Erick, please see Rick Williamson’s comment and that of Vicki’s, directly below.
To compare doubters and skeptics of the Word of God with those who raise an eyebrow toward the CDC and some of its bumbling, hapless apologists (Rochelle Walensky, Robert Redfield, Leana Wen, anyone??) is a bridge too far.
I have questions concerning the efficacy snd safety of some of these early vaccines. You don’t actually want to say that’s comparable to doubting the eternal, inerrant, immutable Word of God.
I’ve been with you since Red State, The Resurgent, and now substack, so no, I’m not canceling my subscription, though days like today are pesky.
One day in the distant future we’ll sit down over a cup of Earl Grey and talk this through.
I agree with Vickie. I have significant concerns about the long-term effects of a still-experimental vaccine thst is being distributed via an Emergency Use Authorization - not after the usual FDA approval process.
The "science" has changed so much in 18 months.
Don't wear a mask. Wear a mask. Heck, wear TWO (or three) masks. If you're fully vaccinated, you can take your mask off. Well... if you're vaccinated you have to wear a mask under certain conditions.
It came from a wet market selling infected bats. The lab leak theory is completely bogus. On second thought, it MIGHT have come from a lab. Actually, it turns out the chances it came from a lab are pretty good.
It's like a drunk that's fallen and is rolling down Lombard Street in San Francisco.
I've gotten motion sickness from all the back and forth.
You left out all that stuff about wiping everything down with which one happens to come into contact. How dare the CDC not have, right from the very start, perfect knowledge and information about a disease neither they nor anyone else had ever even seen before?
Given the enhanced contagiousness of this Delta variant, your only choice would seem to be to trust Covid or the vaccines. The long-term effects of both are unknown, however, we KNOW that if given a chance, Covid may kill you till you're dead. We KNOW that outcome is extremely unlikely with the vaccines. For crying out loud, do the math.
Yes, those of us that have chosen not to get the mRNA vaccine are aware of all that you say - all that anyone that is pushing the vaccine is saying. Believe it or not some of us are extremely well educated, have experience in science and the medical community. Our research is not based on FB, Twitter or YouTube .
I am not confident in the mRNA vaccine and anyone that understands the scientific process of creating and TESTING a vaccine most likely also has issues with the current situation. Their issues may not be so concerning as to prevent them from taking the mRNA vaccine; mine do.
That said, I support those that wish to be vaccinated. I will mask and stay 6 feet away. I do not attend social gatherings. My family has been tested and are negative (for now). If you have been vaxxed, are wearing a mask then you are as safe as you can possibly be. This virus is not going to disappear, it will most likely mutate - usually into a less serious variant since viruses do not want to kill their host. The variants that we have now may well be a response to mass global vaccination forcing the virus into mutations.
Please allow those of us that have serious concerns about the roll-out of this vaccine our freedom to choose, as you have yours. For what its worth, I will be first in line for the Nova vax as soon as its available in the US. It has a higher efficacy, less potential side-effects and adheres to the more conventional scientific process of production and testing.
Fear is a remarkably effective motivator but the results are rarely positive. It can make ALL people stupid; that applies to the fear of the virus and the fear of the vaccine.
Thanks Erick and thanks to Robert Johnson. Sooooo depressing to read how misguided some folks are as they refuse to listen to reasonable people as yourselves. Are the vaccines perfect? Of course not. But they are far better than. Covid. Listen to people who have had it , like the 28 year old in my wife’s home town in Alabama, oh wait, he just died so can’t talk to him
I am a scientist. Any consensus in science comes as a result of a hypothesis becoming a theorem through reproducible testing without political bias being involved. Once a majority of scientists accept the testing results proving the truth of the hypothesis/theorem a consensus may be said to have formed. Such consensus has no validity beyond this majority which may evaporate in an instant with new data and findings. In the early 1960s the consensus among geologists was that the continents were in fixed positions. Within ten years this was blown up by Plate Tectonics. A billion more votes added to the fixed continent side would not have saved it. We are now testing a so called vaccine on hundreds of millions of people. Sadly, politics has become involved. The data from this huge Stage Three testing program is casting doubt on many of our earlier assumptions about these vaccines. In a saner world we would have treated Covid 19 with several of the safe therapeutics available (HCQ, Ivermectin), kept the politics out of the disease and tested the vaccines in a normal scientific manner as we have done in the past. It is a funny thing about science: You can believe whatever you want but that does not make what you believe really real. The difference with The Bible is that the truth is contained in it and your belief does not change its truth one way or the other.
