In the light of media reports about various side effects and complications after the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine, which was jointly developed by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech, we can't help but wonder how safe the use of this drug is, especially if it concerns vulnerable groups of the population. Earlier, the authorities of Norway and Germany reported on the deaths of just over 30 people following the introduction of this vaccine. And although it has not yet been proven that the cause of death is due to the use of drugs from Pfizer or Moderna, a sufficient amount of doubt about their mass use is already emerging in society.
In the EU member states, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved two vaccine options for use: Comirnaty, created by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German BioNTech, and the vaccine from the American pharmaceutical company Moderna. The first approval was received on December 21, while the second one was a little later – on January 6.
Comirnaty and Moderna are vaccines created on the basis of a matrix RNA platform, which involves "programming" the reactions of the human body to the virus itself. Larisa Popovich, Director of the Institute for Health Economics at the Higher School of Economics, compares this kind of drug with an "instruction", on the basis of which the body must create virus-like particles, which the immune system subsequently recognizes and thus forms a defense against them. At the same time, she is sure that the use of a poorly studied matrix vaccine in humans is nothing more than an experiment, a study of the human body's response to a new biological drug. Due to the fact that not enough time has passed to test the drug, it is not yet possible to identify its weaknesses. The human body may well react quite differently than it is supposed to. What exactly the consequences may be depends on the specific state of a particular organism.
The fact is that humanity have no experience yet in using such vaccines, so there is no reliable data on their impact on the living organism both in the short and long term. In other words, many complications can occur years and decades after the administration of this drug.
Alexander Chepurnov, a leading researcher at the Federal Research Center for Fundamental and Translational Medicine, agreed with Popovich. He described these kinds of vaccines as drugs with modified genetic material, whose introduction in such a large amount has never been practiced. Thus, the data on their consequences are unknown.
Several experts from the United States also express concerns that the use of matrix vaccines to combat COVID-19 can lead to the formation of genetic disorders in a particular person, which can be detected only after a while.
However, not all scientific experts share these concerns with the above-mentioned specialists. Many do not see any risk in using the Pfizer vaccine.
But unfortunately, statistics on the number of complications and deaths have already shown more than a dozen cases since the start of vaccination. In Norway, 23 deaths were identified among those who received the vaccine from Pfizer. These are patients with chronic diseases and older than 80 years. In Germany, 10 elderly people with serious illnesses died after the drug was administered. In Israel, 13 people had facial paralysis. In the Netherlands, more than 100 people were recorded with various degrees of severity: many complained of pain at the injection site, allergies and various edemas. In Finland, 32 cases of Comirnaty vaccine complications were reported, including various mild (injection site reaction) and severe (anaphylactic shock) allergic reactions, enlarged lymph nodes, nausea, malaise, weakness, headache and chills.
In connection with these rising doubts in society, Europe's economic situation continues to deteriorate. This is due to the strict restrictions caused by the negative pandemic situation. Today, economic activity in the EU countries is in the range of 45-75% compared to the values recorded a year ago. The worst economic conditions are in the UK, Canada and Italy. Meanwhile, Japan, Sweden and Spain are doing their best. Last week, economic activity fell noticeably in Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Norway. The situation in the United States, in turn, is relatively stable. In the UK, Canada and Sweden, these figures have slightly risen over the past week.