Are Coronavirus Vaccines Safe? | Blood Clotting Side Effects

Hello, friends! Seeing the rising coronavirus cases in the country people are pinning their hopes on vaccines. We are seeing that some vaccines are causing blood clothing cases. We got to see some extremely deadly and dangerous side effects.

On the other hand, we are seeing cases where people have been vaccinated but still got infected by Covid-19. Obviously, after all, you would wonder if you should take the vaccine. Talking about that the direct side effects, the detrimental side effects of blood clotting that we are seeing are caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine by Oxford.

Today, there are more than 100 countries using a vaccine. In India, there are two main vaccines in use. Covishield is the same AstraZeneca vaccine. Initially, when the vaccine was being tested, no severe side effects were seen. But when its use began, the first cases of dangerous side effects were seen in Norway.

4 health workers aged less than 50 got blood clotting after taking a vaccine. As well as low platelet count. Blood clotting can be very detrimental if it occurs in organs like your brain. It can block the blood flow which can eventually cause death. 2 out of the 4 health workers died because of a brain hemorrhage and the others were hospitalized. After, similar cases were seen in Denmark where one woman died. Also in Italy where another person died.

Even in the UK, seven such deaths have been seen after seeing all these cases, several countries have put a temporary ban on the use of a vaccine. Denmark was the first country to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. That Iceland and Norway did the same.

These countries have said that as a precautionary measure, they are stopping the use of the vaccine until there is no additional data on the severity of the side effects and the risk to the people.

Today, several medical organizations have studied vaccines in detail and we now have hard data available about the risk from it. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has said that the risk of blood clotting from the use of the vaccine is 1 out of 100,000 cases.

It means that if 1 lakh people take a vaccine, there may be one case where blood clotting may occur. This risk is a very rare risk. According to the British Health Regulator, this is even lower. They've said that the risk is as low as 1 out of 250,000 cases. You might think that is still quite significant.

Where there will be one case out of every 100,000 cases. But compare it to the other things. For any person to die in a car accident, the average risk is approximately 1 out of 500.

To die from drowning is 1 out of 1,000. This 1/100,000 is as probable as you correctly guessing the last 5 digits of a random person's phone number. I want to give you an idea of what it means when we talk about a very small risk. How small it actually is. These medical organizations have recommended that vaccines should be continued to be used.

Because the risk of dying from the coronavirus is much higher when compared to the risk of dying from being vaccinated. Even so, some countries do not want to take a risk. Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Australia, and Canada, these countries have stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine for people under certain age groups.

This age group is between 50 to 60 years of age. In Germany, people under the age of 60 will not get the AstraZeneca vaccine. You'll ask now, why did they set an age limit?

The reason is that another thing found in the researches of these organizations is that the risk of blood clotting is more among the younger people as compared to the older people. I found it surprising as well, but a side effect is seen mostly in young people. Australia has recommended that people below the age of 50 should prefer taking other vaccines instead of AstraZeneca.

Britain has said that people under the age of 30 should consider other vaccines. Coming to India, our government has said that there have been no cases of blood clotting in the country.

I find this very unbelievable. All over the world, we are seeing the side effects of blood clotting from the vaccine but in India where so many vaccines have been given to people, there have been no cases.

I don't know how much you can trust the data given by the government because the government often hides the data. But, in any case, experts and scientists say that vaccines should be continued to be used especially in countries like India where coronavirus cases are rising rapidly.

Using vaccines here would be beneficial for the country as compared to not using them fearing this small risk. This was about the side effects. In the other vaccines, Pfizer, Moderna, and Covaxin, no harmful side effects have been seen in them. If they haven't come up yet, chances are that they wouldn't be any in the future either.

Because it has been several months since they were being used. But the second concern that people have is that even after getting vaccinated, there are cases of people still getting infected.

How can that be?

There are several reasons for this. The first is that vaccines don't work instantly. It takes some time for your body to build up immunity.

The graph shows that after taking the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines, after the first dose, the effectiveness of the vaccine at certain intervals.

In the first couple of weeks, the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine is only 38% and that of AstraZeneca is 70%. But after 30 days, this effectiveness reaches 94% of the AstraZeneca vaccine and at 85% of Pfizer.

The second reason is that to get the full effect of the vaccine, you need to take both doses of the vaccine. You'd say that there have been cases where both the doses of the vaccine were taken and a long time had elapsed.

