Could that title be true? It can. Portugal ranks second among European countries in terms of COVID vaccination, just behind tiny Malta. 94 per cent of Portugal’s citizens have received at least one dose. Sixty two percent of those vaccinated have received boosters.
But as of May 17, Portugal also has the highest case rate in Europe — a daily average of 2,290 new cases per million people. The country has the second highest daily death rate of any country with over one million residents.
These numbers are for the cases of #COVID19 have only previously been exceeded during the so-called fifth wave, when at the end of January there were days with about 65,000 cases in 24 hours.https://t.co/pbSspoZURH
— The Portugal News (@theportugalnews) May 18, 2022
The Conservative Review columnist Daniel Horowitz points out that things were not as we expected.
All of us were told that although the side effects can be deadly, they still protect against COVID. We are still seeing countries with the highest vaccination rates having the worst death curves, not just in cases. This is because they have vaccinated more people and used a less dangerous variant.
Well, That wasn’t supposed to happen. Portugal’s situation is so bad that the Portugal Resident reports that pharmacies will again provide rapid antigen testing for free.
Similar circumstances are also being observed in Australia and New Zealand as well as Finland, Taiwan, Australia, Finland and Taiwan. We’re starting to see it here in the US as well. The Wall Street Journal has taken notice, blaring out in a recent headline, “Increase in Covid-19 cases in U.S. Parts with High Vaccination Rates.”
Horowitz looks at the numbers.
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut are the four states with highest vaccination rates. With the exception of New Mexico and Massachusetts, the top 10 most vaccinated state are located in the northeast. Incidentally, according to the New York Times COVID tracker, the 12 states with the highest hospitalization rates (including D.C.) are all in the northeast, except for Michigan. The states with the lowest hospitalization rates, which include the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and South, have all been vaccinated.
Oh, my goodness! I was thinking that everyone living in the South should be deceased by now.
Noted pandemic response critic Alex Berenson, who’s been kicked off Twitter for his views, explained on the Clay and Buck radio show what he thinks is causing this:
It is important to consider the global numbers and to focus on countries with high vaccination rates. Whether it’s South Korea or Denmark or the U.K., there’s a lot of countries that are more highly vaccinated than the United States, and they have tons of infections and lots of deaths right now. The mRNA vaccines are failing.
Fauci also admits to the problems. “Some vaccine platforms give a very high degree of protection but the durability isn’t very long,” he said in an interview with CNN. “We got a really great platform with mRNA. But let’s try to be better.” Oh, let’s.
We look back on what they said we should expect.
.@POTUS: “We have a pandemic for those who haven’t gotten a vaccination…If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized…you’re not going to die. So, it’s gigantically important we all act like Americans who care about our fellow Americans.”pic.twitter.com/cpsvzfXENn
— marielsaez46 (@marielsaez46) July 22, 2021
Said Joe Biden at a July 2021 CNN town hall in Cincinnati, “If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in the IC unit, and you’re not going to die.”
That certainly hasn’t aged well. (Nor did the AP fact check: “THE FACTS: His remark accurately captures the strong protection the COVID-19 vaccines provide as cases spike among people who have resisted the shots. But it overlooks the rare exceptions.”) It’s a mistake. Those exceptions don’t appear to be “rare” at all.
In the fall, he also angrily yelled at us for months about the supposed “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” You don’t hear that phrase much anymore because it’s simply not true.
Portugal’s numbers are shocking because they seem completely opposite to what we had been told. There’s a familiar pattern on display here: Biden, the CDC, and Fauci tell us one thing, yell at anyone who disagrees, then say nothing when they turn out (once again) to be dead wrong. Portugal’s numbers–and numbers from other countries and regions–show us just how spectacularly off the mark their predictions have been.
Don’t expect an apology.
RELATED:Scott Hounsell, my colleague, has written extensively about vaccine efficacy.
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