As medics, we were trained to apply "precautionary principle" and "first do no harm". It's drilled into students constantly.

It involves the recognition that every medical intervention has risks which need to be balanced with

So I am wondering why the government is administering the Pfizer vaccine at all to healthy NHS staff.

We know the risks of significant illness in this group are really, really low.
In England, recorded deaths for people less than 60 years old with no pre-existing condition during the entire pandemic currently stands at 322:

https://t.co/FRgRhY3s73
To place into context, in the 2017/8 winter season, there were 1470 deaths attributable to flu in the <65 year bracket.

https://t.co/paAtM3Koii
To protect patients?

But as yet the vaccine has not even been shown to prevent infection or transmission, only reduce the severity of symtoms. Even Pfizer's CEO has stated as much.

https://t.co/j9iODDgEvP
To reduce self-isolation by NHS staff?

OK, is this really what we want?

“In the worst-case scenario, you have people walking around feeling fine, but shedding virus everywhere,” says virologist Stephen Griffin at the University of Leeds, UK.

https://t.co/o91WCQm9E1
Well it's pretty safe? And it may well be, though to my mind 3 or 4 months exposure in 22k subjects isn't really great enough to justify roll-out into 10s / 100s of millions in one go.

But one particular aspect of of this really, really disturbs me.
It would appear that in the rush to roll-out the Pfizer vaccine, there were no contra-indications specified for anybody who had a history of allergic reactions.

Really? I get asked that if ever I am given any medicine at all, whether it be drug treatment, or any vaccine.
So today we have had this:

https://t.co/8RQjwwsYqo
No such reactions were seen during the trial. That is true.

Notably, however, subjects with a "history of severe adverse reaction associated with a vaccine" were specifically excluded.

https://t.co/Q6DNMsAdpG
So today, the Regulator has seen fit to issue a contra-indication for subjects with a history of significant allergic reactions.

https://t.co/2YHN72HebF
Now I had assumed that these reactions would be one-offs, totally unpredictable.

If so, well it's kind of understandable as the unexpected happens.

Life would be boring otherwise.
But no, apparently and somewhat astonishingly:

"Both NHS workers have a history of serious allergies and carry adrenaline pens around with them."
Really? Nobody thought to exclude these individuals? Nobody thought that the balance of risk / benefit maybe mitigated against them receiving this brand new vaccine?

Where has "precautionary principle" gone?
My only conclusion is that that normal, careful risk evaluations have gone completely out of the window.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. None of the lockdown policies pursued were ever properly analysed for collateral harms, even after the evidence became available.
I always feel the need to emphasise that I am not at all "anti-vax". All my 4 children had all their childhood vaccines.

I even think there's a case to be argued to allow schools to mandate vaccination as an entry requirement.
But these vaccines have been around for decades, and billions of doses have been given.

I am not "against" the Pfizer vaccine. It is a monumental achievement to have developed it in such a short timeframe.

I am encouraging the vulnerable to take it as soon as available.
What I am against, though, is the use of an ill-conceived, rushed mass roll-out of a brand new product - without proper risk/benefit analysis - purely as a fig-leaf for egregious political incompetence.

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The first ever world map was sketched thousands of years ago by Indian saint
“Ramanujacharya” who simply translated the following verse from Mahabharat and gave the world its real face

In Mahabharat,it is described how 'Maharishi Ved Vyasa' gave away his divine vision to Sanjay


Dhritarashtra's charioteer so that he could describe him the events of the upcoming war.

But, even before questions of war could begin, Dhritarashtra asked him to describe how the world looks like from space.

This is how he described the face of the world:

सुदर्शनं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्वीपं तु कुरुनन्दन। परिमण्डलो महाराज द्वीपोऽसौ चक्रसंस्थितः॥
यथा हि पुरुषः पश्येदादर्शे मुखमात्मनः। एवं सुदर्शनद्वीपो दृश्यते चन्द्रमण्डले॥ द्विरंशे पिप्पलस्तत्र द्विरंशे च शशो महान्।

—वेद व्यास, भीष्म पर्व, महाभारत


Meaning:-

हे कुरुनन्दन ! सुदर्शन नामक यह द्वीप चक्र की भाँति गोलाकार स्थित है, जैसे पुरुष दर्पण में अपना मुख देखता है, उसी प्रकार यह द्वीप चन्द्रमण्डल में दिखायी देता है। इसके दो अंशो मे पीपल और दो अंशो मे विशाल शश (खरगोश) दिखायी देता है।


Meaning: "Just like a man sees his face in the mirror, so does the Earth appears in the Universe. In the first part you see leaves of the Peepal Tree, and in the next part you see a Rabbit."

Based on this shloka, Saint Ramanujacharya sketched out the map, but the world laughed
@EricTopol @NBA @StephenKissler @yhgrad B.1.1.7 reveals clearly that SARS-CoV-2 is reverting to its original pre-outbreak condition, i.e. adapted to transgenic hACE2 mice (either Baric's BALB/c ones or others used at WIV labs during chimeric bat coronavirus experiments aimed at developing a pan betacoronavirus vaccine)

@NBA @StephenKissler @yhgrad 1. From Day 1, SARS-COV-2 was very well adapted to humans .....and transgenic hACE2 Mice


@NBA @StephenKissler @yhgrad 2. High Probability of serial passaging in Transgenic Mice expressing hACE2 in genesis of SARS-COV-2


@NBA @StephenKissler @yhgrad B.1.1.7 has an unusually large number of genetic changes, ... found to date in mouse-adapted SARS-CoV2 and is also seen in ferret infections.
https://t.co/9Z4oJmkcKj


@NBA @StephenKissler @yhgrad We adapted a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2 by serial passaging in the ... Thus, this mouse-adapted strain and associated challenge model should be ... (B) SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA loads in mouse lung homogenates at P0 to P6.
https://t.co/I90OOCJg7o