By Enza Ferreri

At the present time, it is WHO’s position that national authorities and conveyance operators should not introduce requirements of proof of COVID-19 vaccination for international travel as a condition for departure or entry, given that there are still critical unknowns regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission. In addition, considering that there is limited availability of vaccines, preferential vaccination of travellers could result in inadequate supplies of vaccines for priority populations considered at high risk of severe COVID-19 disease. [Emphasis added]

So says the Interim position paper: considerations regarding proof of COVID-19 vaccination for international travellers of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s website.

The paper then goes on to describe scientific, ethical, legal and technological considerations in support of this official position of the WHO.

Starting with the scientific reasons:

A number of scientific unknowns remain concerning the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines: efficacy in preventing disease and limiting transmission, including for variants of SARS-CoV-2; duration of protection offered by vaccination; timing of booster doses; whether vaccination offers protection against asymptomatic infection; age and population groups that should be prioritized for vaccination, specific contraindications, how long before travel vaccines should be offered; and possible exemption of people who have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. [Emphasis added]

We have at long last spelled out, from what is considered the globe’s main authority on health, a clear indication of all the limitations of anti-Covid-19 vaccines, which have been the subject of mass propaganda, more specifically what in journalistic jargon is called “advertorials”, advertisements disguised as editorial content.

In this case the advertorials are for the pharmaceutical industry, about which a study in JAMA Network (the monthly open-access medical Journal published by the American Medical Association) entitled “Profitability of Large Pharmaceutical Companies Compared With Other Large Public Companies”, concluded that “the profitability of large pharmaceutical companies was significantly greater than other large, public companies, but the difference was less pronounced when considering company size, year, or research and development expense”.

I know by experience, in my past work as a journalist, that a media outlet would be reticent to publish an article saying something that goes against the interests of its own advertisers, who constitute a great part of its revenue, for fear of losing them.

In this transcript of Pfizer Inc at Barclays Global Healthcare Conference (Virtual) from last March 11, Pfizer, explains to financial analysts that the vaccination will be every year and that from “pandemic” Covid-19 will become “endemic”, meaning it will be part of our lives and will stay with us, and this will create profit opportunities:

{W]e believe it’s becoming increasingly likely that an annual revaccination is going to take place… And not as — so we don’t see this as a onetime event, but we see this as something that’s going to continue for the foreseeable future…

So what we believe, what I believe is as we move from a pandemic state, from a pandemic situation to an endemic situation, normal market forces, normal market conditions will start to kick in. And factors like efficacy, booster ability, clinical utility will basically become very important, and we view that as, quite frankly, a significant opportunity for our vaccine from a demand perspective, from a pricing perspective, given the clinical profile of our vaccine. So clearly, more to come here. But we think as this shifts from pandemic to endemic, we think there’s an opportunity here for us…

Now you also asked me about timing. From a timing perspective, we think we could try to get some early clinical data late this year and hopefully, a proof-of-concept within a year from now. That’s kind of the time line that we’re thinking about relative to the flu. But we see flu, at least currently, we see flu as potentially a significant opportunity for us…

So from my perspective, our priorities remain the same. What are they? We continue to pay a healthy dividend. [All emphases added]

We have now a better idea of why the vaccine has been hailed as a liberator, whereas very likely it will not liberate us.

Thanks to Maurizio Blondet
PHOTO CREDIT
Image by Sumanley xulx from Pixabay