{"id":215055,"date":"2022-06-13T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=215055"},"modified":"2022-06-13T12:38:24","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T11:38:24","slug":"portugal-as-an-enduring-embarrassment-of-the-failure-of-the-covid-mass-vaccination-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/06\/portugal-as-an-enduring-embarrassment-of-the-failure-of-the-covid-mass-vaccination-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Portugal as an Enduring Embarrassment of the Failure of the COVID Mass Vaccination Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Harald Pizzinini via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

9 Jun 2022 – <\/em>Next week, the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet<\/a> to likely offer emergency use authorization for Moderna and Pfizer\u2019s biological products to be injected into babies as young as six months old. No amount of evidence demonstrating negative efficacy and enormous side effects will factor into its decision. Never mind the fact that there never was an emergency for young children to begin with, and there certainly isn\u2019t one now.<\/p>\n

Yet the FDA will undoubtedly approve a shot that has failed and is outdated \u2013 so much so that two weeks later, it will meet<\/a> about updating the formula for new variants, of course, after having injected the outdated formula into the arms of babies and toddlers. One data point that certainly will be missing from the meeting is the observation about Portugal.<\/p>\n

According to Statista<\/a>, Portugal has the highest vaccination rate of any country in Europe aside from the tiny island of Malta. Nearly every adult is vaccinated in this nation of 10.3 million, 94% of all people (including young children) have received at least 1 dose, and 70% have received boosters. In fact, the New York Times ran an article<\/a> about Portugal last year, noting that \u201cthere is no one left to vaccinate\u201d there.<\/p>\n

Yet, Portugal now has the highest case rate and COVID death rate per capita in Europe and the second highest COVID fatality rate in the world behind Taiwan, according to Our World in Data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the case rate map of Europe:<\/p>\n

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And here is the death rate map:<\/p>\n

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At 2,293 cases per 1 million individuals, as of June 7, Portugal\u2019s 7-day rolling average case rate is seven times greater than that of the United States and is now higher than the worst peak of cases in America. Moreover, it\u2019s not that Portugal never had a big wave \u2013 it has already experienced a peak in the winter that was three times as great as the worst days in the U.S. So even after many people already had the virus, officials keep testing positive for the virus despite \u2013 or perhaps, because of \u2013 the near universal vaccination rate.<\/p>\n

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It is true that Portugal has a high rate of testing, but not that much higher to account for exponentially higher case rates. As of June 1, Portugal\u2019s positivity rate was nearly four times that of the U.S.<\/p>\n

Then there are the COVID deaths. At 4.1 deaths per million, Portugal is now far outpacing all the other European countries with high case rates by over 60%. Its current death rate is more than four times that of the U.S. This simply should not be happening now that everyone is vaccinated and everyone who is vulnerable is boosted if the shots are anywhere near as effective as we are told.<\/p>\n