Harvard Study Shows No Correlation between Vaccination Levels and COVID-19 Infection Rates
Originally published on Medium 24 October 2021
A recent study by two Harvard researchers has failed to show any correlation between vaccination levels and COVID-19 infection rates. The study, published online 30 September in the European Journal of Epidemiology, looked at vaccination rates along with COVID-19 infection rates in sixty-eight nations and 2947 counties in the United States.
At the nation level, there was no discernible relationship between percentage of the population fully vaccinated and rates of new infections; in fact, a slight positive correlation was observed. Israel, with sixty percent of its population fully vaccinated, had the world’s highest infection rate. Furthermore, Iceland and Portugal, each with over seventy-five percent of its population fully vaccinated, had higher infection rates than countries such as Vietnam and South Africa which have vaccination rates of less than ten percent.
At the county level, again there was no discernible relationship between vaccination rates and infection rates. Of the top five counties that have the highest percentage of inhabitants fully vaccinated, four are classified by the CDC as High Transmission counties.
In the discussion, the authors go on to note some problems specifically associated with the Pfizer vaccine:
· A report by the Israel Ministry of Health assessed the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine at thirty-nine percent, as opposed to the figure of ninety-six percent claimed by Pfizer
· Immunity acquired by means of the Pfizer vaccine may not be as strong as natural immunity conferred by recovery from COVID-19 infection
· Levels of humoral immunity in health care workers and nursing home residents receiving the Pfizer vaccine drop sharply by the six-month mark
Meanwhile, hate campaigns against “anti-vaxxers” (a category which apparently now includes anyone who has any concerns about the safety and effectiveness of any vaccine) continue unabated. Millions of workers face the loss their livelihoods for not accepting the vaccine, including, ironically, tens of thousands of emergency responders and front-line health care workers. At a recent “Town Hall” meeting in Baltimore, President Biden dismissed their concerns with a contemptuous sneer:
Freedom. I have the freedom to kill you with my covid. I mean, come on.
Hopefully the new study will inject a note of sanity into this acrimonious debate. But don’t count on it.