By: Anonymous
This was written by the friend of a healthcare professional I know personally and have a lot of respect for. I am very grateful she had the courage to share it with me. It is being printed here with her permission:
“Please help change the narrative! I feel sad that so many people see the world in a polarized, black and white way right now. We read and hear frightening statements from the media, politicians, and social media pinning one group against another and leaving out much of the story.
A black and white world is a much more dangerous world as we’ve seen countless times in history when tolerance and kindness have been thrown aside for what was, at the time, seen as a ‘higher’ agenda. And then, years afterward, we’ve seen that the ‘higher agenda’ blinded people to the discrimination and persecution of innocent human beings. The black and white story that has been formed around the handling of COVID-19 is harming friendships, marriages, families, communities, and relationships between parents and children. It is also harming the trust in democracy and the freedoms this country is based on. I’ve cried many tears lately over this sad situation.
My hope is that offering these thoughts will inject some 3-D color into the world...injecting some tolerance, understanding, and opening up the conversation to address the full person and not the label of “unvaccinated” or “vaccinated”.
The vaccine alone is not going to stop the spread; therefore, each person needs to weigh the benefits vs risks for getting the vaccine themselves. An unmasked vaccinated person that is exposed to COVID-19 is much more likely to spread the virus than a masked unvaccinated person. We don’t live in a black and white world. Masks and social distancing are proven risk mitigators. Would you consider having conversations with the people around you about what would help you feel safe and making masking and social distancing requests instead of judging them for being vaccinated or not?
I haven’t gotten the vaccine, partly because of a medical condition that puts me at much higher risk for heightened inflammatory and autoimmune reactions. After hearing the reports of the more contagious Delta variant, I've been reassessing my choice, interviewing several doctors with questions about the risks of short- and long-term side effects from the vaccines, and doing lots of reading and research because I take the health of my family and my community very seriously as I expect you, the reader does.
The risks that the doctors I've talked to (and other doctors and scientists around the world) haven't been able to adequately assess and address concern me, like the increase of autoimmunity markers and resurgence of latent viruses like Shingles, Herpes, & Epstein-Barr. As well as the findings that the vaccine’s adjuvant LNPs, (which are the inflammatory substances that vaccines need to create the immune response) used in the mRNA vaccines, which were supposed to stay localized at the injection site, have been measured in quantities above what anyone anticipated and never have seen before in the tissue of the ovaries, spleen, bone marrow, liver, adrenal glands. And lastly, the possibility of Antibody-Dependent Enhancement which is theoretical at this time but has happened quite a few times in recent medical history (and ADE’s were a problem in other Coronavirus vaccine trial attempts in prior years) and won’t be able to be adequately measured until a year or two goes by.
Another consideration has been reactions I’ve heard first hand: my spouse's friend’s colleague had a stroke, a mom from my kids’ school warned me she had had body pain and fatigue for months after her 2nd shot, my friend who is a doctor of audiology treats a patient per week with sudden onset loud tinnitus/hearing loss, my infectious disease doctor has had some of her patients who were in full remission have flare ups of all their symptoms, and my Aunt has had arthritis type pain down her arm to her hand on her injected arm.
The fact is, what I keep coming up against, when it would make life much easier to just go get the jab given the social and practical discrimination that is occurring, is that we just won’t know for a while (most vaccines are tested for at least 2-5 years) what the effects will be long-term, which is why the doctor I spoke with on Tuesday and many others will say in response to the specific questions I have about these risks, ‘We believe the benefits outweigh the risks’. I hope those that profess their safety are right and these vaccines will be helpful for everyone and for my family eventually, but I’m choosing to wait until we know more.
Also, given the recent data, I think we need to bring in more tools and solutions than the current vaccines:
· Many vaccinated people are getting and passing the virus, and contrary to random media blurbs, this variant was never caused by unvaccinated people…viruses mutate and scientists and doctors have been expecting and warning of this since the beginning
· The CDC states that the viral load in vaccinated persons is just as much as in unvaccinated persons
Some exciting news I’ve read recently…
· An Intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine is coming down the pipeline from a partnership between a UK research lab and Texas Biomedical. Due to the application, nasal spray vaccines in general have much fewer side effects, especially systemic side effects, than intramuscular injectable vaccines. It was found to decrease both disease severity and transmission and is heading to human clinical trials.
· There are also an increasing number of early treatment protocols (some already available) that greatly reduce the chance of both hospitalization and death including a promising new drug out of Israel that so far has had no significant side effects and is heading into Phase II trials.
· And in the UK, AstraZeneca’s Antibody Drug which was Found to Prevent Symptomatic Covid-19 by 77% in trials.
I think that it takes courage to get the vaccine and am grateful for those people that are willing to do so, even without long-term safety data. It will advance the science and eventually give more credibility, or not, to the safety claims, so that is a gift to humanity and a very worthwhile medical experiment... but do I think any sentient being should be pressured to get an injection before long-term safety data is available or criticized if they choose not to?…No, I don’t. Meanwhile, I hope with all my heart that people can be more considerate, understanding and respectful to all people and uphold and honor the basic human right of body sovereignty”.