Study did not find mRNA vaccines are better than natural immunity

I am short on time this morning but wanted to respond to this moronic article by CNBC. I encourage people to read the article and the “study” for themselves, but suffice it to say, the entire premise is based on a lie.

The article in question is about children 5-11, a cohort completely absent from the paper. If the findings of the study were true, it would still be a lie to extrapolate (one does not simply assume efficacy for a population not studied) the results down to that age group based on those findings.

Here is a snippet:

During January 1–September 2, 2021, a total of 201,269 hospitalizations for COVID-19–like illness were identified; 139,655 (69.4%) patients were hospitalized after COVID-19 vaccines were generally available to persons in their age group within their geographic region. Molecular testing for SARS-CoV-2 was performed for 94,264 (67.5%) patients with COVID-19–like illness hospitalizations. Among these patients, 7,348 (7.8%) had at least one other SARS-CoV-2 test result ≥14 days before hospitalization and met criteria for either of the two exposure categories: 1,020 hospitalizations were among previously infected and unvaccinated persons, and 6,328 were among fully vaccinated and previously uninfected patients (Table 1). Laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection was identified among 324 (5.1%) of 6,328 fully vaccinated persons and among 89 of 1,020 (8.7%) unvaccinated, previously infected persons. A higher proportion of previously infected than vaccinated patients were aged 18–49 years (31% versus 9%), Black (10% versus 7%), and Hispanic (19% versus 12%).

Aside from the fact they were only looking at hospitalized patients, which means they have no idea what the underlying populations even look like, the study uses the strangest metric I have ever seen to arrive at their conclusion (which is, predictably, everyone should get vaccinated as soon, and as many times, as possible).

Rate of positive tests? Are you kidding me? I don’t even know what to say to this idiocy. I feel like I lost a few braincells reading that paper.

The more interesting question is why do significantly more people end in the hospital for “COVID-like” illnesses after receiving the vaccine than those with natural immunity and why do so many more test positive for the virus when there?

Again, we know nothing about the underlying population. Maybe they are 6x as likely to be vaccinated than previously infected. That’s probably not possible given estimates are that almost half of people in the US have been previously infected. Which also means that many of the vaccinated ones are likely piggybacking on a previous infection (so even the argument that 6x more are vaccinated than tested positive for the virus is bullshit and actually hurts their conclusion).

The paper suggests the exact opposite of what the authors claim and the unscientific, number-wrangling that appears therein does nothing to abate that fact.

I’m sure a deeper dive into this paper would reveal dozens of errors, but really, reading CDC drivel before I’ve even had a coffee makes me lose faith in humanity. And I don’t even drink coffee.