Informed consent: statement on covid policies affecting children and young adults

photo by Karolina Grabowska

I recently provided the following statement to support a case concerned with informed consent relevant to the vaccination and masking of children and young adults.

I can confirm, based on my own and close colleagues’ research since March 2020, the following relevant to <the case>:

• The risk to any healthy child of hospitalisation or death from covid is (and was) essentially zero [1][2][3][4]. For example, in the entire main period of the covid pandemic Feb 2020 – Dec 2022, just three people under the age of 20 in England and Wales died with COVID-19 as the only cause mentioned on the death certificate and even for these three no autopsy was conducted to confirm they were genuine ‘covid deaths’ [5]. In Jan 2022 the rare ‘covid death’ of a 7 year-old girl, Cassidy Baracka, in the USA [6] was used as a warning to urge parents to vaccinate their children; but the death was not from covid at all – it was the direct result of a covid vaccination [7] [8].

• The known risks of the vaccines have not been properly communicated to vaccine recipients. Doctors tasked with vaccination found blank information sheets inserted [9]. The first product monographs (these sheets) were only provided and approved for distribution in America and Canada as electronic downloads on 16 Sept 2021 (around 10 months AFTER the rollout began - so doctors were in fact, and legally, flying blind up until that point) and the heavily modified current version links on both the FDA and Health Canada websites are both dated 21 March 2023. [10] The UK monograph approach was simply to re-publish the American one.

• Studies claiming vaccine efficacy against covid are systemically flawed [11] [12] [13] (a catalogue of the studies and their flaws is provided in [14]).  Moreover, contrary to the efficacy claims widely made, the vaccinated are more likely to repeatedly test positive for covid (and hence be classified as a ‘covid case’) than those unvaccinated [15]. The Office for National Statistics data - that many have used against the Statistics Regulator’s advice as the basis for claims of efficacy [16][17] – are systemically flawed and biased [18]. Indeed, in contrast to the ONS data, the UKHSA data was consistently showing higher covid case rates in the vaccinated than the unvaccinated [19] until its surveillance reports stopped providing this information in March 2022; that was when, bizarrely, a footnote was added to Table 14 stating “Comparing case rates among vaccinated and unvaccinated populations should not be used to estimate vaccine effectiveness against covid-19 infection” [20].

• Studies claiming vaccine efficacy against hospitalisation and death from covid are systemically flawed and biased [14] [21]. Responses to FOIs requesting hospitalisation by vaccination status data inevitably reveal disproportionately higher rates among the vaccinated. For example, in 2022 Public Health Wales confirmed that 6.4% of hospitalised patients aged 60+ were unvaccinated compared with 90.8% double vaccinated [22].

• Multiple extremely concerning safety signals for the vaccines were known before Feb 2022 but were generally suppressed from the public [23] [24] [25][26]. For example, the MHRA did not release the information on multiple adverse reactions recorded between Jan and June 2021 in its redacted ‘not for publication report’ [27] sent by the MHRA to the Pharmacovigilance Expert Advisory Group (PEAG) for advice. which was only released following an FOI request in 2023 [28]. This report showed that among the 26,000 people who had registered for the MHRA Yellow Card Vaccine Monitor (YCVM) at the beginning of 2021, 53% reported at least one adverse reaction by 30 June 2021 [27] (the MHRA have released no further update since then and appear to have abandoned the monitoring scheme shortly after this report).

• Multiple deaths confirmed by coroners have resulted directly from the covid vaccinations [29][30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] with those under the age of 40 disproportionately affected [37] [38]. EMA and the European Parliament in April 2023 recognise 11,448 deaths following covid vaccination, and that there were 50,648 deaths attributed to the Covid vaccines in the Eudravigilance database [39].  But coroner confirmed deaths are known to be just a tiny proportion of the true number.  As of 28 July 2023 there were 35,726 deaths and 207,211 hospital visits reported in the VAERS system resulting from the covid vaccinations; the number of deaths reported for the covid vaccines in less than 2 years was almost four times the total number of deaths reported for all other vaccines combined in the 32 years of VAERS recording [40].  Despite claims to the contrary, a forensic analysis of a large sample of VAERS death reports in 2021 showed that most reports were submitted by health service employees and in only 14% of the cases could vaccine reaction be ruled out as a contributing factor in their death [25]; a forensic analysis of a random sample of 57 death reports in the UK’s Yellow Card scheme pre-covid showed that 40 were true positives (77%) while none of the remaining 17 could be proved to be false positives [41]. Moreover, it has always been widely accepted that less than 10% of all vaccine adverse reactions are reported to systems like VAERS [42]. Taking these factors into account it was estimated that, based on the Yellow Card scheme up to 29 Sept 2022 there had already been almost 16,000 deaths in the UK directly caused by the covid vaccines [43].

