Calculate your personal risk benefit ratio
You are now aware of all the possible risks from the different vaccine candidate. With all of them properly laid-out in the previous lesson topic, we can understand why many do not want to be injected with any of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 injection. In fact, it would be irresponsible to go with a general vaccination, any mandate or passport, children vaccination for that matter. On the other hand, this injection may be pertinent and beneficial to some individual. One must be able to calculate their own risk-benefit ratio to make the right decision for their, unique health situation.
INFECTION (natural Immunity) VS INJECTION
| Infection: from SARS -CoV-2 infection, asymptomatic or with various degrees of the illness and recovering from the disease. Injection: from receiving the immunization injections against SARS – CoV-2. | type of Immunity | |
| Hypothesis | infection | injection |
| provides protection from moderate or severe cases of the disease | Y | N |
| prevents transmission of the virus | Y | N |
| prevents future hospitalisation and death from Coronavirus | Y | N |
| protects the immunocompromised | y | N |
| protects the pregnant woman and unborn child | y | ? |
| protects individuals prone to allergic reactions | y | N |
| protects children from age 0 to 18 | y | N |
| Protects adults with specific conditions: COPD, Cardiovascular disease, immunocompromised, intestinal diseases | ? | |
| Protects children with diseases: Thalassemia, Drepanocytes (sickle cell), Leukemia, | Y | ? |
| Provides long term protection | y | N |
| Management of serious illness from immunization | Yes | ? |
Can you fill out this table with the help of the audio and video below?
Personal risk benefit evaluation
Calculate your risk of being victim of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
To be victim of the virus, one must first catch it; they need to become infected first. Review your lifestyle and work condition to evaluate the level of contact you may be having.
Do you have a very important social life?
Do you attend many social events with large group of people?
Do you live a secluded lifestyle, seeing a few regular folks?
Do you travel in public a lot?
Do you work in a healthcare setting (hospital, clinic, etc.)?
Can you work from home?
Do you follow strict sanitary rules? (handwashing and being mindful of not touching your face, physical distancing, etc.)
Would you consider your lifestyle or work situation to be putting you at risk of being highly in contact with the virus?
Infection
Calculate your risk of having a serious disease or even dying from complications following SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Bear in mind that the average risk of dying from complications following SARS-CoV-2 infection is relatively low (0.463 %). The mortality risk obtained from this calculator will be compared to the average risk to conclude in which part of the risk band you are.
Health wise how would you rate yourself?
Do you have healthy habits, eating well, not smoking, exercising, sleeping well? These healthy habits also help you decrease your death risk.
When you recover from getting the infection, you will most probably be immunized against different strains (variants) of the virus for quite a long time.
Injection
There is no calculator available to evaluate the risk of adverse events from the different emergency use approved injections (serious adverse events, injury, death) since the reporting rate of adverse events is very low.
Risk benefits ratio: The injection will not prevent hospitalization, severe disease, ICU, or death.
The injection comes with broad range of serious adverse events with their incidence rate ranging from 0.1 to 23.4 % (Astra-Zeneca)
Collateral risks
We tend to calculate the risk from taking the jab taking only the physical aspect.
Taking the jab also comes with financial and emotional impact.
If you were to experience some serious adverse event, long term injury, damage from the injection, would it be easily linked to the jab? Is treatment readily available?
How strong is your safety net? Do you have a strong personal net of resources, family, friends? What type of financial assistance are you eligible for if you sustain a serious injury from the jab?
The benefit for the injection is still yet to be observed, especially for those previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus. Due to the emergency caused by the Covid-19 crisis, the pharmaceutical companies can market this gene therapy before going through all the required safety steps (pre-clinical, clinical phase 1-2-3 etc.). Basically, the plane is being built as it is set to fly. Rushing through a fast-tracked vaccine instead of working on a treatment is the best marketing strategy for the Pharma since it is shielded from liability of vaccine injuries.
The unknown risk of the injection is the extent of side effects short and long term.
The injection injured population also faces the risk of major financial burden due to loss of income from disability, illness, or death.
“The cure may be worse than the disease.” or in this case escaping the disease may be worse.
Why should I get vaccinated? If your personally calculated risk of dying from the infection is much higher than the incidence of adverse events and death from the vaccine candidates.
Caution for young people
