Anyone familiar with the scientific literature knows that that most published research findings are false (and here). So when the media push a claim to scientific fact bearing on a highly contentious political issue, consider the evidence before accepting the claim.
In relation to the Toronto Globe and Mail's headline of April 24 claiming that the Unvaccinated increase risk of infection for others: study skepticism is certainly warranted because, so far as it relates to Covid-19, the claim is untrue.
The article begins:
People who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 contribute disproportionately to the risk of infection among those who have been vaccinated, according to a new study ...
Oh yes?
Who says?
Who says is J. Fishman et al., in an article in the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal entitled:
Impact of population mixing between vaccinated and unvaccinated subpopulations on infectious disease dynamics: implications for SARS-CoV-2 transmission
Trouble is, the paper reports what is a purely mathematical exercise, based on no real world data whatsoever. That this is a problem becomes evident if one considers the real world data that would be needed to confirm the authors' conclusions.
In particular, data would be necessary to show at least one of the following things:
(1) That unvaccinated persons have a higher Covid-19 infection rate than the vaccinated;
(2) That unvaccinated persons infected with Covid-19 are more infectious that the vaccinated; or
(3) In their interaction with others, unvaccinated persons are in some way more social, promiscuous or more careless of the risk of infection than the vaccinated.
Proposition (1) we know to be false. The weekly Covid Surveillance Reports compiled by the UK Health Security Agency have shown consistently over many months that overall, and except in the youngest age classes, the vaccinated have a Covid-19 case rate several times that of the unvaccinated (see Table 13 on Page 44).
Proposition (2) is refuted by the July 30, 2021: Statement by CDC Director, Rochelle P. Walensky, MD
...Delta infection resulted in similarly high SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated people. High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus. ...
Which is to say, vaccinated persons can pass Covid-19 just as readily as the unvaccinated.
Proposition (3) is obviously false. It is the vaccinated who, believing, correctly or otherwise, that they are immune from serious harm from Covid-19, are most likely to eat out, attend a party at No. 10 Downing St. during a national lockdown, or whatever, whereas the unvaccinated, knowing themselves to be among the most vulnerable to severe Covid-19 illness, act with greater circumspection.
So, yes, Fishman et al., from their base at Canada's top research university, have published a nonsense paper that has made a nonsense of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, while showing the Toronto Gobe and Mail to be the publication of elite correct thought that we have always supposed it to be.
But why this particular lie?
Let the reader decide. But one thing's for sure, that headline in the Globule sure helps cover wannabe dictator, Justin Trudeau's arse over his irrational and tyrannical vaccine mandates and his Hitlerian diatribe of hate directed at Freedom Rally supporters.