• Even using data from the ONS that we have shown to be highly biased and flawed in favour of vaccine safety and efficacy, it now certain that all-cause mortality in those under 50 is higher in those vaccinated than those unvaccinated meaning that, in the simplest and most objective way possible, the risks of the vaccine outweigh any benefits [18] [44]. There have also been multiple studies showing (at an international level) increased all-cause mortality in the vaccinated [45].

• There has been significant variability in the lethality of the vaccines by vaccine maker and batch number [46] [47] [48] [49] including some so bad that UK recipients were banned from travelling to the EU with them [50]. There have also been major problems with contamination especially affecting the AZ vaccines (which although manufactured in the USA were never approved for use by the FDA) [51] and confirmed deaths from contaminated Moderna batches [52].  The AZ batch PV46664 that caused the rapid deterioration in my own wife's frontotemporal dementia is now known to have been the second most lethal batch with 6648 adverse reactions and 17 deaths reported to the Yellow card system [53]).

• The standard procedure of ‘aspiration’ for intramuscular injections was generally stopped for the covid vaccines (although some countries like Denmark reverted to the practice after serious adverse reactions were caused by lack of aspiration) [54] and therefore it is likely that approximately 2% of vaccinations went straight into the blood, potentially explaining why a small proportion of vaccine recipients suffered far worse than most [55].

• Masks were ineffective against covid [56] [57] [58] and even the largest study that claimed to show some efficacy was fundamentally flawed and misleading [59]. There is no evidence that masks are effective for children [60]; rather, masks have been shown to be harmful to children and pregnant women [61] while [56]  found “a profound number” of participants “reported adverse reactions to prolonged mask use during COVID-19.”

• The covid case numbers were continually inflated due to mass PCR testing of asymptomatic people because the vast majority of asymptomatic people testing positive did not have the virus, i.e. the vast majority were false positives [62] [63].

• None of the studies promoted to support vaccination of pregnant women is valid -  they all suffer systemic biases and flaws which, if properly adjusted for, indicate the oppositive conclusion [64][65][66][67].    

References

[1]        C. Smith et al., “Deaths in children and young people in England after SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first pandemic year,” Nat. Med., vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 185–192, Jan. 2022.

[2]        A. M. Pezzullo, C. Axfors, D. G. Contopoulos-Ioannidis, A. Apostolatos, and J. P. A. Ioannidis, “Age-stratified infection fatality rate of COVID-19 in the non-elderly informed from pre-vaccination national seroprevalence studies,” medRxiv, p. 2022.10.11.22280963, Oct. 2022.

[3]        J. L. Ward et al., “Risk factors for PICU admission and death among children and young people hospitalized with COVID-19 and PIMS-TS in England during the first pandemic year,” Nat. Med., pp. 1–8, Dec. 2021.

[4]        J. P. A. Ioannidis, “Reconciling estimates of global spread and infection fatality rates of COVID-19: An overview of systematic evaluations.,” Eur. J. Clin. Invest., vol. 51, no. 5, p. e13554, May 2021.

[5]        Office for National Statistics, “COVID-19 deaths and autopsies Feb 2020 to Dec 2021,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/covid19deathsandautopsiesfeb2020todec2021.

[6]        C. McGrath, “COVID death of 7-year-old Cassidy Baracka prompts Groton community to raise money, hang ribbons in her honor,” Mass Live, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.masslive.com/news/2022/02/covid-death-of-7-year-old-cassidey-baracka-prompts-groton-community-to-raise-money-hang-ribbons-in-her-honor.html.

[7]        J. Beaudoin, “Child vaccine death reported as covid death,” 2023. [Online]. Available:

https://twitter.com/JohnBeaudoinSr/status/1689343389852909569/photo/1.