Perfect! This layman happens to believe what has long been preached to me by many scientific minds, namely that there is no such thing as "settled science". Another example I'm fond of: Up until the beginning of the 20th Century, the consensus was that Newtonian physics represented the last word on the Universe. Someone forgot to tell Einstein that the science was "settled", however. By the time he was through, Einstein, using Newton as his starting point, had explained the workings of the Universe to a far greater and far more accurate degree than had ever been the case before him. the same thing applies for the theories of Darwin, which make far more sense than a purely Scripturally based explanation does. Does that make Scripture suddenly obsolete? I don't believe that for a minute. To believe that is, IMO, to reject the fact that God granted us intellect and free will so that we may better come to discern those parts of His plan for the world. It is not ours to reject Scripture and the immutable truths about the human condition contained within.
i do not doubt scripture but i do doubt this so call vaccine. how about do a study on the book of Revelations and explain how the Enemy can convince so many people to turn away from God and take the mark. Whatever the mark is. this so call vax may not be but this whole charade is a precursor to what will come. People of this world value this world more than eternity. Are all vax's bad or wrong? Certainly not. But i am not going to be Big Pharma's guinea pig.
Sadly, William is going to be William, to the (rolls eyes🙄) of every thoughtful subscriber. If only substack provided the priceless tool “INSTABLOCK.,” but we don’t have that 🪰 swatter available.
Almost none of the Tumpier people I know have taken the vaccine. Apparently because Sleepy Joe is telling them to. Last year Kamala Harris said she would not take the vaccine because it was Trump's.
People on both "sides" (every issue nowadays has 2 polar opposite "sides") have gone totally freaking insane. And people are getting sick and dying needlessly during this pandemic because of it.
Cynicism, negativism, contrarianism and extreme tribalism have taken over both the Left and the Right. Not the same country my dad fought for in WWII.
There is also, at this point in time, a scientific consensus that claims that "women" can have a penis, "men" can menstruate and give birth, that sex is "assigned" at birth (not encoded in your DNA), that there is no such being as God, and we were not created by Him, humanity simply evolved.
I'm not going to send you hate mail, you are, as we all should be in this country, entitled to your opinion, and I believe you mean well. But "scientific consensus" isn't where I place my faith.
Please, Merleliz, don't ever confuse the notion of "scientific consensus", which lasts only as long as there are no facts in evidence to refute it - which always happens - with the pseudoscience used to support a purely secular, often completely immoral, and usually politically based set of conclusions. The latter always leads man astray on both scientific and moral grounds, and is to be rejected and refuted in the most vigorous manner possible, which will get the refuter his or her own share of hate mail, cancelation, etc.
That was kind of what I was getting to..."science" is so politicized, I have a hard time trusting anything they say. We have a man with an obvious mental illness lecturing Americans on medical issues while pretending to be a woman, the medical community insists he is really a she...why on earth would I believe anything from them?
I trust in God, and I am realistic enough to accept that I'm perhaps just not intelligent/educated enough to understand everything in His word...but I can sure tell the difference between a stallion, a gelding and a mare.
Well said. I am so proud of my youngest daughter, who was listening to the doubters and skeptics. She decided, on her own, to only listen to CDC and FDA and do her own research. She got her first dose two weeks ago. I wish more would make up their minds on their own, and not parroting those they think sound good, but who don't have the credentials for their beliefs.
Folks should pray to the Father for wisdom on whether or not to take the vaccine. We ask Him for so many other things. It seems simple, prudent and faithful to pray about what choice to make if you are a believer in Christ and have recognized Him as your Savior.
I wasn’t going to get the jab since I didn’t believe that the virus is that deadly even though I am pushing 76. I surely wasn’t going to drive a long distance for it. In May there were clinics set up close to me so I got the shots. I live in New Jermany and Gauleiter Murphy has made every small business starve or fail. Medical procedures were cancelled and people suffered. I see the handwriting on the wall where the unvaccinated will be treated like biblical lepers. They will not round them up and put them into isolation, but they might.
Pilot said “What is Truth?”. Where do you find it today? Studies show that some OTC drugs can be used in treatment. Other studies show they don’t work. Were the studies done the same way? Were the patient samples similar?
