Diplomatic Immunity

Myocarditis as an adverse event following mRNA COVID-19 immunisation

Helen Petousis Harris • Aug 30, 2021

After hundreds of millions of doses away, the most rare side effects have revealed themselves. The one of concern involves inflammation of the heart. What is myocarditis? Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle; pericarditis is inflammation of the sac around the heart. Each year NZ has around 100 cases of myocarditis. A key trigger is a viral infection, … Read More

Fundamentally flawed study on COVID-19 vaccine safety is rapidly retracted

Helen Petousis Harris • Jul 03, 2021

The content of this blog has been adapted and expanded from comments I provided to Vaccines and Science this week. The perfectly respectable MDPI journal called Vaccines made a mistake but they addressed it fast. Somehow an article assessing vaccine safety and effectiveness that was fundamentally flawed and made outrageous claims slipped through the system. Not the first … Read More

Correcting propaganda containing 8 false claims about COVID-19 vaccines

Helen Petousis Harris • Apr 28, 2021

This is a short blog addressing a list of falsehoods being posted widely across Aotearoa New Zealand. The flyer (posted at the end) claims ‘8 important covid vaccine facts you probably haven’t heard’. Actually, these are 8 of the most common myths about Covid-19 vaccines. Some have been around so long they probably qualify as zombie myths. The ‘golden … Read More

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is way beyond experimental

Helen Petousis Harris • Apr 25, 2021

An experiment is a procedure carried out to test a hypothesis. We have determined through experiment, with extremely high precision, that the Pfizer COVID-19 works very well and is very safe. The initial experiments were successful, moving on… However, there are some misconceptions flying around that abuse this concept and I thought they needed addressing with some interpretation and facts. Read More

COVID vaccines and blood clots – what is this about?

Helen Petousis Harris • Apr 15, 2021

I will update this post as new information comes to hand What has happened? Recently the vaccine safety watch dogs in Europe noted reports of unusual types of blood clots in people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccine. This prompted investigations across many countries to ascertain what, why, and how. Also, in the last couple of … Read More

COVID vaccine safety – adverse events vs. adverse reactions

Helen Petousis Harris • Apr 07, 2021

As we roll out the COVID-19 vaccine across NZ there will inevitably be people who experience adverse events after getting their jab. Here are some super important things to keep in mind about adverse events following immunisation. I will update this blog as we go along, latest 16 April. Terminology – words matter Any event that is undesirable … Read More

COVID-19 vaccines and community immunity (transmission)

Helen Petousis Harris • Jan 22, 2021

Updated, 4 Feb 2021 to reflect new data on the AstraZeneca vaccine. Q: Will the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and bring about community immunity (aka herd immunity)? A: Jury not in yet but vaccines do not have to be perfect to thwart the spread of infection. While vaccines induce protection against illness, they … Read More

The frail elderly and COVID vaccines – should we be concerned?

Helen Petousis Harris • Jan 16, 2021

(updated 18 Jan to reflect new information) Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 29 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine … Read More

How good is the AstraZeneca vaccine looking? Look at the data, not news headlines

Helen Petousis Harris • Jan 15, 2021

Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COVID-19 vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult the experts, other than a passing token … Read More

Pressing the pause button after an adverse event happens to a vaccine trial participant

Helen Petousis Harris • Sep 09, 2020

Today AstraZeneca pushed the pause button on its late-stage trials of a COVID-19 vaccine. A clinical trial participant has experienced a serious health event and an investigation is underway to determine the cause. What does it mean? A cautious approach – trials can halt to assess safety data With over 200 COVID-19 vaccines now under development … Read More

About Diplomatic Immunity

Diplomatic Immunity is the blog of Dr Helen Petousis-Harris who comments about immunisation, the science underpinning it and the pseudoscience often spread about types of immunisation.

The views expressed on this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the owners of SciBlogs.co.nz, the Science Media Centre or the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Get in touch with the authors