There were two ways to spend the covid-19 lockdowns in Melbourne Victoria.
[Trigger Warning]
There was the on-streets-anti-lockdown way, with “police” (from somewhere) kneeling on your neck to zip-tie you for removal (to somewhere).
And there was the at-home-cuddling your Chief-Health-Officer Brett-Sutton (#CHOttie for short) merchandise. It wasn’t just cushions - there were throws, t-shirts, coffee mugs and more. There were a lot of people swooning at home over the silver fox.
Brett had a Deputy Chief Health Officer, Professor Allen Cheng. He didn’t pull the same crowds, but the people at Redbubble thought someone might like his cushion for the set, viz… (still available)
Prof Allen Cheng had a fairly frequent presence at the Daily Briefings (an hour or two of media during the long, long lockdown). He reached slight celebrity status.
However his Vaccine Regulatory Committee credentials are Top Shelf impeccable. From his Biography at Medicine Monash Health…
For all these credentials he was an odd character in the pro-vax pandemic set. While the others tweeted (paraphrasing) ‘get your vaccines’, Prof Cheng tweeted a thread confirming many of the vaccine risks, before the final tweet saying ‘get your vaccines’. He acknowledged they were risky, and still toed the pro-vax line. It confused me.
Thus, Professor Cheng is a notable person in the Victorian pandemic response, and a notable person in the Vaccine Regulatory Committees, which makes these quotes (with co-author SN Hilmer) in an editorial in the Internal Medicine Journal of the Royal Australian College of Physicians all the more significant:
“By 3 February 2023, 5067 COVID-19 deaths and 127,992 cases had been reported nationally across 2,803 RACFS, even with over 75% of residents having received a fourth dose of the vaccine.” [emphasis added]
and
“In Yap’s study, mortality was still 15% amongst those who were fully vaccinated.” [emphasis added]
The emphatic phrases that I emphasised both direct attention to vaccine non-solution for the problem of Covid in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs).
Thus, a notable person on the Vaccine Regulatory Committees, and on the Victorian Pandemic Response, a response of
- locking down to keep vulnerable people safe until there was a vaccine,
- getting everyone vaccinated, and then
- safely opening up,
was, earlier this year, in an authorial duo, crafting linguistic emphatics to highlight how the vaccines have not been fit for purpose.
In the quotes above you might have noticed a reference to “Yap’s study”. This is the study I’ve referenced in ~6 of my last 7 substacks.
In Hilmer & Cheng’s opening line they link Yap et al to another study, Radcliffe et al, a study that has been the subject of my last 2 substacks, saying…
“The papers by Radcliffe et al and Yap et al provide a broad picture of COVID in people living in aged care facilities before and after the advent of vaccination.” [emphasis added]
and writing…
“The striking finding from both studies was the high mortality of COVID-19.” [emphasis added]
The striking finding for me, in that editorial, is that Hilmer & Cheng were acknowledging high mortality from COVID-19 both before and after the advent of vaccination, thus throwing the vaccines under the bus, yet again, albeit
ignoring the banning of repurposed drugs that may have been useful for early treatment, and
ignoring the palliative care medicine prescribed at higher rates than for aged people with non-covid severe respiratory infections.
Anyway, I intend to compare these two studies to see exactly how useless the vaccines had been for the Aged Care residents.
But not in this article. Rather, pause for a moment to reflect on how ridiculous the situation was….
Vaccines? Really?
The pre-vaccine Radcliffe study collected data from outbreaks during the 2nd wave in Victoria, in winter 2020. The post-vaccine Yap study collected data from the Spring 2021 Delta outbreaks. Yap advised that “The majority of the [Fully Vaccinated] residents had received the Pfizer vaccine between April and June 2021”. These points are noted on the graphic timeline below.
The principal Dose 1 & Dose 2 vaccination period was completed only 3-4 months before the Delta outbreaks began. RACF residents were thus primed for a first challenge in locked down Melbourne, and yet reports were already coming through from other jurisdictions that the vaccines’ efficacies were waning.
Frankly, looking at the time frame below, I don’t think there’s any justification for calling those injections “vaccines”.
The end. For now.