This is the same as the stolen election claims. Statements are made and proof is not given for or against.
Great job, Erick! i love the analogy which was also very instructional on its own merits regarding bible criticism
As a physician who spent over 2 decades in the Army (initially as a Ranger, and, then, as a doctor) I have been immunized up the kazoo! To diseases that most people have never heard of in the effort to keep me "world-wide deployable". I've supervised mass immunization efforts of soldiers. I have reviewed the literature on the 3 vaccines available in the US and have been myself the recipient of the Moderna vaccine way back in December. Hallelujah!
The mRNA vaccines are two of the most effective and safe vaccines ever offered. Trump should have received a Congressional award for spearheading "Operation Warp Speed" rather than impeachment. Never in my lifetime have I seen such an incredible success in the field of medical research and development.
For those lay people who think that they are truly capable of "informed consent" I say humbug! Unless you TRULY understand the science- and a single high school or even college biology course will not get you there- Your "information" is too weak to be valid. Unfortunately there has been too much confusing noise out of the CDC and their previously golden reputation of being arbiters of truth has been seriously tarnished . Even so it IS THEIR JOB to carefully make informed recommendations to the public.
It has been a travesty that most conservative news outlets have taken a stance that is ,at best, agnostic about the vaccine probably to entertain their listeners in the echo chamber.
This is very serious business. Our rural hospital has half of its beds occupied by people- almost all UNVACCINATED- who are struggling for their lives due to COVID. This is not a political game, although the worst of us on both the left and the right have made it so. As a battle proven Christian conservative, as a specialist in respiratory illnesses, I pray that all of your subscribers will not only get vaccinated, but also encourage others to do likewise.
Robert, what are your thoughts on acquired immunity? I'm not posing a "gotcha," I'm actually looking for a thoughtful response. For the reasons you mention I am honestly confused on what I THOUGHT I knew about the subject; that antibodies are created from B-cells with the help of T-cells, and while the antibodies eventually fade away, the B-cells can reside in the bone marrow for many years - in some cases, a lifetime - and quickly create new antibodies when faced with the same pathogen. As I understand it, the concern with COVID is whether the virus mutates enough to be unrecognizable by the B-cells. Is that close, or am I totally off base?
Tucker- you are spot on in your understanding. No one yet knows how helpful it is to get the vaccine if you've already had the disease. Nevertheless, most physicians have recommending that folks do so. My son and his fiance' were both infected and they subsequently got the 2-dose Moderna vaccine and did fine. A large part of the public relations debacle surrounding COVID prevention is a two-fold problem: health care consumers are impatient with medical data and expect that somehow the CDC, NIH, etc. are all-knowing and should get every recommendation right. The other side of this is that as robust as the research has been there is still so much that we do not know about how this virus interacts with the human population. For instance, the early recommendations to avoid the spread of infection were based on the behavior of influenza viruses. So frequent handwashing and social distancing were emphasized. Well, now we know that 6 foot spacing is ridiculous: a fairly recent MIT study demonstrated that for COVID to be avoided by micro-droplet spread, we would have to space ourselves 60 feet apart, because the contagious micro-droplets are so much smaller than for the flu virus and float in the air much longer and, hence, travel farther. We also now know that COVID is NOT spread easily by fomites, i.e., door handles, counters, keyboards, etc. Maybe not even by handshakes, although that's just my opinion. Unfortunately- and again, only my opinion- we are likely to find out that unless you are using N95 masks that masks are not very effective. So, the #1 public health recommendation should be an all-out push for large scale immunization.
It is a misunderstanding, however, to think that vaccines prevent infection: they only prevent SYMPTOMATIC infection. Your antibodies can't kill a virus until it actually infects you and gets into your blood stream. The fact that a rare few of vaccinated people get symptomatic COVID, based on the infrequency of this phenomenon, is actually a tribute to the vaccines' effectiveness. By comparison, influenza vaccines are only about 60-65% effective in any given year. The unanswered question is how long do these vaccines remain effective. 6 months? A year? a lifetime? Will we all need boosters? The jury is still out.
Is one's resistance after getting the disease comparable to that one acquires from a vaccine? Because if so, setting aside the prospect of being unable to get an ICU bed if I need one (due to Covid cases), I see little reason to care whether we pursue herd immunity through vaccinations or the unvaccinated getting sick.
