A summary from Dr. Collins presentation at the Biologos conference this year. In it he helps us understand the different ways we see truth in our lives.
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He last little video about his prostate cancer is poignant to me and encouraging as I am a few weeks out from a similar prostate surgery, and as is common, when asked how I am doing, often answer, “Depends.” 
Whilst everyone here knows that my thoughts on this are very different from what Dr Collins is proposing…
One thing that we do share in common is this notion that being vaccinated is some kind of shadowy conspiracy aimed at covertly controlling individuals via tracking or chemically screwing up the brain.
For me, i think that the media managed to have politicians spending far too much time explaining rather than simply locking down, getting ■■■■ shorted, then restoring the community back to functionality as quickly as science could achieve that end.
The tradgety i think is, we introduced a model of social cleanliness (hand sanitising stations, social distancing, staying home when unwell), then dumped the whole friggin lot after our vacinnation rates reached 80 odd %. WHY?
Even schools took a ridiculous about turn…they went from functioning in a virtual environment, which offered fabulous flexibility in the classroom and indeed was a boon for those who could not attend personally, only to go back to the dark ages after everything settled down again. AGAIN, WHY?
Could it be that science failed to enact permanent change because politicians spun so much crap that no one really took on board anything more than “we will get things back to normal as soon as we can”. It should never have been put that way, we should have took the opportunity to promote permanent fundamental change in the way society thinks about life.
Personally, getting b ack on track again as ive wandered a bit…
i think Francis is barking up a useless tree trying to use science to bring people into the “philosophical fold”…hes pushing s$%t uphill with that one because of what the politicians did badly. Harping on about the truthfulness of science is just words. People spent a whole year listening to politicians stand up in front of media cameras and spin s$%t to them already…they are over it.
I think it would be better to demonstrate a love for the subject…show people how fun and fabulous his passion for science is rather than brow beat them about trust issues!
Oh…and figure out a solution to the really bad side effects of covid vaccines…people dont want covid obviously, but they dont want permanent heart issues as a result of the vacinnation either. Im a pro vaxer however, am struggling to continue with the program as ive had 4 shots and Im starting to think that the chest pains i get from time to time in the last year or so are related to those shots and my dad has had a relatively sudden downturn in heart health in the last year and hes fully vaccinated as well.
We definitely need better communication. Last I looked the incidence of cardiac problems were far higher after infection compared to vaccination, which you would expect given the viral load. Cardiac Complications After SARS-CoV-2 Infection and mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination — PCORnet, United States, January 2021–January 2022 | MMWR
But it is hard to communicate that well to a public that is both skeptical and ignorant of basic science and statistics.
Right. The publicity implies that the vaccine has something that Covid doesn’t. On the contrary, Covid has more than 20 times the antigen, and is live. We saw clots with Covid and I never have seen it with the shot (not that it couldn’t happen, but it was worse with the old fashioned type of vaccines, more with Johnson and Johnson, for example). Our intensive care admission (severe disease) rate was about 20 to 40 times higher without the shot, compared to those with it. The only heart problem I have heard of is a mild irritation that usually responds to ibuprofen–that’s not true, ischemic heart disease, and it’s much, much higher with Covid (200 times, and more severe).
On the other hand, @Adam, I would very rapidly talk to your primary care provider if you or your family have any chest pain–heart disease, by a narrowing of the arteries, is quite common, and I am at a higher risk from being relatively sedentary in my job, too. Blessings.
Other causes can be costochondritis, heart burn, etc; but I’d talk to someone who can work that up.
I appreciate your good thoughts.
We dumped it because most people didn’t like it. I salute your idealism, but we also have to take human behavior into account, picking the battles we can win.
The number one reason is that public schools are free government sponsored child care which allows both parents to hold a day job. There are many other reasons, such as the cost families would have to bear for supporting virtual access, but child care is the number one reason.
I can’t help but think of all the times you have encouraged other Christians to distrust secular science.
