Welcome! I hope you have enjoyed the podcast, as have. I am learning a lot from it.
I am a family physician, and I will tell you as much as I can. I can try to look up as many answers as I can too, if I can’t answer them off the bat.
And above all, I appreciate sincerely your point at the bottom of your note–that we each have a story, and a reason for where we come from. Even if the reasoning is not right, everyone has something to share, a valid fear, and something we all have something we can learn from each other.
Great. I have a lot of questions too. Science is a great place to learn, isn’t it? It is a great source of humility when we ask with sincerity.
Great question. Yes, to start, the 300 million people who have died from smallpox–and their families–would have loved to be in our situation, of having none in the environment currently. Polio killed or maimed more than 500 million. However, see this list of 13 vaccines for more information https://health.clevelandclinic.org/vaccines-that-save-lives-around-the-world-infographic/ (CDC.gov is a great resource too, as is WHO https://www.who.int).
Yes, I can PM you an article reviewing this appropriately. Paul Offit also examines this in detail. Try “Autism’s False Prophets,” “Do You Believe in Magic,” and other books he’s written. http://paul-offit.com/resources/ http://paul-offit.com/ The Lancet also has it more succinctly.
FDA has tested this and there are reasons for giving this protocol; and Sears is wrong here (he gives an alternative schedule). I do not know the various European official recommendations, but WHO is more reliable as some European countries accommodate unproven regimens (Germany, I think, especially; but I don’t have the details). . I personally believe, however, that just giving the vaccine is more important than the schedule.
I do not know all the details of vaccine funding, except that the government often has to support this, as testing is so careful and expensive that drug companies don’t make enough to rationalize production on their own. Children’s vaccines have followed this, especially.
Regarding the opioid crisis, I can tell you a personal story of struggle which you may find empathetic. In medical school in 1999, the grassroots move to push opioid availability was meant well. Many patients were not getting pain control after surgery and acutely after injury. They suffered. Other primary care and pain physicians could not find much for those who suffer with chronic pain (they still don’t have many options, but they are much better than 21 years ago). It is heartbreaking not to be able to fix someone’s pain immediately–opioids did that, though as we see now, with terrible cost.
. As a result of community outcry from paitents and healthcare workers, JCAHO oversight groups and other regulatory agencies tried to get docs to make pain a standard vital sign. A small, poorly made study that said that short term, patients were not frequently addicted to postop meds, was quoted 140 times or so, and misused to construe a lack of harm.
It’s only now that we are seeing the fallout. We now know that there is little evidence that opioids are safe or even effective in the longterm. I can give more information about endorphin dependence, etc in another thread.
You mentioned drug company profits. I have heard about some, but we can’t blame the company for everything. After all, researchers missed warnings from history, doctors prescribed them, and we all missed important warning signs in the hope we could relieve pain.
Thanks.
May I ask another question? With the current pandemic and high mortality rate, would you consider vaccines against the Covid virus?
Also, one little known fact I learned from CDC is that the elderly (because of weak immune response) do not respond well to vaccines. For example, even with a good flu vaccine, it may be only 15% effective. About 50,000 people have already died of the flu this year (it’s usually 35,000 in the US, from my understanding). Most of these are the elderly or immunocompromised, though children also die of the flu frequently.
The only way to prevent that (and likely Covid) is to immunize the healthy, so as to provide herd immunity. These healthy folks then won’t carry the virus to the weak, and more people will be saved.
I am curious if you found that the vaccine was effective, if you would consider taking it–not necessarily to just protect yourself, but also to protect those with cancer, on chemo or arthritis meds, and the elderly? If so, under what circumstances?
The power of the story is great. Currently, there is tremendous suffering–not just from the deaths, but from economic downturn. About 3 million people in the US alone–by far the greatest number on record–have applied for unemployment benefits. Many others are unable, but have lost their jobs.
All this suffering argues strongly for a vaccine–historically, the only reliable way to combat a virus. (see this about the chloroquine and azithromycin, which likely will not help much A Really Bad Clinical Study on COVID-19 - #14 by evograd - Peaceful Science). We need strong questioning of what is effective, yes–but we also need to listen to both sides.
Thank you for your thoughts! God bless. I enjoyed reading your note. It reminds me of some of my own beloved family, who feel the same as you do.
Randy