As far as I know, no has yet fully researched the effectiveness of immunity due to disease exposure vs vaccination. It is probably still too early in the game to answer that question with authority based on a large study. It is well established that people who have been immunized have a much easier course if they get an infection and a very low mortality rate. Soooo...MUCH better to arrive at herd immunity via vaccination rather than waiting for lots of people to get sick. In my town, you can walk into WalMart and get a free COVID vaccination without appointment! It just doesn't get any easier than that!
Robert, you mentioned your military service in an earlier post. My wife and I are both 20 year Air Force veterans, and I can assure you that if vaccination was some sort of scam, our shot records wouldn't be as full as they are. And, your comment on influenza vaccines is also spot on. As I understand it, the formulation of those vaccines is based on an estimation, or well educated guess, if you will, of what strain(s) of the influenza virus will be prevalent in the population each year. I can easily foresee a future in which a yearly COVID vaccination based on a similar process will become the norm, which in my mind is ample reason to get the precise, absolutely truthful story of how this virus came to be. I consider the tale being spun by Dr. Fauci and his acolytes to be, at best, misleading, and at worse, an out and out lie, based on the facts in evidence on its origin. If anyone believes otherwise, they really need to read Nicholas Wade's superb piece on the matter: https://thewire.in/health/origins-of-covid-19-wuhan-china-coronavirus
I don't think this is hate mail. But you still seem to be ignoring those of us who have looked thoroughly at the pros and cons, assessed our own health history and choose not to get the vaccine. And there are a heck of a lot of us. For the record, I don't take flu shots or any medication of a prescription nature. I know my own personal health. And the biggest "concern" I have about the vaccine is that they are actively censuring information on TREATMENT of covid. To say that a vaccine that has been in existence for less than a year is trustworthy enough for EVERYONE to take is absurd. I am in favor of INFORMED CONSENT. Not mandates.
Erick, please see Rick Williamson’s comment and that of Vicki’s, directly below.
To compare doubters and skeptics of the Word of God with those who raise an eyebrow toward the CDC and some of its bumbling, hapless apologists (Rochelle Walensky, Robert Redfield, Leana Wen, anyone??) is a bridge too far.
I have questions concerning the efficacy snd safety of some of these early vaccines. You don’t actually want to say that’s comparable to doubting the eternal, inerrant, immutable Word of God.
I’ve been with you since Red State, The Resurgent, and now substack, so no, I’m not canceling my subscription, though days like today are pesky.
One day in the distant future we’ll sit down over a cup of Earl Grey and talk this through.
I agree with Vickie. I have significant concerns about the long-term effects of a still-experimental vaccine thst is being distributed via an Emergency Use Authorization - not after the usual FDA approval process.
The "science" has changed so much in 18 months.
Don't wear a mask. Wear a mask. Heck, wear TWO (or three) masks. If you're fully vaccinated, you can take your mask off. Well... if you're vaccinated you have to wear a mask under certain conditions.
It came from a wet market selling infected bats. The lab leak theory is completely bogus. On second thought, it MIGHT have come from a lab. Actually, it turns out the chances it came from a lab are pretty good.
It's like a drunk that's fallen and is rolling down Lombard Street in San Francisco.
I've gotten motion sickness from all the back and forth.
So, Erick, forgive me if I'm skeptical.
You left out all that stuff about wiping everything down with which one happens to come into contact. How dare the CDC not have, right from the very start, perfect knowledge and information about a disease neither they nor anyone else had ever even seen before?
Given the enhanced contagiousness of this Delta variant, your only choice would seem to be to trust Covid or the vaccines. The long-term effects of both are unknown, however, we KNOW that if given a chance, Covid may kill you till you're dead. We KNOW that outcome is extremely unlikely with the vaccines. For crying out loud, do the math.
BRAVO, and thank you.
Thanks.
Yes, those of us that have chosen not to get the mRNA vaccine are aware of all that you say - all that anyone that is pushing the vaccine is saying. Believe it or not some of us are extremely well educated, have experience in science and the medical community. Our research is not based on FB, Twitter or YouTube .
I am not confident in the mRNA vaccine and anyone that understands the scientific process of creating and TESTING a vaccine most likely also has issues with the current situation. Their issues may not be so concerning as to prevent them from taking the mRNA vaccine; mine do.