But even after that people got infected. This is why, friends, the third reason is that even if you take both doses of the vaccine and wait for 30 days, you may still get infected with Covid-19.

Because vaccines are not 100% effective. They are only 94% - 95% effective even after everything. But there is very good news. The good news is that after taking both the doses and waiting for 30 days. the risk of hospitalization is almost 0% and the risk of death is almost 0%. This means that after taking the vaccine you might get Covid-19 But it would not be so severe that you'd need to be hospitalized or you might die.

This wouldn't happen. In fact, some experts have also claimed that in all these vaccines AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, all have 100% effectiveness in protecting you against death in case you get infected with Covid-19 after taking both doses.

I hope that the concerns, fears, and doubts that you had about their effectiveness and side effects of the vaccines have been cleared.

Share this post with many people, your family members, and friends if they too have doubts about the vaccines.

Now one thing is certain that we need to get vaccinated. The second problem that arises is whether we'll get vaccines from the government.

Vaccine shortage is being seen all over the country. One of the reasons for it is said to be the government's initial focus on exporting the vaccines.

Sharing the vaccines with other countries. The government boasted about this as well. Claiming to have exported more vaccines than those administered to the citizens. Which isn't a good decision.

You'd remember, in airplanes, when the oxygen mask drops down they tell you to wear your own mask first and then help others.

Because your own safety is more important. Which the government did not do here. Experts have suggested several solutions to deal with the shortages of vaccines.

The biggest solution would be to allow other vaccines in India. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines available in other countries should be allowed to enter India.

It will be a bit expensive but the people who can afford it can buy these vaccines by paying more. So that there would be vaccines for those who can't afford them.

Quite a simple logic. I hope the government allows the other vaccines and is transparent about the data.

Which is the Best Country in the World?

Today, I want to talk about the different countries in the world.

Determine which country is best in the world.

I want to analyze different factors like environment, economy, education and then conclude which is the best country in the world.

Consider this post as a sequel to my previous post which talks about the best state in India.

I used the same method of analysis and conclusion in it. If you haven't seen it, I would suggest you follow that first.

And on that note, let's start! The first criteria to note is HDI, the Human Development Index

It measures three main criteria

The life expectancy, education level, and income of an average person in a country.

These are some of the most important tools to know if a country is developed, developing, or underdeveloped.

United Nations Development Program releases a human Development report every year with yearly HDI rankings. In the 2016 rankings, Norway topped this list.

After which, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Singapore follow at the next 5 rankings and India ranks at 131 out of 186 countries on the list.

The first 50 countries on the list are classified as developed countries. 

The second criteria are unemployment and the country which has the lowest rate of unemployment is Qatar.

Only 0.1% of its population is unemployed. Thailand, Belarus, Myanmar, and Cambodia fill the next spots.

All these countries have a less than 1% rate of unemployment. These ranking however are not very credible because every country classifies unemployment in their way

A lot of the countries that have topped this list are poor and have managed to do so by hiding underemployment in employment rates.

India ranks at 122 with an unemployment rate of 8.8%. We need to keep in mind that developed countries have in place a welfare system which often means that an unemployed person will receive money and other benefits from the state.

However, this is not the case for poor countries where the poor have to find work and earn money to be able to eat food and to survive as they have nothing to depend on.

This makes the unemployment rankings a bit unreliable which is why we shouldn't be too focused on it.

The third criteria are the Nominal Gross Domestic Product U.S.A tops this list with a GDP of 20,000 billion dollars after which China, Japan, German and France follow India ranks at number 7 which is considered quite high.

However, we all should keep in mind that the GDP is affected by the population of the country. A big population often inflates GDP which means GDP numbers are often useless.

The ranking that matters is the GDP per person of a country. When the total population is divided by the total GDP of the country. Thus, GDP per capita rankings are much more important here.

In the 2017 rankings, Luxembourg tops this list. This is a small country in Europe. Which Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, and Qatar follow.

Now since we look at our GDP per capita in India, we fall way down in the list and come at 140 out of 186 countries.

Nominal GDP and GDP per capita are calculated by IMF. The next criteria aren't that important when we talk about the best country in the world, however, some people will find it extremely important.

This is the 'Sex Ratio' of the country. If we look at the countries with a higher number of females than males, Curacao tops the list which is a small island in the Caribbean controlled by the Netherlands.

