“The ‘vaccine hesitant’ are a threat to society. But we must
show them compassion”
Globe and Mail Opinion by Dr. Kalla
Rebuttal
Having grown up in the Soviet Union, vaccinations have been just
a part of life one doesn’t think about all too often. Up until a year ago, I
had never refused a single vaccination when offered. However, as I have
invested a considerable amount of personal effort to understand the events of
the past 14 months, my personal understanding of issues related to vaccination has
undergone a significant change. So significant in fact that my current position
on vaccines in general is closer to the so called “ant-vaxx” camp than that of
the mainstream. However, I refuse to utilize such pejoratively loaded terms that
frame the discussion in black and white that are not only offensive but outright
unscientific, as science, in its purest form, is not at all black and white,
but rather constantly firmly resides in the grey spectrum of questions, hypotheses
and arguments.
Your introductory
point on the herd immunity hypothesis has definite merit. However, after 14
months of the pandemic, it is clear that large portions of the population,
depending on the jurisdiction1, have been exposed to the SARS Cov2. Given
a slew of recent studies on naturally acquired immunity, such immunity is
preferrable to the vaccine-induced version of it2. Moreover, a
series of alarms have been raised regarding the potential for increased side effects
associated with the vaccination of the previously exposed population3.
Taking these points into consideration, it is untenable to strive for vaccine-induced
immunity without accounting for those who don’t need such coverage and are at
the additional risk of side-effects. Moreover, according to some recent opinion
polls, vaccine trust among Canadians is already over 70%, thus making the whole
point of editorial moot4.
You are
generalizing the miracle of the vaccines, as if such have never been failures.
This is not factual. On the role of the vaccines in battling many deadly
diseases, this claim is exaggerated as per some studies5. This and
other studies concluded that while vaccines may have played a role in the extirpation
of the certain diseases, they are not at all the main drivers of such epidemiological
declines. From Salk polio vaccinations6, to 1976 swine flu scare7,
to the H1N1 2009 Pandemrix vaccination failure8, vaccines, even if
assumed to be a preferable cure for any given disease should be handled with
extreme caution. The recent Indian finding on the 490,000 additional cases of paralysis
associated with the oral polio vaccine only add urgency to such a position9,10.
You state unequivocally
that societal obligation is an important part of the current vaccination
campaign. You must be implying that the higher degree of vaccinated population
will cause lower rates of transmission. While being entirely plausible, vaccine
manufacturers, such as Pfizer11, have not made any affirmative
statements to the ability of their products to interrupt transmission. And if transmission
interruption is not certain, so neither is the societal obligation to be vaccinated.
It is interesting
that you chose your own anecdotal examples to support your position, while “debunking”
all competing claims wholesale. You speak of tetanus cases in your ER practice.
According to the Government of Canada’s own information12, there are
on average 3 tetanus cases per year, with all of them having been tagged with “unknown”
vaccination status. In other words, you can’t possibly see enough cases to draw
any statistically meaningful conclusions. You make a similar statement about flu
vaccinations, implying that the unvaccinated are more likely to be harmed by
the infection. However, this is not the case at all. In fact, there are several
published studies over the past 20 years that have found no correlation between
flu vaccination rates and all-cause mortality13. Now, some studies
did make this argument, but the numbers were not high enough it to note on the
ER floor. The US CDC, a conflicted party, itself ranks flu vaccination
effectiveness ranges from a low 10% to high 60%14, hardly a show of overwhelming
strength.
Now back to side-effects. To state that such don’t exist is not just controversial but outright reprehensible. They most certainly exist. On the legal front, the US Vaccine Court has paid out more than four billion dollars15 in the vaccine injury compensation claims over the last 30 years. Every vaccine insert comes with a long list of possible side-effects and warnings regarding the liability waivers16. On the reporting front, we have VAERS reporting system that documents such injuries. Given that false filing of such reports in a felony17, it is hard to imagine an issue with overreporting. In fact, there is a significant issue with underreporting, as per this Harvard study18. Over the last few months, the mainstream press filed several reports of such injuries related to the Covid-19 vaccinations. Are you implying that none of it relates to vaccines and are simply a result of false attribution?
You state that
the mainstream press is not doing enough to combat vaccine hesitancy. Anybody
who has listened, read and watched the mainstream media over the last 6 months
knows that your statement is simply false, as the mainstream media tries to
sweep under the rug any and all vaccine hesitancy concerns.
Given the
previous comment on the history and role of vaccines in eradication of infectious
diseases, you use the cases of smallpox and polio as examples to follow. This
is misleading. The virus SARS Cov2 and the disease Covid-19 relate to the category
of the upper respiratory tract infections. This is not comparable with either
polio or smallpox. This is comparable with diseases caused by influenza viruses
and therefore more comparable to flu vaccination efforts which are far less
successful than those that are alleged to have defeated the smallpox and polio.
Considering the history of these two diseases, one can note a number of
weaknesses in the mainstream hypothesis, but for the sake of brevity I would
just mention the simple fact that both diseases had already been in substantial
decline even before worldwide vaccination efforts that started in 1960s19,20.
You mention
rabies. While I am not opposed to rabies vaccinations, one must note that in
nearly 95 years, the whole of Canada reported 25 deadly cases of human rabies21.
This is hardly a statistic to build one’s persuasions. You then mention the
case of measles as to support your point, referring to the controversial Wakefield
study that connected the MMR vaccine to autism. Remarkably, you omit to tell
the whole story which was not that Wakefield opposed the measles vaccinations
per se, but that he opposed multivalent vaccinations such as MMR due their presumably
high adjuvant toxicity. In fact, upon publishing his study, Dr. Wakefield
called on the British authorities to expand measles only vaccination option as
an alternative22.
Speaking of multivalent
vaccines, you must know of the Guinea Bissau study23 undertaken by
Dr. Aaby of Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark. Being one
of the most detailed vaccination studies in history, you must know the doubts arising
out of the many multivalent vaccinations that surpass the issues such as autism
to the point of serious all-cause mortality effects. In other words, while each
individual vaccination program such as measles vaccine might indeed show much
promise in disease eradication, when taken together with other vaccinations
(DTP) might deliver significantly less desirable results. This is all the more
important to understand given that the current Covid-19 vaccination campaigns
are based on entirely new experimental technologies whose interaction with our
total immunity is generally unknown.
So, thank you
for your empathy for the “hesitant”. As patronizing it may be, it must at least
be based on actual, and not rhetorical, science.
Bibliography:
1. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.21.20198796v1
2. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.11.21256578v1
3. https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/2021/5/washington-post-fact-check
4. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/vaccine-hesitant-changed-minds-1.6022537
7. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200918-the-fiasco-of-the-us-swine-flu-affair-of-1976
8. https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3948/rapid-responses
10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121585/
13. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080829091323.htm
14. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/past-seasons-estimates.html
15. https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/data/index.html
17. https://vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html
18. https://rickjaffeesq.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/r18hs017045-lazarus-final-report-20116.pdf
19. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1108306/smallpox-number-of-cases-worldwide-historical/
20. https://ourworldindata.org/smallpox
21. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/rabies/surveillance.html
Very well written and educational. Thank you for expressing your views on this very serious matter.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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