That said, I support those that wish to be vaccinated. I will mask and stay 6 feet away. I do not attend social gatherings. My family has been tested and are negative (for now). If you have been vaxxed, are wearing a mask then you are as safe as you can possibly be. This virus is not going to disappear, it will most likely mutate - usually into a less serious variant since viruses do not want to kill their host. The variants that we have now may well be a response to mass global vaccination forcing the virus into mutations.
Please allow those of us that have serious concerns about the roll-out of this vaccine our freedom to choose, as you have yours. For what its worth, I will be first in line for the Nova vax as soon as its available in the US. It has a higher efficacy, less potential side-effects and adheres to the more conventional scientific process of production and testing.
Fear is a remarkably effective motivator but the results are rarely positive. It can make ALL people stupid; that applies to the fear of the virus and the fear of the vaccine.
Thanks Erick and thanks to Robert Johnson. Sooooo depressing to read how misguided some folks are as they refuse to listen to reasonable people as yourselves. Are the vaccines perfect? Of course not. But they are far better than. Covid. Listen to people who have had it , like the 28 year old in my wife’s home town in Alabama, oh wait, he just died so can’t talk to him
Stop berating folks for not wanting the jab, will you?
I am a scientist. Any consensus in science comes as a result of a hypothesis becoming a theorem through reproducible testing without political bias being involved. Once a majority of scientists accept the testing results proving the truth of the hypothesis/theorem a consensus may be said to have formed. Such consensus has no validity beyond this majority which may evaporate in an instant with new data and findings. In the early 1960s the consensus among geologists was that the continents were in fixed positions. Within ten years this was blown up by Plate Tectonics. A billion more votes added to the fixed continent side would not have saved it. We are now testing a so called vaccine on hundreds of millions of people. Sadly, politics has become involved. The data from this huge Stage Three testing program is casting doubt on many of our earlier assumptions about these vaccines. In a saner world we would have treated Covid 19 with several of the safe therapeutics available (HCQ, Ivermectin), kept the politics out of the disease and tested the vaccines in a normal scientific manner as we have done in the past. It is a funny thing about science: You can believe whatever you want but that does not make what you believe really real. The difference with The Bible is that the truth is contained in it and your belief does not change its truth one way or the other.
Perfect! This layman happens to believe what has long been preached to me by many scientific minds, namely that there is no such thing as "settled science". Another example I'm fond of: Up until the beginning of the 20th Century, the consensus was that Newtonian physics represented the last word on the Universe. Someone forgot to tell Einstein that the science was "settled", however. By the time he was through, Einstein, using Newton as his starting point, had explained the workings of the Universe to a far greater and far more accurate degree than had ever been the case before him. the same thing applies for the theories of Darwin, which make far more sense than a purely Scripturally based explanation does. Does that make Scripture suddenly obsolete? I don't believe that for a minute. To believe that is, IMO, to reject the fact that God granted us intellect and free will so that we may better come to discern those parts of His plan for the world. It is not ours to reject Scripture and the immutable truths about the human condition contained within.
Over the past several decades I've learned the more you know about science the easier it is to believe in God.
i do not doubt scripture but i do doubt this so call vaccine. how about do a study on the book of Revelations and explain how the Enemy can convince so many people to turn away from God and take the mark. Whatever the mark is. this so call vax may not be but this whole charade is a precursor to what will come. People of this world value this world more than eternity. Are all vax's bad or wrong? Certainly not. But i am not going to be Big Pharma's guinea pig.
Where can I find the book of “Revelations”?
Sadly, William is going to be William, to the (rolls eyes🙄) of every thoughtful subscriber. If only substack provided the priceless tool “INSTABLOCK.,” but we don’t have that 🪰 swatter available.
“Fault for sarcastic responses all mine”. And mine too!
it is the 66th book of the Christian Bible
Oh…..I thought that was the book of “Revelation”. 😐
Some folks refer to it as "The Revelations of St. John."
Almost none of the Tumpier people I know have taken the vaccine. Apparently because Sleepy Joe is telling them to. Last year Kamala Harris said she would not take the vaccine because it was Trump's.
People on both "sides" (every issue nowadays has 2 polar opposite "sides") have gone totally freaking insane. And people are getting sick and dying needlessly during this pandemic because of it.
Cynicism, negativism, contrarianism and extreme tribalism have taken over both the Left and the Right. Not the same country my dad fought for in WWII.
