Footage purports to show residents lined up after government deactivates unvaccinated SIM cards.
Footage out of Pakistan purports to show thousands of residents lined up to receive a Covid-19 vaccine after the government in two provinces implemented measures to block cell service for the unvaccinated.
The video shows a man driving down a street passing by a mile-long line of vehicles supposedly queued up to receive the vaccine.
Since last night thousands of people lining up to get vaccinated in Karachi, Pakistan after Govt. decision to block phone SIM for unvaccinated. pic.twitter.com/FzvlCCdduY
“Since last night thousands of people lining up to get vaccinated in Karachi, Pakistan after Govt. decision to block phone SIM for unvaccinated,” the footage, being promoted on Twitter, is captioned.
Two months ago, the governments of the Punjab and Sindh provinces called for plans to block phone service for unvaccinated people, claiming too many were refusing to get vaccinated despite a rise in Covid delta variant cases.
“At first this was only a proposal, but people have been very hesitant in getting vaccinated so the decision was made,” a spokesman for the Punjab Primary Health department stated in June, not noting a specific date the decision would go into effect.
“The government is trying its best to facilitate people in getting the vaccine,” Sindh information minister Syed Nasi Hussain Shah told the New York Times.
Ahead of the cell phone shut-off, Pakistanis complained life without a phone would be hard, but said they also feared the vaccine.
“It will be hard for me if I can’t use my phone, but I am very scared about the vaccine,” one worker in Lahore toldFrance24.com in June.
A truck driver in Karachi told the Times no one in his 25-member family will take the jab because he’s heard vaccinated people may die in the coming months.
“I have heard that people, after getting the coronavirus jab, will die within the two years…It is the reason that in our extended family of at least 25 people, no one is willing to vaccinate themselves.”
“You can’t force someone to get vaccinated,” lamented one vaccinated teacher, adding, “It makes me a little suspicious.”
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The head of Pakistani’s Young Doctor’s Association, Salman Haseeb, insultingly told AFP he believed the public was too stupid to decide whether the vaccine is good for them, saying, “Pakistan’s education level is low. People are also spreading rumors and misinformation about the vaccines.”
Additionally, the Sindh government has also stopped paying unvaccinated government workers in efforts to pressure them into getting vaccinated.
About 100 suspected cases of GBS — among 12.8 million people who have gotten the J&J shot — have been identified in the federal government’s database.
FDA is preparing to add a warning to Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine after receiving preliminary reports of patients developing the rare neurological condition Guillain-Barré syndrome after receiving the shot, a senior CDC official confirmed to NANN.
About 100 suspected cases of GBS — among the 12.8 million people who have gotten the J&J shot — have been identified in the federal government’s database for adverse side effects after vaccination, the official said.
Number of Deaths Reported After COVID Vaccines Jumps by More Than 2,000 in 1 Week, According to VAERS
VAERS data released today by the CDC showed a total of 438,441 reports of adverse events from all age groups following COVID vaccines, including 9,048 deaths and 41,015 serious injuries between Dec. 14, 2020 and July 2, 2021.
Of the 9,048 deaths reported as of July 2, 22% occurred within 48 hours of vaccination, 15% occurred within 24 hours and 37% occurred in people who became ill within 48 hours of being vaccinated.
The most recent reported death includes a 13-year-old boy (VAERS I.D. 1431289) with a previous history of COVID who suffered cardiac arrest and died 17 days after vaccination with Pfizer.Other reports include a 13-year-old boy (VAERS I.D. 1406840) who died two days after receiving a Pfizer vaccine, three 15-year-olds (VAERS I.D. 1187918, 1382906 and 1242573), four 16-year-olds (VAERS I.D. 1420630, 1426828, 1225942 and 1386841) and three 17-year-olds (VAERS I.D. 1199455, 1388042 and 1420762).
Pfizer says boosters needed, U.S. federal health agencies, scientists disagree
As The Defender reported today, U.S. federal health agencies and the maker of one of the most popular COVID vaccines are publicly at odds over if or when fully vaccinated people will need a third “booster” dose.
Pfizer announced Thursday it will seek Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA in August for a third dose of its COVID vaccine. The drugmaker predicted those who have been fully vaccinated will need a booster shot within six to 12 months of receiving their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
The HHS statement did not explicitly mention Pfizer, but said “a science-based, rigorous process” headed by the CDC, FDA and the National Institutes of Health would determine when or whether boosters were necessary.
Pfizer’s assertions about the need for boosters contradict other research, and several experts pushed back against the claim.
“There’s really no indication for a third booster or a third dose of an mRNA vaccine, given the variants that we have circulating at this time,” Dr. Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, told the New York Times. “In fact, many of us question whether you will ever need boosters.”
“No one is saying we’ll never need a booster, but to say we need it now and give the public the impression the vaccines are failing and something needs to be done as a matter of urgency. … The time isn’t now. The decisions that are going to be made will be made by federal agencies.”
Pfizer and BioNTech are developing a version of their COVID vaccine that targets the Delta variant, The New York Times reported this week. The companies expect to begin clinical trials of the vaccine in August.
Pfizer and BioNTech reported — based on their own studies that have not been published, nor peer-reviewed, according to the Times — that a booster given six months after the second dose of vaccine increased the potency of antibodies against the original virus and the Beta variant by five- to tenfold.
Vaccine efficacy may decline six months after immunization, the companies said in a news release, and booster doses may be needed to fend off virus variants. The vaccine makers said they will submit their findings to the FDA in the coming weeks, a step toward gaining authorization for booster shots.
17-year-old student required to get vaccinated suffers heart condition
Concerns around COVID vaccines and heart inflammation, especially in young males, continue to circulate. But according to an update posted today on the CDC website, the agency’s researchers have concluded the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks of myocarditis after vaccination.
European drug regulators today announced they also have found a “possible link” between a “very rare heart inflammation” and the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but sided with U.S. regulators, saying they also believe the benefits of the shots outweighed any risks.
Meanwhile, The Defender continues to report on teens who have experienced heart issues after taking the vaccines — including a 17-year-old student who developed symptoms of a heart condition about one week after his first dose of Pfizer’s COVID and subsequently was diagnosed with a heart condition.
The teen’s father, Fabio Berlingieri, told “Fox & Friends” his son had COVID and recovered, but was required to get the vaccine in order to play soccer.