Tag: Vaccines

Appropriate vaccine information they want to ignore

Pasted below the line: a thorough and succinct critique of a recent “we must overcome vaccine hesitancy” article. Copied from the PANDA Substack. Also published on Pandata.org

INTRODUCTION

“On January 5, 2024 the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article by Peter Marks and Robert Califf. Both authors are affiliated with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The article, “Is Vaccination Approaching a Dangerous Tipping Point?,” is a discussion about growing vaccine hesitancy in the US, and includes suggestions on how to alter this trend. The article is brief; it contains only nine paragraphs and one figure. The authors claim that vaccines (including the Covid shot) have been carefully developed and are safe and effective. They also argue for the medical community to “redouble its efforts” to provide the public with appropriate information about vaccines.

Unfortunately there are multiple problems with the claims made by the authors. We do, however, agree with their conclusion that “the best way to counter the current large volume of vaccine misinformation is to dilute it with large amounts of truthful, accessible scientific evidence.” In consequence, we think it appropriate to respond to the article by countering their incorrect claims with truthful, scientific evidence. To accomplish this, we consider nine specific claims made in the article.