[8]        American Faith, “‘Fraudulent’ Death Certificate Data at Heart of College COVID Mandate Lawsuit,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://americanfaith.com/fraudulent-death-certificate-data-at-heart-of-college-covid-mandate-lawsuit/.

[9]        R. Johnson, “Dr. Renata Moon, board certified pediatrician, found an intentionally blank package insert in a box of mRNA vaccine product she planned to administer to a child,” 2022. [Online]. Available:

https://twitter.com/SenRonJohnson/status/1600634770035122176.

[10]      Comirnaty, “Product Monograph including patient medication information,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://covid-vaccine.canada.ca/info/pdf/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-pm1-en.pdf.

[11]      N. E. Fenton, M. Neil, and S. McLachlan, “Paradoxes in the reporting of Covid19 vaccine effectiveness: Why current studies (for or against vaccination) cannot be trusted and what we can do about it,” 2021. [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.32655.30886.

[12]      K. Fung, M. Jones, and P. Doshi, “Sources of bias in observational studies of covid‐19 vaccine effectiveness,” J. Eval. Clin. Pract., Mar. 2023.

[13]      N. E. Fenton and M. Neil, “The bias in vaccine effectiveness studies is finally being noticed,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/the-bias-in-vaccine-effectiveness.

[14]      M. Neil and N. E. Fenton, “How widespread is the (mal)practice of miscategorising vaccination status?,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/the-very-best-of-cheap-trick.

[15]      N. K. Shrestha, P. C. Burke, A. S. Nowacki, J. F. Simon, A. Hagen, and S. M. Gordon, “Effectiveness of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Bivalent Vaccine,” Open Forum Infect. Dis., vol. 10, no. 6, Jun. 2023.

[16]      N. E. Fenton and M. Neil, “UK Statistics Regulator agrees with our recommendation to ignore any claims of vaccine safety based on ONS deaths by vaccination status data,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/uk-statistics-regulator-agrees-with.

[17]      Office for Statistics Regulation, “Ed Humpherson to Norman Fenton, Martin Neil, Clare Craig and Scott McLachlan: ONS Deaths by Vaccination Status statistics,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/ed-humpherson-to-norman-fenton-martin-neil-clare-craig-and-scott-mclachlan-ons-deaths-by-vaccination-status-statistics/.

[18]      N. E. Fenton, M. Neil, C. Craig, and S. McLachlan, “What the ONS Mortality Covid-19 Surveillance Data can tell us about Vaccine Safety and Efficacy,” 2022. [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.30898.07362.

[19]      UK Health Security Agency, “COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report Week 13,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1066759/Vaccine-surveillance-report-week-13.pdf.

[20]      Jikkyleaks on Twitter, “UKHSA vaccine efficacy data stopped after new footnote aded,” 2023. [Online]. Available:

https://twitter.com/Jikkyleaks/status/1675005411014107136.

[21]      N. E. Fenton and M. Neil, “Claims the unvaccinated were at higher risk of hospitalisation and death were based on deliberately murky record keeping,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/claims-the-unvaccinated-were-at-higher.

[22]      Public Health Wales, “COVID hospitalisation rates,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.gov.wales/atisn16308.

[23]      J. Fraiman et al., “Serious adverse events of special interest following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in randomized trials in adults,” Vaccine, vol. 40, no. 40, pp. 5798–5805, 2022.

[24]      J. Rose, “A Report on the U.S. Vaccine Adverse EventsReporting System (VAERS) of the COVID-19 Messenger Ribonucleic Acid (mRNA) Biologicals,” Science, Public Health Policy,and The Law, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370158327_A_Report_on_the_US_VAERS_of_the_COVID_mRNA_Biologicals.

[25]      S. Mclachlan, M. Osman, K. Dube, P. Chiketero, Y. Choi, and N. E. Fenton, “Analysis of COVID-19 vaccine death reports from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) Database Interim: Results and Analysis,” 2021. [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.26987.26402.

[26]      K. J. Lehmann, “Suspected Cardiovascular Side Effects of Two COVID-19 Vaccines,” J. Biol. Today’s World, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 1–6, Aug. 2021.

