I’ve attached the slides of the keynote that I held yesterday at the Vaccine Summit in Ohio (“Why should current Covid-19 vaccines not be used for mass vaccination during a pandemic?”). Please do have a look at them. The bottom-line is that I don’t see how mass vaccination campaigns would not lead to a disastrous aggravation of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, no one else seems to realize; instead, vaccinologists, clinicians and scientists are merely focusing on the (positive) short-term results and impact at an individual level. Nobody seems to be looking at the consequences and risk at a human population level (which, according to my understanding, will become manifest quite soon). Why is nobody worried about ‘immune escape’ whereas Covid-19 has already escaped people’s innate immunity as reflected by multiple emerging, much more infectious, viral variants (most likely due to the global implementation of infection prevention measures)? Vaccine deployment in the ongoing mass immunization campaigns are highly likely to further enhance (adaptive) immune escape as none of the current vaccines will prevent replication/ transmission of viral variants. The more we use these vaccines for immunizing people in the midst of a pandemic, the more infectious the virus will become. With increasing infectiousness comes an increased likelihood of viral resistance to the vaccines. It's not exactly rocket science, it’s a basic principle taught in a student’s first vaccinology class: One shouldn’t use a prophylactic vaccine in populations exposed to high infectious pressure (which is now certainly the case as multiple highly infectious variants are currently circulating in many parts of the world). To fully escape selective immune pressure exerted by vaccinal antibodies, Covid-19, a highly mutable virus, only needs to add another few mutations in its receptor-binding domain … I am beyond worried about the disastrous impact this would have on our human ‘race’. Not only would people lose vaccine-mediated protection but also their precious, variant-nonspecific (!), innate immunity will be gone (this is because vaccinal antibodies outcompete natural antibodies for binding to Covid-19, even when their affinity for the viral variant is relatively low). I’ve alerted all responsible health and regulatory authorities, including WHO, CDC, FDA etc. and have asked to consider my concern and to immediately open the discussion about the disastrous consequences any further immune escape of Covid-19 would have. I know, of course, that current mass vaccination campaigns enjoy vigorous and world-wide support from a multitude of different parties/ stakeholders. However, unless I am proven wrong, this cannot be an excuse for ignoring that mankind may currently be transforming a quite harmless virus into an uncontrollable monster. I’ve never been that serious about a statement I made.
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