It has 121 females forever 100 males after which Latvia, Martinique, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Russia follow.

All of these are East European countries with a ratio of more than 116 females per male in the country.

Now, some people would consider the best countries to be those with more males. Qatar tops that list with only 30 females for every 100 males

This list is followed by countries like UAE (43/100), Oman (53/100), Bahrain (61/100), Kuwait (67/100). India ranks at 192 out of the 200 countries which were ranked.

We have 93 females for every 100 males. The next criteria are ease of doing business. In the 2018 ranking, New Zealand tops the list. After which, Singapore, Denmark, South Korea, Hong Kong, and the USA follow.

Countries like Somalia, Venezuela, and Yemen are at the bottom of this list. Investing in businesses in these countries would be a bad idea. India ranks at 100 in 2018.

Last year, India ranked at 130. This is a huge leap and the reason India has done so well is complicated and I may someday make a post about it. The next criteria is one of the most important in my opinion,

It is the Environmental Protection Index (EPI). It measures a plethora of factors as you can see in the chart behind me but we can place all these factors into two main areas The first is 'Environmental Health' which looks at air pollution, availability of clean drinking water, level of sanitation amongst others.

The second area is 'Ecosystem Vitality' This examines a country's biodiversity, forest cover and flora & fauna Switzerland tops this list.

After which, France, Denmark, Malta, Sweden, and the UK follow. Here, India ranks at 177 out of 180 countries, which makes India one of the worst countries in the EPI Index.

Moreover, if we only consider the first category - 'Environmental Health' which includes air quality, clean water, cleanliness, and sanitation India ranks at 180 which is the last rank on the list.

All other countries in the World are better than India 180th out of 180.

We have the worst air and water quality in the world. EPI is released by Yale University and this data is the latest (for 2018)

The next criteria are also very important. It is 'Inequality'. The divide between the poor and the rich of the country. It is measured in the GINI Index According to which, Ukraine tops the list- with the least amount of inequality.

After which, Slovenia, Norway, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic follow. These have the lowest inequality. India ranks at 58.

The worst countries for inequality are South Africa and Russia. Happiness is also an important criterion. And according to the World Happiness Report, which judges different factors to determine how happy is the average person of a country.

Factors like the freedom to make life choices, social support, generosity, life expectancy, and even GDP are considered to make the report.

In the 2017 report, Norway tops the list. After which, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, and the Netherlands follow.

India ranks at 122 out of 155 countries. It is shameful that India ranks below countries like Iraq, Somalia, Iran, and Pakistan.

The last criteria I will talk about is the 'World Education Rankings' which test the average education level of a child in a country and their math, scientific, and linguistic abilities 15-year-olds of different countries are tested in Reading, Math, and Science after which countries are ranked.

These rankings are done by an organization called OECD. They ranked 80 countries. India wasn't ranked in this list. The list was topped by South Korea.

Finland, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and Australia follow. So which country is the best country in the world?

What do you think?

Now, according to me, this is not an easy choice. It depends we pointed out different criteria and it is one's own choice to give more importance to one criterion over the other.

You can choose HDI, Happiness, or any other criteria as the most important criteria. So, the best country is often your perspective but if we give equal weightage to all the 10 barometers I mentioned Norway is the best country!

And according to me Happiness and HDI are the most important indicators to measure a country.

There are many more indicators to rank countries US News and the University of Pennsylvania release a yearly report of the best countries in the world

and uses many other indicators other than those I have mentioned in this post like 'heritage' or the history of the country.

Its cultural attraction, its food and other things like that are given importance. It also measures a country's cultural influence in the world, how dynamic it is, how different, unique or distinctive it is, and how unique is its culture.

So, Norway might be the best country according to HDI but the size of Norway's cultural history, or its cultural influence in the world, are often ignored in that index.

Based on all these indicators US News declares Switzerland as the best country. The next 5 are Canada, Germany, UK, Japan, and Sweden

Here, India ranks 25th out of 80 countries. India ranks good but ranks the worst in the environmental index only because India's heritage and cultural influence are prominent.

Friends, I hope this post helped you gain more knowledge. If you liked this post, please don't forget to share it with your friends and families.

All the information I've told you is from sources is very important.

You should always look out for sources when you consume Indian or any other media Sources like UN or World factbook are legit and popular sources. If Indian media uses these resources their reports could be credible, but if they don't, the credibility of their news can be doubtful.

