Skip to main content

Making Moral Vaccine Decisions - Part D: Vaccine Safety and Efficacy

Image
By

 

 +
JMJ
 
For the lack of a better phrase, there has been a lot of noise concerning the safety and efficacy of the vaccines under development.

The initial safety and efficacy of the vaccines are established during three phases of clinical trials.  Monitoring does not stop with these trials, but remains in force for as a long as the drug is issued.

Adverse events and various reactions happen both with, without and due to the vaccines. 
 
Some of these adverse events happen on their own and in order for a vaccine to be deemed unsafe due to them, the incidence needs to be statistically significant.  In other words, they need to establish that the vaccine caused the event and is not just a result of someone having a latent or undeclared illness. In some cases causality is easily established.

In order to assure ourselves of the safety and efficacy, the best way is to read the latest monograph that accompanies the vaccine.  
 
Examples:

These monographs provide vital for making a safey and efficacy decision, but not a moral decision.

Key elements that I look for are:
  1. Contra-indications:Identifying who should not normally receive the vaccine.
  2. Indications: Identifying who can normally receive the vaccine.
  3. Warnings and precautions: Just what the words say.
  4. Special populations: I pay attention to the advice on pregnant and breast-feeding women, children, and elderly.
  5. Adverse reaction data: Provides information on how people reacted to the medication during trials.
  6. Post-market adverse reactions: Provides information about reactions that have been verified after the introduction of the vaccine.
  7. Study Results: This tells you how effective the vaccine proved in establishing what amounts to a preemptive immune response to the virus. Basically, training the recipients immune system to successfully,after sufficient time, combat post vaccination infection.

 

These factors need to be weighed against the risk of the disease to one-self, the close associates and the common-good.

P^3
 

Reference




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Episcopal Consecrations of 1988, 1991 and 2015 - Some Perspectives

By
+ JMJ In defense of the recent consecration of Fr. Faure by Bishop Williamson, some have argued that the 1991 consecration of Bishop Rangel (RIP) by the Bishops of the SSPX present an equivalent standard of action and principles.  From this they conclude that the SSPX's condemnation of Bishop Williamson's action is flawed as the principles of the 1991 consecration and that of 2015 are equivalent.
2 comments
Read more

SSPX and the Resistance - A Comparison Of Ecclesiology

By
Shining the light of Church Teaching on the doctrinal positions of the SSPX and the Resistance. Principles are guides used to aid in decision making.  It stands to reason that bad principles will lead to bad decisions. The recent interactions between Rome and the SSPX has challenged a number of closely held cultural assumptions of people in both sides of the disagreement. This has resulted in cultural skirmishes in both Rome and the SSPX. Since it is the smaller of the two, the skirmishes have been more evident within the SSPX.  The cultural fault-line that Bishop Fellay crossed appears to be linked to two points of Catholic Doctrine: Ecclesiology and Obedience.  The cultural difference of view points is strong enough that it has resulted in the expulsion of a number of members.  It should also be noted that some other priests expelled since the beginning of the latest interactions (starting in 2000) held the same view points and have joined with the l...
8 comments
Read more

America Magazine: Why liturgy is not a space for self-expression

By
 + JMJ Introduction I subscribed to Jesuit Review America Magazine in order to improve my perspective on the crisis of the Church. At first, I found that I had a hard time reading through the articles that caught my attention.  Actually, at best, I didn't get further than a few sentences.  Mostly due to demands on what time I have left on this Good Earth. Then a title caught my eye in a latest article ... someone is saying that the Liturgy is not a space for self-expression.  Then there's the Performative Piety?  What does this mean? What is Performative Piety? I had a sense that "Performative Piety" is the practice of making external acts of piety to be seen by others and Matthew 6:1 (link) confirms this thought. Let's break down the Knox translation: Be sure you do not perform your acts of piety before men ,  for them to watch ;  if you do that,  you have no title to a reward from your Father who is in heaven. If you stopped after the first ph...
Post a Comment
Read more

SSPXasia Timeline

By
+ JMJ The SSPXasia website has an excellent compilation of documents.  One day I may try to fuse it with my own chronicle project. P^3 https://sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/Archbishop_Lefebvre_and_the_Vatican/Part_I/ (1987) June 29: Ordination Sermon of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre July 8: Letter of Archbishop Lefebvre to Cardinal Ratzinger July 28: Letter of Cardinal Ratzinger to Archbishop Lefebvre October 1: Letter of Archbishop Lefebvre to Cardinal Ratzinger October ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Canonical Mission and State of Emergency - A Response to Mr. John Salza - Part B

By
 +  JMJ  I was trying to think of a way to map out the time course I discussed in Part A of this article.  Early this morning it came to me that this is more about obedience and duty than canon law.  As is my wont, I mapped out my thoughts (see image) to draw linkages between the core concepts. My conclusion is that, at least subjectively, Archbishop Lefebvre had sufficient information to make good decisions concerning whether or not he was obliged to obey.  I know that the Jesuits, some Sedevacantists and the priests that left over the years will not agree with my thoughts. So be it.  The core pieces of information include: Attacks against the SSPX were launched because they kept the Tridentine Mass and the pre-conciliar understanding of the Truths of the Faith. The authorities in the Church were willing to go against the laws of the Church. The same authorities encouraged the various dangers to the Faith embedded in popular interpretations of ambiguo...
Post a Comment
Read more