[27]      MHRA, “COVID-19 VACCINE SAFETY SURVEILLANCE STRATEGY: UPDATE ON THE YELLOW CARD VACCINE MONITOR,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/api/v1/file/bf8785de-4c00-4612-aca8-aa8bc9eb0881.pdf.

[28]      N. E. Fenton and M. Neil, “Why is the MHRA hiding critical safety data on the covid vaccines?,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/why-is-the-mhra-hiding-critical-safety.

[29]      The Guardian, “BBC presenter Lisa Shaw died of Covid vaccine complications, coroner finds,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/aug/26/bbc-presenter-lisa-shaw-died-of-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-complications-coroner-finds.

[30]      Independent, “‘Healthy’ doctor died after reaction to Covid vaccine, inquest rules,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dr-stephen-wright-death-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-b2323265.html.

[31]      Wigan Today, “Coroner rules that Wigan mum died from rare complications from Covid AstraZeneca jab,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.wigantoday.net/health/coronavirus/coroner-rules-that-wigan-mum-died-from-rare-complications-from-covid-astrazeneca-jab-3473022.

[32]      Manchester Evening News, “Man died from blood clot linked to Covid vaccine - his family have been praised for still urging people to get the jab,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/man-died-blood-clot-linked-22115555.

[33]      Sussex World, “Woman died after Covid vaccine induced thrombosis,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/woman-died-after-covid-vaccine-induced-thrombosis-3732914.

[34]      Insider, “Mother died due to rare ‘brain bleed’ side effect of COVID-19 vaccine, coroner rules,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-covid-19-vaccine-caused-womans-death-coroner-rules-2022-3.

[35]      Daily Mail, “Woman, 38, died from complications due to AstraZeneca Covid jab, coroner rules,” 2022. .

[36]      P. Live, “Popular Devon dad and footballer died 11 days after AstraZeneca jab,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/popular-devon-dad-footballer-died-6320625.

[37]      C. L. F. Sun, E. Jaffe, and R. Levi, “Increased emergency cardiovascular events among under-40 population in Israel during vaccine rollout and third COVID-19 wave,” Sci. Rep., vol. 12, no. 1, p. 6978, Apr. 2022.

[38]      M. Patone et al., “Risks of myocarditis, pericarditis, and cardiac arrhythmias associated with COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Nat. Med., vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 410–422, Feb. 2022.

[39]      European Parliament, “How many deaths have been caused by ‘COVID vaccines’?,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2023-001201_EN.html.

[40]      OpenVAERS, “VAERS COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://openvaers.com/covid-data.

[41]      G. R. Venning, “Validity of anecdotal reports of suspected adverse drug reactions: the problem of false alarms.,” Br. Med. J. (Clin. Res. Ed)., vol. 284, no. 6311, pp. 249–52, Jan. 1982.

[42]      V. Ianneilli, “Underreporting of Side Effects to VAERS,” Vaxopedia, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://vaxopedia.org/2017/08/26/underreporting-of-side-effects-to-vaers/. [Accessed: 12-Aug-2023].

[43]      N. E. Fenton, “How many deaths were caused by the covid vaccines?,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/how-many-deaths-were-caused-by-the.

[44]      N. E. Fenton and M. Neil, “The latest ONS data on deaths by covid vaccination status,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/the-latest-ons-data-on-deaths-by.

[45]      D. G. Rancourt, M. Baudin, and J. Mercier, “COVID-Period Mass Vaccination Campaign and Public Health Disaster in the USA From age/state-resolved all-cause mortality by time, age-resolved vaccine delivery by time, and socio-geo-economic data,” 2022.

[46]      M. Schmeling, V. Manniche, and P. R. Hansen, “Batch‐dependent safety of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID‐19 vaccine,” Eur. J. Clin. Invest., vol. 53, no. 8, p. e13998, Aug. 2023.

[47]      MHRA, “Freedom of Information request on specific batch numbers on the adverse reactions reported following the COVID-19 vaccinations (FOI 22/661),” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-responses-from-the-mhra-week-commencing-6-june-2022/freedom-of-information-request-on-specific-batch-numbers-on-the-adverse-reactions-reported-following-the-covid-19-vaccinations-foi-22661%25.