I work in the field of infectious disease, but I am by no means an expert in vaccine development or clinical trials for testing those vaccines. With that said, research focused on increasing the safety of the vaccines is going to be pretty grueling. The one big hurdle I am seeing is the size of the clinical trials, as in number of participants. In order to see a drop in side effects you need a large cohort to make the statistics work, much larger than was needed for basic safety.
However, as @jpm states, the vaccine is way safer than the infection itself. As I have often heard in the research business, show me a drug without side effects and I will show you a drug that doesn’t work.
Found a good article on COVID vaccine related myocarditis that is aimed at the general public.
First, the current consensus has settled on a general increase in inflammation as the cause of myocarditis:
Thankfully, it doesn’t look like it is an autoimmune response so the symptoms should be limited to a smaller window following vaccine exposure.
They also recommend having more time between the first shot and the follow up booster, as well as taking NSAIDs (e.g. ibuprofen) to tamp down the immune response a bit.
Sort of related is this recent study regarding pediatric complications of Covid infection. S
Somewhat encouraging is that since it is a reaction to a nucleocapsid protein, a spike protein based immune response should not have that effect, while protecting against infection.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07722-4
It is also neat to see how DNA sequencing enabled researchers to recognize the cause of the problem, and ultimately that will lead to more effective treatment and prevention.
Regarding trust and conspiracy theories, Dr Collins has had almost as much negative experience on these concerns as Dr Fauci.
Conspiracy theories appear to be a way to control, at least mentally, difficult and frightening occurrences. Thus, they arise after Lady Diana’s death, the Twin Towers’ demise, John F Kennedy’s death, etc. The axiom that “absolute power corrupts absolutely” becomes nearly anarchic and deposes truth as, by definition, falsehood if it’s a prominent theory–unless it blames someone as having bad intention.
This article in BBC just reported monkeypox, which as a 4% mortality rate (though it appears not to be as infectious as Covid and other, similar viruses), as a global health emergency. Many may recall that it was a concern in 2022, but seemed to recede. Rather than affecting some narrow strata of society as it did then, it appears to be more common among the poor and mainstream.
I wondered what kind of conspiracy theories may arise, so found this review from JAMA from 2022. I wonder if the theories will resurface. If so, I wonder what the best way is to quell anxiety and communicate effectively, to help people in the best way possible with preventing the spread and death potential in this outbreak. I would be interested in what you think (@jpm , please feel free to remove this if it’s too far apart from the OP). Thanks.
I had mentioned chest pains to my doctor before, and when I tested positive for COVID he said to expect more of them and just take note if they’re only in the heart area. I’ve been getting them as low as the bottom of my rib cage and as far around as almost right under my armpits, so I know that it’s general inflammation of the chest lining, not my heart.
So far . . . .
My dad, a surgeon, used to comment, “Medicines are poisons with a desired side effect.” Of course, I could always have retorted, “Dad, your scalpel is a weapon with a desired side effect!”.
It seems there is no lack of conspiracy theorists whenever there is a crisis. It would be interesting to see how these things are monetized. It is said 12 anti- vax promoters make up the bulk of social media posts on the subject, and they all are involved in profiting from the controversy. Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows : NPR
Human psychology is a fascinatingly weird thing where comfortable lies are preferred over inconvenient truths.
This is worth repeating.
Not distrust so much as ensure the science aligns with the bible as its written.
Im bachelor degree trained as a design and technology teacher…im not anti science.
Btw…i am loving the responses to this thread. This is where you guys really shine and im.glad to he able to read your responses. Im a pretty staunch provaxer, however the negative stuff has really started to wear me down. The responses here are uplifting and have helped me worry a lot less…so thanks guys.
Blessings, Adam. It can be frustrating. Here is another encouraging article from WHO that affirms vaccine benefits.
Global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years.
In Africa in the 80s and 90s, I saw first hand the effects of preventable infectious disease. Many kids died who could have been saved. I am grateful for the vaccines available so far, and hope more come out for malaria, HIV, etc.
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