Elon Musk | Secret of the Richest Man in the World

Where on one side, 2020 was not a good year for the entire world, there was one person who earned more than 150 billion dollars in this one year. 

I am talking about Elon Musk who became the world’s richest man on 7Th January 2021. At the beginning of 2020, his net worth was $27 billion which made him the world’s 35th richest person. 

But in one year, his net worth increased to more than $190 billion. What is interesting is that he did not even do anything special this year. He did special... he does special every year. He is quite a hard-working person. 

I mean that he did not do anything extra or different in 2020 that he did not do in 2019, 2018, 2017, or 2016. Had he not done anything at all this year, even then the chances of him becoming as rich as he has become were quite high. 

How did it become possible?

What is the secret behind his success?

Think about it- when you are a billionaire, then how do you earn your money?

It isn’t that you do some work and you get a salary in return and you keep saving that salary in your bank account until it becomes billions of dollars. 

This is next to impossible because one billion is such a big amount that earning money through normal ways such that you earn one billion is next to impossible. 

What happens in most cases is that billionaires are owners of some valuable company. They are the owner of such a company which has great value in the world. 

For example, Mark Zuckerberg is the owner of Facebook, Jeff Bezos is the owner of Amazon, Bill Gates is the owner of Microsoft. Similarly, Elon Musk is the owner of Tesla which is a company that manufactures electric cars. 

The wealth of all these people is interlinked with their companies. It is to such an extent that these people can both earn and lose billions of dollars in a day, depending upon the current value of their company in the share market. 

If their company’s share price climbs up then they become rich instantly. If the share price of their company falls then they can lose billions of dollars instantly. Something similar happened with Tesla. 

In 2020, Tesla’s stock price increased 720% in a year and this is the main reason for Elon Musk becoming the World’s richest man. What may surprise you is that Elon Musk did not found Tesla! Tesla was founded in 2003 by two people named Martin and Mark. 

Elon Musk joined this company in 2004 by investing $30 million. Only after 2008, Elon Musk became Tesla’s CEO. 

In 2009, this company was going through financial problems therefore he decided to list the company in the stock market so that the public can invest and the company can recover.

In 2010, this company was listed in the stock market. It had its Initial Public Offering (IPO)- about which I have explained in many past videos. 

And at that time when it happened, the price of one share of TESLA was $17. On 14th January 2021*, the price of its one share was $854.

Today, the market capitalization of this company has surpassed $800 billion due to which this has become the fifth most valuable company in the world after Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet. 

Alphabet is the company that owns Google. Elon Musk owns a 20% stake in Tesla and this is how his wealth has increased so much.

Before talking more about this, let’s get to know Elon Musk’s personal story. He was born in 1971 in South Africa. His mother was American and his father was South African.

It is said that from a very young age he started using computers. At the age of 10, he was given his first computer and he learned to code himself. 

At the age of 12, he coded a computer game which he sold for 500 dollars. So this was his first earning which he earned at the age of 12. 

In 1989, he went to Canada and then studied at Pennsylvania University in the USA. He believes three things that have influenced him the most were the internet, renewable energy, and space travel. 

In 1995, you can say that he got his first break. He founded a company called Zip2 along with his brother which was a telephone directory much like yellow pages. And this company was sold off at quite a high price. 

After that, he founded a financial service company named X.com which merged with another company in 2000 to form PayPal. In 2001, Elon Musk became the CEO and Chairman of Paypal after which it was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion. So, at this point, Elon Musk had already become a billionaire.

After this, he focused on his passions. He invested more than $100 million in founding a company named SpaceX. 

The main objective of the company is to send humans to Mars and to establish a colony there. In 2020, SpaceX became the first private company that had sent a person to Space by 2025, SpaceX plans to send the first human being to Mars. 

Let’s discuss how successful this turns out to be. 

But due to such big plans, ideas, and vision, Elon Musk is often called Real-life Tony Stark. He has highlighted the fact time and again that you don’t need a college degree if you want to make a good career. 

He tweeted, “You still don’t need a college degree to work for Elon Musk.”

Elon Musk doesn’t value a degree much but rather he values exceptional ability. 

If someone can show that he can work efficiently, then this person is more valuable to him as compared to a person who can only show his degree. 

A lot is to learn from Elon Musk’s story of how you can succeed only based on passion, skill, and hard work. If you have knowledge and skills then you don’t even need a degree and here I would like to introduce you to a great platform that will help you up-skill. 

