Good visual, Thomas. I have an acquaintance who got COVID in the early stages, when vaccines weren't yet available. He was in his early 50s at the time, and in good health. He nearly died. He was put on a ventilator. Spent over three months in hospital. Had extensive physiotherapy to learn how to walk again. He has been unhealthy ever since; he's had two strokes and now lives in a nursing home. Fast forward three years later. Almost everyone I know has had COVID, but they're fully vaccinated and weren't severely ill. Most have reported it's like a bad cold. No one has had lingering effects...and most of these folks are in their 60s and 70s. No one can tell me that vaccines and lockdown measures had no effect on preventing severe illness and minimizing the spread of COVID. People who think otherwise are misinformed and/or stubbornly ignorant of the facts.
I say, repeatedly, whenever I get the chance, that almost nothing in biology is 100% anything. Biological systems are mind-numbingly complex, with feedback loops, equilibrium reactions, constant genetic changes. So, vaccines are our attempt to reduce serious illness and death. Eliminating a disease entirely is obviously the fondest desire but Mother Nature has no reason to cooperate with our desires. So, vaccines exhibit a range of effectiveness, just like diseases exhibit and range of severity. Some vaccines are incredibly effective (e.g. small pox, rabies, tetanus) others not so much (influenza was the most conspicuous example, now it’s probably COVID). The simple fact is, as long as the science exhibits a benefit to overall health, it will continue to be available. If it is discovered to have serious health risks, it will be pulled from the market (e.g. thalidomide, Dalcon Shield). COVID vaccinations were paused in a couple places to investigate possible adverse effects but the investigations did not provide any evidence of excess risk v. benefit, so here we are.
Nope. The first vaccinations were given to health care workers initially in late 2020. https://www.cnet.com/science/first-covid-19-vaccines-given-in-the-us/ Trump didn’t even announce Operation Warp Speed authorizing development of the vaccines until May 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Warp_Speed
We can read what we want and believe what we want and debate. I still think we should be allowed to decide for ourselves our health decisions doing our own research. Both sides lie. Mandates to maintain our livelihoods are horrible. If you are sick, stay home from work. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.
For anyone that might be interested, this is a long, but very detailed timeline, of the COVID vaccine development and distribution effort. https://www.ajmc.com/view/a-timeline-of-covid-19-vaccine-developments-in-2021
I absolutely love that you shared this information from a biologist's perspective, Thomas. I have read similar explanations from medical professionals. I just can't understand people who refuse to accept what science teaches us, push back against the best advice given by scientists and physicians, and instead seek out and believe junk science and disinformation because it suits their agenda. I've learned a lot about human behaviour over the last three years and a lot of it hasn't been pretty.
Sure, you can believe what you want, but if those beliefs are based on disinformation, that's a creates a problem. It also depends on which sources you use for "research." People can find information that suits their agenda everywhere on the internet. It doesn't mean that information is factual.
The problem comes in big part I think from bureaucrats and politicians who push an agenda. Bench science grinds on and there is no denying its effectiveness. The literal existence of world we live in is proof of it. However, those with agendas, in positions of power or high visibility, often push their own viewpoint. They do this by making claims that are pure balderdash, or by taking what is known science and turning into alarmist sensationalism, or by cherry picking the science to push one particular view. The best bet is always going to the actual source of the knowledge and evaluating it for ourselves. Unfortunately, for many of us, the science is not readily understandable. This is where the failure of our government is most glaringly unforgivable. It has been a COMPLETE failure at communicating what this whole thing really is. My $0.02 anyway.
I can't speak to the communications issues of your government, as I'm in Canada, but yes, I've read about some of it. And it has no doubt caused a lot of confusion among the public. I agree that going to the actual source of knowledge is generally most effective and reasonable, but the problem is, many people have refused to believe any of the bonafide "sources of knowledge" and they've drawn their own conclusions from unreliable sources. I've seen many articles and YouTube videos of so-called "experts" making ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims. People who are disgruntled with how their governments have handled the pandemic gravitate toward such information; they'll search for any nonsense that they think might prove their country's health officials wrong, and believe it. It's happened in my country. Very frustrating.
I was watching a YouTube video of some talking head ranting and raving about COVID vaccines, saying that the vaccine actually forces your cells to make this protein. Um, yeah, and does anyone realize what your cells are being forced to do when the virus infects you? The answer is make that same protein and a whole boatload of other stuff needed to make a complete virus on as massive scale as the virus can. The virus isn’t just one shot, it continues to reinfect other cells, turning them into viral factories. Everything he discussed was the same way. It was well known stuff, in the scientific community, about viruses and vaccines but he was presenting it as dangerous, alarmist information. The guy should have been dragged through the streets. In another section, he was talking about the risk that mRNA could be reverse transcribed into our genome. First, that is incredibly unlikely because it is messenger-RNA. Secondly, in the extremely unlikely case it does get reverse transcribed into our genome, SO WHAT? This happens all the time with certain RNA viruses, it’s the way they operate. Virologists and molecular biologists are trying to figure this out right now but it is looking like somewhere between 8 and 40% [sic] of our human genome is of viral origin. The guy is presenting correct information but he is lying about what it means.
Yes. This is exactly the kind of "information" I'm talking about. Members of the general public who don't trust science and their government take to this crap like moths to a porch light. Interesting that Facebook eventually started monitoring its pages for "false information," disallowing posts that were overtly false and/or conspiratorial. That's indicative of the plethora of junk and pseudo-science posts that have inundated the internet and social media. From the beginning of the pandemic, hubby and I chose to trust our government to take the advice of our top health officials and we followed all COVID regulations and got all of our shots and boosters. We recognize that we are not scientists, virologists, or immunology experts. Of course, there were some bumps along the way as they figured things out, but in a crisis like we've had, you have to put faith in reputable (key word) medical researchers who have the best knowledge and can develop tools and guidelines for public safety.
I followed Dr John Campbell throughout. He presented the facts with double blind studies and statistics that the US scientists withheld. I would take him over Faucci any time.
This guy has been taken to task for spreading false claims about COVID mortality and misleading commentary about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. He's retired nurse, not a scientist, immunologist or virologist that has dedicated to his life's work to these fields of research. Would you take the advice of a podiatrist if you needed brain surgery? Maybe you would, but I wouldn't. Thanks for supporting my comments about distrusting actual experts.