Are US COVID-19 vaccines a safe and effective option?

US COVID-19 vaccines “are experimental in nature, not thoroughly tested for possible side effects and long-term effects, difficult to administer, and exorbitantly expensive,” American political analyst Dennis Etler has said.

Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV while commenting on the concerns raised in the US media following the death of a “healthy” doctor two weeks after getting a first dose of a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Gregory Michael, a Miami-Beach 56-year-old obstetrician, was in good health. Health officials from Florida and the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating whether the vaccine played a role in his death, which possibly is the country's first death linked to the vaccine.

The doctor received his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 18 at Mount Sinai Medical Center, according to his wife, Heidi Neckelmann.

Small spots began to appear on his feet and hands after three day and he went to the emergency room at Mount Sinai, where he has worked in private practice for 15 years, according to reports.

According to his wife, Michael’s blood count was far below normal ranges, and he was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Doctors tried for two weeks but could not raise Michael’s platelet count. “Experts from all over the country were involved in his care,” she wrote. “No matter what they did, the platelets count refused to go up.”

Michael was “conscious and energetic” through the process, but just days before a last resort surgery, he suffered a stroke and died.

Michael's wife said that he spent the pandemic delivering hundreds of babies and was a COVID-19 vaccine advocate.

Killer vaccine? 'Healthy' South Florida doctor died 2 weeks after receiving COVID-19 vaccine

Two weeks after getting a first dose of a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, a 56-year-old American doctor in South Florida has died, the US media have reported.

“How safe and effective are the mRNA base d COVID-19 vaccines developed by American Big-Pharma? The much-hyped Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are now being administered on a massive scale in the US and other Western countries. They have undergone Phase 3 testing and have been deemed safe and effective, and have been granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). They have not, however, been formally approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA),” said Etler.

“The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the only ones that have been granted EUA by the US. They are, however, experimental. No previous vaccines have used the technology they employ. There are therefore many questions about them that remain unanswered. While all vaccines have minor side effects, the side effects associated with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have not been thoroughly studied and their long-term effects are still unknown. Besides that, the Pfizer vaccine is only known to be effective if given a booster after two weeks. A single shot apparently wears off after 21 days and doesn't provide protection thereafter,” he added.

“Since both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require deep freezing to retain their potency they are also difficult to store and transport, necessitating infrastructure not available in many countries. Difficulties in their manufacture also make them ten to twenty times more expensive per dose than more traditional vaccines. With huge government subsidies and purchases, these experimental vaccines have become a cash cow for their developers,” he noted.

“As can be seen, there are many questions swirling around the use of these Western designed vaccines. In addition, the fragmented US public health care delivery system has logistical problems that prevent their smooth and equitable distribution. There's a very good chance that many people will not get their 2nd shots on schedule and will effectively be susceptible to the virus after the initial vaccination wears off,” he said.

“The Pfizer vaccine has not been adequately tested on a diversity of human populations as data is largely lacking on Asians. Only 4.3% of Pfizer’s phase 3 trial participants were Asians, while the efficacy rate for the diverse ethnic group was just 74.4% against 95% for whites,” he stated.

“Although the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are experimental in nature, not thoroughly tested for possible side effects and long-term effects, difficult to administer, and exorbitantly expensive, they are nevertheless heralded as a great gift to humanity,” he said.

“Other vaccines that have been tested and authorized for emergency use by China and Russia have also been shown to be safe and effective. These vaccines, however, are based on tried and true methods, are easy to store and transport, and inexpensive to produce in large quantities. China has promised to treat them as a public good and hopes to make them available for the global community,” he said.

“The Western media, however, has treated the Chinese and Russian vaccines with scorn and skepticism, suggesting, without evidence, that they are unreliable and untrustworthy. These vaccines can be produced overseas in established production facilities and hold the promise of giving the world the means to effectively combat the pandemic. Given all these considerations nations such as Iran are justified in questioning whether the US vaccines are a safe and trustworthy option,” Etler noted.

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