[48]      A. C. Ceacareanu and Z. A. P. Wintrob, “Summary of COVID-19 Vaccine-Related Reports in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.,” J. Res. Pharm. Pract., vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 107–113, 2021.

[49]      Brook Medical Centre, “AstraZeneca Batches 4120Z001 4120Z002 4120Z003,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.brookmedicalcentre.nhs.uk/astrazeneca-batches-4120z001-4120z002-4120z003/.

[50]      iNews, “AstraZeneca vaccine batch numbers: Indian-made batches of the Covid jab, and how to check what yours is,” 2021. [Online]. Available: https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/travel/astrazeneca-vaccine-batch-numbers-indian-made-batches-covid-jab-check-travel-1102934.

[51]      N. E. Fenton, “The scandal of the Astrazeneca vaccine from the Emergent Biosolutions plant in Baltimore,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/the-scandal-of-the-astrazeneca-vaccine.

[52]      W. H. Chooi, P. W. Ng, Z. Hussain, L. C. Ming, B. Ibrahim, and D. Koh, “Vaccine contamination: Causes and control.,” Vaccine, vol. 40, no. 12, pp. 1699–1701, Mar. 2022.

[53]      N. E. Fenton, “AstraZeneca’s second most lethal batch,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/astrazenecas-second-most-lethal-batch.

[54]      J. Kajan, M. Sablić, and M. Heffer, “Aspiration During Vaccination: Evidence for SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination,” Southeast. Eur. Med. J., vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 121–128, Apr. 2022.

[55]      S. Brail, “Marc Girardot’s Unified Theory of Vaccine Injury,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://wholistic.substack.com/p/marc-girardots-unified-theory-of-vaccine-injury.

[56]      M. Loeb et al., “Medical Masks Versus N95 Respirators for Preventing COVID-19 Among Health Care Workers : A Randomized Trial.,” Ann. Intern. Med., vol. 175, no. 12, pp. 1629–1638, Dec. 2022.

[57]      D. G. Rancourt, “Masks Don’t Work A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy.” [Online]. Available: https://pearl-hifi.com/11_Spirited_Growth/10_Health_Neg/04_Pandemics/05_COVID_19/Masks/04_Masks_Dont_Work__A_Review_of_Science_Relevant_to_COVID-1_Social_Policy.pdf.

[58]      L. M. Brosseau and M. Sietsema, “COMMENTARY: Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data,” University of Minnesota, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data%0A.

[59]      N. E. Fenton, “The Bangladesh Mask study: a Bayesian perspective,” 2022. [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.26189.92649.

[60]      M. Eberhart, S. Orthaber, and R. Kerbl, “The impact of face masks on children-A mini review.,” Acta Paediatr., vol. 110, no. 6, pp. 1778–1783, Jun. 2021.

[61]      K. Kisielinski, S. Wagner, O. Hirsch, B. Klosterhalfen, and A. Prescher, “Possible toxicity of chronic carbon dioxide exposure associated with face mask use, particularly in pregnant women, children and adolescents - A scoping review.,” Heliyon, vol. 9, no. 4, p. e14117, Apr. 2023.

[62]      N. E. Fenton, M. Neil, and G. S. McLachlan, “What proportion of people with COVID-19 do not get symptoms?,” 2021. [Online]. Available: http://www.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.33939.60968.

[63]      M. Neil, “Positive results from UK single gene PCR testing for SARS-COV-2 may be inconclusive, negative or detecting past infections,” Br. Med. J., 2021.

[64]      Arkmedic’s Blog, “Debunking Viki Male: Part 1,” 2023. [Online]. Available: https://arkmedic.substack.com/p/debunking-viki-male-part-1.

[65]      R. Levi, “The studies ‘clearing’ the safety of COV vaccines for use in pregnancy are fundamentally biased,” 2023. [Online]. Available:

https://twitter.com/RetsefL/status/1659275881309696020.

[66]      N. E. Fenton, “Why are UKHSA obfuscating data on stillbirths by vaccine status: just another statistical illusion?,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/why-are-ukhsa-obfuscating-data-on.

[67]      N. E. Fenton, “The statistical illusion of better pregnancy outcomes for vaccinated women,” 2022. [Online]. Available: https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/the-statistical-illusion-of-better-pregnancy-outcomes-for-vaccinated-women.