In November, the UK's ONS published data on COVID deaths, along with the claim that the unvaccinated were 32 times more likely to die than the unvaxxed, and this claim was widely reported, uncritically, in the MSM. On analysis, however, the claim was found to be misleading.

In my previous article about this, I took the ONS's raw data at face value, and reported on serious problems with the 32-fold-risk claim. I also reported that the data did show vaccine effectiveness for older age groups (60+), but not for the lower age band, 10-59 year olds. It's important to note that informed advocates for health freedom, including me, do give credit to vaccines when and where it is apparently due.

However, further academic analyses have shown that not only the ONS's interpretation of their data, but also the data itself, is unreliable.

Firstly, and this point actually favours the argument for vaccine effectiveness - but keep reading after this - there is the "healthy vaccinee effect". It's claimed that part of the reason for apparently high vaccine effectiveness in the first months of vaccine rollout, especially among older people, was that moribund people would decline or be declined the vaccine. Conversely, that those taking the inoculations were a healthier group to begin with. This was expressed in a commentary from the ONS itself. In their September report, they state: