Letter: Good grief, get your shot!

Mike Bolstridge of Sheffield Beach writes:

It never fails to amaze me how far conspiracy theorists will search to find statistics and quotes that support their blinkered views on a particular subject.

Take the recently published letter entitled “Message in a bottle” (April 30). Being in a similar age group to the writer, Markus Kampf, or perhaps a bit older (70 and above in my case), I was intrigued at the introduction, but upon reading, the intrigue soon faded when I thought of the many people who might be in the unfortunate position of believing what they read.

I never write to the newspaper, but thought I would be remiss if I didn’t correct the false impressions with the truth.

Firstly, the latest statistics published by the WHO on Covid are as follows: Total cases worldwide 149.4 million people infected; Total recovered 127,6 million or 85,4%. This means that 21,8 million people don’t recover to full health and of these, 3,16 million or 2,1% died.

The rest, 18,6 million are left with long-lasting symptoms and some of these unfortunate folk may eventually die, thus increasing the statistic.

The normal death rate differs in different countries. In SA, the normal death rate is 9/1000 or 0,9%.

This is less than half the Covid death rate, so I’m taking no chances and getting my shot when it becomes available!

Secondly, those understanding some school biology know that mRNA stands for messenger ribonucleic acid which is the genetic material which carries the code for which type of protein the body cells should manufacture.

In the case of a vaccine based on mRNA, they give a message to the cells to make a harmless piece of spike protein which triggers the production of antibodies against specific infecting viruses.

This brings us to the unfortunate and much maligned philanthropist, Bill Gates, whom conspiracy theorists seem to love misquoting for some unknown reason.

In Bill Gates 2010 TED talk, he said in an accurate quote not taken out of context, “The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really good job with new vaccines, health care and reproductive health services, we could lower that (ie population growth rate) by perhaps 10-15%”.

Bill Gates thinks that when more children survive, parents will choose to have fewer children which will have a corresponding negative effect on overall population growth rate.

A stretch perhaps, but nevertheless well-meaning and no departure from the Gates Foundation’s philanthropic intent and outstanding work. Vaccines are therefore not directed against the world’s population as the conspiracy theorists will have you believe.

So, in conclusion, go forth with faith and get your Covid shots as soon as possible for your own sake and for the sake of the community.