Coding Ninja, one of the largest coding education companies in India. It provides great structured courses for college students. If you are going to give a job interview then you can ups-kill yourself through these courses

and make yourself knowledgeable enough such that the employers consider you useful for the job.

You don’t have just a degree to show. On their website, one-on-one doubt resolution support is also available for the students. 

The teachers too are former Facebook and Amazon employees. All the courses suit the college students perfectly. Coding Ninja has sponsored this blog therefore there is a special discount for you as well. 

 You will get 15% off on any course that you will buy on their website. You will find the link in the description below. Now, let’s get back to Elon Musk and being a billionaire. 

I said that for a billionaire, his wealth is associated with a company in such a way that when the share price goes up and down then the net worth of the billionaire will also go up and down. 

The money is often stuck in that company itself. To be able to withdraw and access that money always is quite difficult sometimes. The value of shares of a company increases when there is a higher demand for it in the market. 

If the public thinks that this company will be successful then they invest in that company resulting in a rise in its share price. Normally, this happens when the future potential of the company looks good. 

What is happening in the future?

Many developed countries want to reduce the number of petrol and diesel vehicles to reduce pollution and carbon emissions. More and more countries want to switch to electric cars. Tesla is one of the most popular electric car brands so people can see that in the coming 10 years, Tesla can become quite popular. 

Their cars will be sold worldwide which is why people are investing in them. Although, some feel that Tesla is overvalued.  

We agree that it is a good company and its future looks good but so many people have invested so much of their money is quite too much.

J P Morgan has said in December 2020, “Tesla’s shares are in our view and by virtually every conventional metric, not only overvalued but dramatically so.” In May 2020, Elon Musk has said himself that the share price of Tesla is quite too much.

He also warned his employees not to hope too much because the share price can fall as well. But on the other hand, some people believe that the share price of Tesla can rise more in the coming years. A billionaire investor says that Tesla’s stock can increase 3 times more. 

If this happens, if Tesla’s stock price increases 5 times, As of now, the net worth of Elon Musk is around 200 billion dollars then Elon Musk’s net worth which is currently around $200 billion will reach $1000 billion.

It means he can become the world’s first trillionaire. Till now, we have heard about millionaires and billionaires, he can become a trillionaire. 

A lot of people believe that this is possible if Tesla’s stock rises so much then Elon Musk will become a trillionaire. What is interesting here that Elon Musk calls himself cash-poor i.e he doesn’t have much cash. If he wants to spend so much money then he wouldn't have this money to spend. 

He says that he doesn’t draw even a single penny as salary for being the CEO of Tesla and keeps quite less cash with himself. 99% of his wealth of $190 billion is stuck in the shares of these two companies. One of which is Tesla and another is SpaceX.

Now, if he wants to take out so much of this money from these companies and keep it to himself, then this won’t be possible because he would have to sell his shares for this. If Elon Musk sells the shares of Tesla himself then what would be in the news?

How would other people react?

Other people would feel that he doesn’t believe in his own company, so the share price would crash drastically. All this money that is there would cease to exist.

You are the world’s richest person but when it is said that you have $190 billion then it is not in your pocket. You won't be able to spend it. What is interesting is that Elon Musk is not too attached to money! 

He says that he is not interested in materialistic things such as buying a private jet or island with so much money. He looks at money as less of a medium of exchange and store of value but as a means to an end. 

He looks at it like a financial tool that is quite useful to achieve one’s goal. For this very reason, when the news broke out that Elon Musk has become the richest man in the world then he tweeted, “Strange!”

After which he wrote, “Well back to work...”

In another tweet, he had written, “About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth.” Half of his money will be used to solve the problems of the Earth and the rest half will be used for the continuation of life for all the species. 

In case the Earth ceases to exist, some asteroid hits Earth and destroys it such that happened at the time of dinosaurs then a colony can be established on Mars and the species living on Earth can be saved.  

So, friends, this is the interesting story of Elon Musk. Today, he is not the richest person anymore because as I told you share price fluctuates so much that it came down a little bit and Jeff Bezos crossed him yet again. 

Elon Musk has a wealth of $179 billion while Jeff Bezos is at $182 billion.

I hope you found this story to be inspirational. If you like the post then do share it. Tell me in the comments below if you want to attend more such post on other inspiring people.