As many as 24 countries worldwide have suspended the use of the experimental AstraZeneca vaccine over concerns that it causes deadly blood clotting known as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).
The countries pumping the brakes on this particular jab include European nations such as Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. This week, Canada has halted the use of the beleaguered vaccine. AstraZeneca’s vaccine has not yet received emergency-use authorization from the FDA in the United States.
The canary in the coal mine was ground-zero victim Dr. Gregory Michael, an apparently healthy 56-year-old Florida physician. He suffered blood clotting directly after receiving his vaccine in December and was admitted to the hospital, where experts tried in vain to reverse his steep decline. Michael eventually suffered a hemorrhagic stroke related to a lack of platelets and died on Jan. 3.
At the time, his wife stated:
“He was in very good health. He didn’t smoke, he drank alcohol once in a while, but only socially. He worked out, we had kayaks, he was a deep-sea fisherman. They tested him for everything you can imagine afterwards, even cancer, and there was absolutely nothing else wrong with him.”
Naturally, the pharmaceutical company's public relations arm sprang into action, invoking the well-worn admonition that correlation does not equal causation. A company spokesperson assured us that:
"Around 17 million people in the E.U. and U.K. have now received our vaccine, and the number of cases of blood clots reported in this group is lower than the hundreds of cases that would be expected among the general population.”
In unsurprising accord with AstraZeneca, the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis stated that the small numbers of blood-clotting cases relative to the number of vaccines administered “do not suggest a direct link.”
This invocation -- that no correlation exists between two events that appear to be connected -- is perversely inverted when it serves prevailing narratives. Recall how we were told to be alarmed by rising infection rates? This was the case, even though the World Health Organization (WHO) and Anthony Fauci knew early in 2020 that the PCR tests used globally to detect cases were determined to be producing false positives as much as 90% of the time – as reported in The New York Times. No one cited a disconnect then or lectured the great unwashed that there was “no direct link.” It was taken as gospel that the PCR tests determined actual infection rates.
Likewise, the ballooning numbers of deaths have been attributed to the pernicious virus, while the CDC issued a statement that just 6% of COVID deaths can be attributed to the virus alone and 94% involve other co-morbidities. That means many deaths with COVID-19 have been officially listed as from COVID-19 – whether true or not. And hospitals have been too happy to play along as they receive greater funding and reimbursement for COVID deaths than non-COVID deaths.
As of this week, there have been no official PR statements from company or government spokespersons about the fact that official COVID deaths don’t match the actual deaths in hospitals, in contravention to the CDC’s data. Combine this with the unprecedented fact that there have been between zero and 232 flu deaths during the 2020-21 flu season, when there were more than 22,000 deaths last year from influenza. Do you begin to get an idea of the integrity of such ledgers?
Is it reasonable to suggest that at least a portion of seasonal flu deaths were attributed to COVID? How else to explain the sudden dramatic drop? This is a watershed year with the lowest number of seasonal flu deaths ever in recorded history. Is your Spidey-sense tingling?
AstraZeneca’s public relations two-step notwithstanding, this week delivered more sobering news about the vaccine. Is this confirmation the conspiracy theorists who linked the vaccine to blood clotting were right?
A German research team, led by Professor Andreas Greinacher, issued a statement asserting that in some cases, AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 jab can result in dangerous blood clots caused by overactivation of platelets in the blood. Simultaneously, a Norwegian research team, led by Pal Andre Holme working out of Oslo University Hospital, believes it has identified antibodies triggered by the AstraZeneca vaccine that cause an overactivation of the immune system response that leads to blood clotting. Two different research teams posit the same conclusion.
But causation does not equal correlation, according to an AstraZeneca spokesperson, as if recitation of a public relations mantra could make it true.
Lest anything impede the trans-global vaccine parade, the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency both insist the shot is safe and encourage people to continue getting it.
You’ll have to take their word for it. Why stop now?
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Read more from Pennel Bird.
