100% Safe?

This topic came up again today. Was the safety or efficacy of the vaccine overstated? It depends on who you ask. Personally I like Trump’s answer.

The vaccines do work and they are effective…I don’t think, I know I saved millions and millions of lives throughout the world…we could have had close to a hundred million people die….and now other countries are using our vaccines. They are tremendously successful.

Donald Trump

Safety is Relative

I think safe is a relative term. No food, no car, no bridge, no nothing is 100% safe. When evaluating medical treatment I think you have to go with what has the best overall safety profile. Likewise, I think politicians, medical professionals, etc. should be careful to stick to the evidence and not overstate their cases.

This is no doubt an area with lots of hypocrisy. For example, I see people say the vaccines are not safe but hydroxychloroquine is safe. Well the truth is they both have a safety profile neither of which is 100.000000000000000% safe but according the the FDA they are safe and I tend to agree.

As an example, this story talks about Jeremy Parker who died after getting hydroxychloroquine from an anti-vaccine group. So is hydroxychloroquine safe, actually, yeah it still is. When it is prescribed correctly and given appropriately it is rated as safe by the FDA. This doesn’t mean there won’t be people with complications just like some people are allergic to red meat.

I may have lost the point here but generally I think the vaccines are very very safe when used appropriately, and I agree with Trump that they have saved millions and millions of lives. Good job Trump.