Buyer’s Remorse

To be, or not to be, that is the question.  — William Shakespeare

Image Credit: compiled from the Public Domain

By James V. Ferguson, MD (contributor to the Tennessee Conservative) –

We do not have Hamlet’s conundrum of a life-or-death struggle. Or maybe we do, if you believe the pronouncements of iPOTUS and his handlers. The question for Americans is to VAX or not to VAX. 

Before you read further let me state, I have received Covid vaccinations. Furthermore, I believe in the science of vaccines and I get a flu shot every year. I have had all of my childhood shots and stay up-to-date on adult vaccinations.

When President Trump’s Covid vaccines became available, I analyzed the pros and cons of vaccination with the novel mRNA agents. I concluded that for a 70 year old, the pros outweighed the cons. Unfortunately, politics has so muddied the Covid waters that even a science trained guy with considerable bedside and research experience feels unsure about finding the truth.

I have written that everyone who took the mRNA vaccines is now part of the greatest clinical experiment in the history of humankind. These vaccines were released on an emergency basis and did not have the standard 2 to 5 years of observation required of all previously developed vaccines. I suspect we will find that the vaccines are generally safe, but we don’t know that yet. Only time will reveal the truth and then only if the experts and our leaders share the data with the American public. The track record of our experts has been dishonesty, incompetence and malfeasance, defined by Mr. Webster as misconduct, especially by a public official. 

Every day there are new reports of punishment for those who decline Covid vaccines. iPOTUS has gone so far as to say that the Covid pandemic is continuing because of people who refuse to be vaccinated. Ol’ Joe certainly doesn’t know, nor can I find the answer. 

We have never forced citizens to take medication. Now companies with greater than 100 employees will either have to be vaccinated or tested for Covid once a week. But what about companies with less than 100 workers or the illegal aliens streaming across the Southern border and being shipped all over the United States? I believe the latter poses greater risk than unvaccinated Americans. 

What if you were less than 25 years old and you knew your risk of death from Covid infection was 1 in a million? Would you take the poke, knowing that there are no long-term safety guarantees with these novel vaccines? Alternatively, if you were advanced in years with underlying health problems and had a life expectancy of 5 to 15 years, I suspect most would take the poke. And if you’ve already had Covid infection and acquired natural immunity, like Senator Rand Paul, I suspect you would hesitate to be vaccinated. 

I realize that risk/benefit ratios can be difficult and perhaps we should not expect Ol’ Joe to grasp the concepts. But then iPOTUS is the one threatening Americans. Whatever happened to the Democrat cry that a person’s body is their own? They make this argument for abortion rights, and then turn a blind eye to Covid vaccination. The argument goes that if you refuse vaccination, you’re threatening other people. However, if you choose abortion, you’re actually eliminating the life and future of the unborn child. I can say with certainty that science cannot tell you when life begins, nor can SCOTUS. 

A friend of mine has just left quarantine after testing positive for Covid, despite having received vaccinations. We hear this story all the time. Science says that people who have been vaccinated and acquire a “breakthrough” Covid infection can transmit the virus to others and, in fact, may shed higher levels of virus than the unvaccinated. And remember, the novel mRNA vaccines were developed to produce protection against the Covid virus spike proteins. We are now seeing variants of COVID-19 including the Delta agent, which is more resistant to the vaccines. 

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So, do the covid vaccines help? Vaccines are developed to either protect or lessen the impact of an infection. Every year I take a flu shot realizing this vaccine is only 2/3 effective at preventing or lessening the impact of influenza. We don’t mandate influenza vaccination. We encourage it. The Covid vaccines seem to lessen severe illness with Covid infection, but largely don’t prevent it. And yet Ol’ Joe is using his bully pulpit to further divide us. Teachers and healthcare workers are resigning instead of being vaccinated. People are being fired from their jobs and even Navy SEALs, probably our healthiest citizens, will not be deployed if they refuse the mRNA vaccines. 

Politics aside, how do vaccines work? When you encounter a foreign agent the body’s immune system recognizes the alien and develops a response. I won’t get into the medical weeds, but simply say that you have designated white blood cells which recognize foreign invaders and modulate the immune response to invasion, which includes producing antibodies. Furthermore, designated white blood cells “remember” the invader and are able to mount an immune response if the foreigner is again encountered.

We hear a lot about protective antibodies after a natural infection or a vaccine-induced antibody response. It is important to realize that these antibodies do not circulate forever and decline over time. A blood antibody test may be negative despite prior infection or vaccination. However, the designated white blood cells remember and will mount a vigorous immune response if re-challenged. The exception to this natural response is people with damaged immune systems. 

On September 17, 2021 the CDC released data that challenged the notion that we are experiencing a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

You can read the study co-authored by 50 MDs and PhDs challenging the oft quoted statistic that only 1% of hospitalized patients with Covid were vaccinated. Actually, the number is substantially more than 13% (perhaps up to 50%) because the CDC excluded patients from analysis who had immune system dysfunction or were partially vaccinated. Perhaps Fauci and his buds are again proffering the Platonic “noble lie” where we are only told what is best for us. 

What would it be like if you woke up some morning and discovered that everything that you believed was a lie? This is not just a rhetorical question because so much of everything the media, iPOTUS, Kommie Harris, Big Tech, “woke” generals and the intelligence agencies tell us is questionable or blatant lies. 

What if you realized you were duped and voted for a demented, leftist codger instead of an excessively tweeting, true leader? Buyer’s remorse?

Adapted from an article that recently appeared in the Knoxville Focus. Printed here by permission from the Author.

About the Author: Jim is a native of Knoxville, practicing Internal Medicine for more than 40 years, prior to retiring in 2020. Along with learning to become a “gentleman farmer,” he has written essays for the conservative weekly Knoxville Focus since 2007.