There is also, at this point in time, a scientific consensus that claims that "women" can have a penis, "men" can menstruate and give birth, that sex is "assigned" at birth (not encoded in your DNA), that there is no such being as God, and we were not created by Him, humanity simply evolved.
I'm not going to send you hate mail, you are, as we all should be in this country, entitled to your opinion, and I believe you mean well. But "scientific consensus" isn't where I place my faith.
There is no such "scientific consensus."
Please, Merleliz, don't ever confuse the notion of "scientific consensus", which lasts only as long as there are no facts in evidence to refute it - which always happens - with the pseudoscience used to support a purely secular, often completely immoral, and usually politically based set of conclusions. The latter always leads man astray on both scientific and moral grounds, and is to be rejected and refuted in the most vigorous manner possible, which will get the refuter his or her own share of hate mail, cancelation, etc.
That was kind of what I was getting to..."science" is so politicized, I have a hard time trusting anything they say. We have a man with an obvious mental illness lecturing Americans on medical issues while pretending to be a woman, the medical community insists he is really a she...why on earth would I believe anything from them?
I trust in God, and I am realistic enough to accept that I'm perhaps just not intelligent/educated enough to understand everything in His word...but I can sure tell the difference between a stallion, a gelding and a mare.
Well said. I am so proud of my youngest daughter, who was listening to the doubters and skeptics. She decided, on her own, to only listen to CDC and FDA and do her own research. She got her first dose two weeks ago. I wish more would make up their minds on their own, and not parroting those they think sound good, but who don't have the credentials for their beliefs.
Folks should pray to the Father for wisdom on whether or not to take the vaccine. We ask Him for so many other things. It seems simple, prudent and faithful to pray about what choice to make if you are a believer in Christ and have recognized Him as your Savior.
I wasn’t going to get the jab since I didn’t believe that the virus is that deadly even though I am pushing 76. I surely wasn’t going to drive a long distance for it. In May there were clinics set up close to me so I got the shots. I live in New Jermany and Gauleiter Murphy has made every small business starve or fail. Medical procedures were cancelled and people suffered. I see the handwriting on the wall where the unvaccinated will be treated like biblical lepers. They will not round them up and put them into isolation, but they might.
Pilot said “What is Truth?”. Where do you find it today? Studies show that some OTC drugs can be used in treatment. Other studies show they don’t work. Were the studies done the same way? Were the patient samples similar?
This is the same as the stolen election claims. Statements are made and proof is not given for or against.
Great job, Erick! i love the analogy which was also very instructional on its own merits regarding bible criticism
As a physician who spent over 2 decades in the Army (initially as a Ranger, and, then, as a doctor) I have been immunized up the kazoo! To diseases that most people have never heard of in the effort to keep me "world-wide deployable". I've supervised mass immunization efforts of soldiers. I have reviewed the literature on the 3 vaccines available in the US and have been myself the recipient of the Moderna vaccine way back in December. Hallelujah!
The mRNA vaccines are two of the most effective and safe vaccines ever offered. Trump should have received a Congressional award for spearheading "Operation Warp Speed" rather than impeachment. Never in my lifetime have I seen such an incredible success in the field of medical research and development.
For those lay people who think that they are truly capable of "informed consent" I say humbug! Unless you TRULY understand the science- and a single high school or even college biology course will not get you there- Your "information" is too weak to be valid. Unfortunately there has been too much confusing noise out of the CDC and their previously golden reputation of being arbiters of truth has been seriously tarnished . Even so it IS THEIR JOB to carefully make informed recommendations to the public.
It has been a travesty that most conservative news outlets have taken a stance that is ,at best, agnostic about the vaccine probably to entertain their listeners in the echo chamber.
This is very serious business. Our rural hospital has half of its beds occupied by people- almost all UNVACCINATED- who are struggling for their lives due to COVID. This is not a political game, although the worst of us on both the left and the right have made it so. As a battle proven Christian conservative, as a specialist in respiratory illnesses, I pray that all of your subscribers will not only get vaccinated, but also encourage others to do likewise.
I've had type 1 diabetes since 1958,. I got the Moderna vaccine in January (dose1) and February (dose 2) with a sore arm as the only side effect.
Looking back, I see God's hand in it every step of the way.
