French infectious disease expert shocked by the number of adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccine: Professor Eric Caumes caused the equivalent of a medical earthquake by stating Wednesday evening that he has never seen as many undesirable effects with a vaccine as with the Pfizer injection that is scheduled to be widely distributed in France starting in January. ...
After seeing a report on the Pfizer vaccine from the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday evening, the data used by Pfizer to obtain marketing auhorization turned out to be a shock.
Caumes measured his words, saying, “As I read the 53 pages, something struck me. I have never seen such a high frequency of adverse events for a vaccine. Apart from minor injection reactions such as local redness and pain, other side effects occur at relatively high rates, especially in young people and after the second dose.
"Take the example of fever. It can occur transiently after an injection; it is classic. But here, 15.8 percent of 18- to 55-year-olds had a fever of 38 degrees Celsius or higher within seven days after the second injection. And 45 percent had to take medication for fever or pain. Another 55 percent had headaches and 62 percent were tired. No, really, that's much too much, perhaps there's a problem … ” Caumes said. ...
Caumes would still advise elderly people most at risk from getting severe forms of COVID-19 and dying to take the Pfizer or Moderna RNA vaccines because of what he considers to be a favorable benefit-risk balance.
But he did not advise young or healthy people to do so. “Not only is there a lack of information, but these injections based on genetic material (messenger RNA) have never passed the commercialization stage until now," Caumes said. "Perhaps they are revolutionary, but I want proof of their reliability, otherwise it is tantamount to placing blind trust in industry.” ...
Caumes repeated his critique to Le Parisien, stating, “Pfizer and Moderna simply announced their success in a press release. In my career as a physician, I've never seen anything like this before. You have to realize there is still no trace of scientific publication. We're walking on our heads.”
He also told the newspaper that he is afraid that he'll play into the hands of the “conspiracy theorists.”
“Yes, I am terribly afraid of it, but as soon as you step out of the single dominant thought, you are immediately considered to be a conspiracy theorist or an ‘ass,’ as Véran called me, even though I am one of those who defend vaccines the most," Caumes said. "They are the miracles of infectious diseases, the most intelligent drugs there are, since they prevent rather than cure. But I tell people the truth, otherwise they will no longer trust us, the doctors … ”
He added that he was concerned that things “are not going well with these COVID vaccines.” Warning that this could backfire, especially since the French government has already ordered and paid for them “without even knowing if they were safe,” he said.
"If we mess this up, the entire history of vaccinology will be discredited,” Caumes said.
