and Yale School of Public Health estimated that the various mRNA vaccines have saved more than 3.2 million American lives and prevented 18.2 million hospitalizations. For the elderly, the obese and those suffering from pre-existing health conditions, the vaccines have proved a godsend in sparing them from the onslaught wrought by the initial wave of infection. Believing early on that COVID-19 had placed them in the crosshairs of death, few Americans chose to opt out of the only available protective shield.
Three years later and unmoved by the vaccines’ side effects, though, the Biden administration shows no signs of refining its vax-or-bust message. The Department of Health and Human Services’ “We can do this” campaign — a “national initiative to increase public confidence in and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines” — remains a staple across the cable TV spectrum.
Mr. Biden’s Democrat-controlled government has focused solely on freedom from disease through universal vaccination. With their accession to leadership of the House, Republicans should not be afraid to follow the science.
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