Robert, what are your thoughts on acquired immunity? I'm not posing a "gotcha," I'm actually looking for a thoughtful response. For the reasons you mention I am honestly confused on what I THOUGHT I knew about the subject; that antibodies are created from B-cells with the help of T-cells, and while the antibodies eventually fade away, the B-cells can reside in the bone marrow for many years - in some cases, a lifetime - and quickly create new antibodies when faced with the same pathogen. As I understand it, the concern with COVID is whether the virus mutates enough to be unrecognizable by the B-cells. Is that close, or am I totally off base?
Tucker- you are spot on in your understanding. No one yet knows how helpful it is to get the vaccine if you've already had the disease. Nevertheless, most physicians have recommending that folks do so. My son and his fiance' were both infected and they subsequently got the 2-dose Moderna vaccine and did fine. A large part of the public relations debacle surrounding COVID prevention is a two-fold problem: health care consumers are impatient with medical data and expect that somehow the CDC, NIH, etc. are all-knowing and should get every recommendation right. The other side of this is that as robust as the research has been there is still so much that we do not know about how this virus interacts with the human population. For instance, the early recommendations to avoid the spread of infection were based on the behavior of influenza viruses. So frequent handwashing and social distancing were emphasized. Well, now we know that 6 foot spacing is ridiculous: a fairly recent MIT study demonstrated that for COVID to be avoided by micro-droplet spread, we would have to space ourselves 60 feet apart, because the contagious micro-droplets are so much smaller than for the flu virus and float in the air much longer and, hence, travel farther. We also now know that COVID is NOT spread easily by fomites, i.e., door handles, counters, keyboards, etc. Maybe not even by handshakes, although that's just my opinion. Unfortunately- and again, only my opinion- we are likely to find out that unless you are using N95 masks that masks are not very effective. So, the #1 public health recommendation should be an all-out push for large scale immunization.
It is a misunderstanding, however, to think that vaccines prevent infection: they only prevent SYMPTOMATIC infection. Your antibodies can't kill a virus until it actually infects you and gets into your blood stream. The fact that a rare few of vaccinated people get symptomatic COVID, based on the infrequency of this phenomenon, is actually a tribute to the vaccines' effectiveness. By comparison, influenza vaccines are only about 60-65% effective in any given year. The unanswered question is how long do these vaccines remain effective. 6 months? A year? a lifetime? Will we all need boosters? The jury is still out.
Is one's resistance after getting the disease comparable to that one acquires from a vaccine? Because if so, setting aside the prospect of being unable to get an ICU bed if I need one (due to Covid cases), I see little reason to care whether we pursue herd immunity through vaccinations or the unvaccinated getting sick.
As far as I know, no has yet fully researched the effectiveness of immunity due to disease exposure vs vaccination. It is probably still too early in the game to answer that question with authority based on a large study. It is well established that people who have been immunized have a much easier course if they get an infection and a very low mortality rate. Soooo...MUCH better to arrive at herd immunity via vaccination rather than waiting for lots of people to get sick. In my town, you can walk into WalMart and get a free COVID vaccination without appointment! It just doesn't get any easier than that!
Robert, you mentioned your military service in an earlier post. My wife and I are both 20 year Air Force veterans, and I can assure you that if vaccination was some sort of scam, our shot records wouldn't be as full as they are. And, your comment on influenza vaccines is also spot on. As I understand it, the formulation of those vaccines is based on an estimation, or well educated guess, if you will, of what strain(s) of the influenza virus will be prevalent in the population each year. I can easily foresee a future in which a yearly COVID vaccination based on a similar process will become the norm, which in my mind is ample reason to get the precise, absolutely truthful story of how this virus came to be. I consider the tale being spun by Dr. Fauci and his acolytes to be, at best, misleading, and at worse, an out and out lie, based on the facts in evidence on its origin. If anyone believes otherwise, they really need to read Nicholas Wade's superb piece on the matter: https://thewire.in/health/origins-of-covid-19-wuhan-china-coronavirus
Well said.
Great information Robert, I really appreciate the response.
I don't think this is hate mail. But you still seem to be ignoring those of us who have looked thoroughly at the pros and cons, assessed our own health history and choose not to get the vaccine. And there are a heck of a lot of us. For the record, I don't take flu shots or any medication of a prescription nature. I know my own personal health. And the biggest "concern" I have about the vaccine is that they are actively censuring information on TREATMENT of covid. To say that a vaccine that has been in existence for less than a year is trustworthy enough for EVERYONE to take is absurd. I am in favor of INFORMED CONSENT. Not mandates.
This is gold. God bless you, Erick.