Dear Delegates,
Dear Chancellor,
We are very concerned that our society is being divided into the anti-COVID vaccinated and the unvaccinated and that there is increasing pressure on the unvaccinated to be vaccinated. We call on the government to end this divide and not only to end all direct and indirect coercive measures aimed at vaccinating the hitherto unvaccinated, but also to actively prevent them.
Below we explain why any form of coercion or pressure to be vaccinated is neither justified nor ethically justifiable.
The effectiveness of vaccination in protecting against severe COVID-19 disease
Registration trials of COVID-19 vaccines have shown that the vaccine has a relative effectiveness of about 60 to 95% in preventing infections. However, follow-up was only 10 to 14 weeks [1-4]. Because of the short observation period and inadequate number of events, no statements can be made about long-term efficacy or the prevention of severe cures or deaths. Observational studies with vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals are necessary here. An important example of such a study is a large matched cohort study from Israel, which compared 596,618 vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals with respect to the risk of COVID-related hospitalization or death [5]. The relative risk reduction of vaccinated persons with respect to hospitalization was 58% – which is already much less than the registration trials suggested. However, the absolute risk reduction was only 0.025%. This means that about 4,000 people would need to be vaccinated to prevent hospitalization. In terms of preventing one death, the absolute risk is reduced by vaccination even by only 0.0039%. This means that approximately 26,000 people need to be vaccinated to prevent one COVID death. Thus, the probability that the individual will be protected by vaccination is extremely low and thus must definitely be weighed against the risks of vaccination. Meanwhile, numerous other observational studies with very similar results are available.
The effectiveness of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 mutants in the course of time
Recent research shows that the effectiveness of vaccines declines over time. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, there was a decrease in relative vaccine efficacy from >90% immediately after full immunization to approximately 65% after four months [6]. In addition, the study found that by July 2021, there was a significant increase in delta variant infections in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, suggesting that the effectiveness of the vaccine not only declines over time, but is also lower for the delta variant. Statements about protection against hospitalization and death were not possible in this study, as there was only one hospitalization and no death. A recently published cohort study from Sweden demonstrates impressively that the effectiveness of vaccination drops so much after only six to seven months that protection can no longer be assumed [7]. This is also evident in the increasing number of vaccinated COVID patients treated in hospitals and intensive care units. Even the boosterization promoted by many will not solve the COVID problem. In a study from Israel, the absolute risk reduction for severe COVID cure by booster was 0.18% for patients older than 60 years with an observation period of only one month [8]. Corresponding studies in younger and otherwise healthy individuals are completely lacking. Above all, it is unknown whether vaccination and boosting will be effective with respect to newly emerging variants such as “Omikron”.
The risks of COVID vaccines.
No drug or vaccine has had as many reports of serious adverse reactions and deaths in such a short period of time since the relevant databases existed as the COVID-19 vaccines. In its safety report of 20.9.2021, the Paul Ehrlich Institute reports more than 156,360 reports of incidents related to the COVID vaccine in Germany [9]. The number of unreported cases is probably many times higher. Of the reported incidents, 1,450 ended fatally, 15,122 (0.015% of all vaccinations) were classified as serious (requiring hospitalization). Among the serious adverse events most likely to be linked to vaccination are myocarditis and pericarditis, severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis), thrombosis (pulmonary embolisms, strokes, heart attacks), platelet deficiency
(thrombocytopenia, bleeding) and total paralysis of the body (Guillain-Barré syndrome). The late effects of the already known serious side effects and further, still largely unexplored negative effects such as an antibody-dependent amplification of inflammatory processes in the case of a new infection (antibody-dependent amplification [ADE]) and the promotion of the development of immune complexes and autoimmune diseases by the nucleoside-modified mRNA of the mRNA vaccines are not even foreseeable, given the short observation periods to date. Infectivity of vaccinated and unvaccinated persons Recent studies show that neither the viral load nor the number of persons to whom infection is transmitted differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons [10] [11]. Thus, vaccinated people are as contagious as unvaccinated people and can contribute equally to the spread of the disease. These results were confirmed by a large population-based study by Public Health England: the same PCR Ct values are found in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals for infections with the alpha and delta variants [12].
Vaccination of recovered individuals
There is no study demonstrating a benefit of vaccination for convalescent patients with respect to clinically relevant endpoints. Those who have recovered have a very low risk of recurrence and an even lower risk of severe disease progression. In a study from Qatar, the risk of recurrence within a year in unvaccinated convalescents was 0.37%, the risk of severe disease was only 0.001%, and there was no death [13]. Even when the high relative risk reductions of the vaccination studies are applied to a collective of people who have recovered, the NNV, i.e., the number of people who should be vaccinated to prevent a serious course, exceeds 100,000.
The benefit/harm ratio of COVID-19 vaccines.
When weighing the benefits and harms, a person’s personal risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19 or dying from the disease must be taken into account. This risk is primarily determined by age and existing chronic diseases. A systematic review has shown that the risk of dying from COVID is about 10,000 times higher for people older than 80 years than for children younger than 10 years [14]. This factor must be taken into account when considering the benefits, as well as the harms, of vaccination. The figures in the Paul Ehrlich Institute safety report suggest that serious adverse events are about as common in children as in adults. But myocarditis is probably even more common in children and adolescents. In children, the number of vaccinations needed to prevent serious COVID-19 disease or even death from COVID also increases many times. It can be concluded from this that the benefit/harm balance of vaccination for children, adolescents, and young adults is most likely negative, i.e., more harm is caused by vaccination than serious COVID disease is prevented. At best, the protective effect of vaccination could offset the negative effect in the elderly and those with risk factors for a severe course of the disease. The only short-lived protection and the negative consequences of repeat vaccinations, e.g., in Israel, make even this benefit seem questionable. Moreover, it must be taken into account that much possible long-term harm from vaccinations is not yet known due to the lack of observation time and incomplete documentation. For these reasons, everyone should be free to decide for or against vaccination after receiving honest information about the benefits and risks. A direct or indirect vaccination requirement can neither be justified nor ethically justified on the basis of the available data.
Conclusion
The absolute, individual benefit of vaccination against COVID-19 is marginal for the average population. It may be higher for people at high risk of severe COVID. However, even for these people, the risks of negative late effects of vaccines are still unknown. Young and healthy people, especially healthy children and adolescents, should be advised against vaccination because the risks of serious side effects and late effects far outweigh the potential benefits. The claim that vaccination protects other people from COVID-19 is not valid and implausible given the large number of cases in vaccinated people and the lack of a difference in infectivity between vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Vaccination of convalescent patients is neither scientifically nor epidemiologically useful.
Therefore, we demand
- immediate cessation of the exclusion and restriction of social participation of unvaccinated children and adolescents
- immediate cessation of one-sided vaccination education that trivializes potential harm, and cessation of coercion of the population to get vaccinated
- immediate cessation of discrimination against the unvaccinated and unequal treatment of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated in public life, at work and in schools and day-care centers
- a return of political and medical decision-makers to (scientific) neutrality, away from the lobby-compliant panic policies pursued to date, which both willfully ignore scientific facts and trample on fundamental liberal democratic values
