Jab effectiveness an illusion due to definitions?

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

We earlier touched on the with-or-from-COVID issue, with Dr Wen in the Washington Post acknowledging that ‘COVID hospitalisations’ and ‘COVID deaths’ could be ‘with’ instead of ‘from’. There are also legitimate questions about the definition of ‘unvaccinated’.

A batch of data released by the British government reveals some surprising and interesting revelations. Source. Figures 1 & 3 indicate the COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective with regards to COVID and non-COVID deaths, contradicting our analyses (here and here) of the most recent British data suggesting that the unjabbed are doing better across the board. That the vaccinated could do better for non-COVID deaths, even when the jab can cause adverse effects, seems to surprise even the British authorities: “coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination should not provide protection against non-COVID-19 mortality”. Perhaps part of the problem with the vaccines appearing to be so effective, especially when they’re not expected to, is how ‘unvaccinated’ is defined. Here is their definition: “those with no vaccination or who were vaccinated with a first dose less than 21 days ago” (they give further definitions with similar issues for the number of jab doses). So if someone died from the jab within 21 days, that’s an unvaccinated death. If the jab caused someone to get COVID due to a temporarily compromised immune system, and they died within 21 days, that’s an unvaccinated COVID death.

Okay then.

Extra: There is a big difference between ‘fully vaccinated’ and ‘not fully vaccinated’ on the one hand, and ‘ever vaccinated’ and ‘unvaccinated’ on the other. While the former might be somewhat appropriate for measuring effectiveness, you might want to use the latter when measuring safety. COVID skeptics have long suspected/known that the various definitions have a big effect on claims about effectiveness and safety, and it is becoming more obvious over time. Isn’t it more remarkable then, despite such narrative-favouring biases, that we often get data indicating the jabs’ efficacy is not so great and wanes quickly, and we occasionally get data revealing the unjabbed to be doing better with regards to COVID and non-COVID?