People seem shocked that I haven’t vaccinated. I’ve heard all kinds of comments such as,
unvaccinated people are:
“Stupid”
“Endangering lives”
“Don’t believe in science”
“Don’t understand the science”
“Are reading the wrong information”
“Conspiracy theorists”
“Nutjobs”
“Ignorant”
“Crazy”
And many more that you have probably heard too.
Let me begin by stating:
I am NOT anti-vax
I am PRO informed consent!
Trust
A big part of why I haven’t vaccinated is due to trust, or rather, lack thereof. The government has a track record of problems in this area. Just look at what today, September 30, is being dedicated to – National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. If you want an historical medical (government) example, how about the Thalidomide tragedy? So that this blog doesn’t become too long I’ll leave the examples at that.
Then there’s trust of mainstream medicine. As many of you know, I am a Clinical Herbal Therapist (CHT). As such, I frequently deal with clients who have been hurt by the medical system in one way or another. So many of them are:
taking medications for the side-effects of other medications
not informed about the possible (sometimes very serious) consequences of using the medical treatment they are on
being ignored by their physicians even when they are trying to get treated for serious health problems.
The list goes on. I’ve personally had to send people to their physician with a list of lab tests to try and get done so that they can finally get the health care they needed but hadn’t been getting! I’ve seen clients prescribed pain medication for their “arthritis” that started shortly after starting to take statin drugs, having to guide and advocate for them so that they can get the medical care they actually needed from their physician(s). I wish these cases were rare but, in my experience, they are not.
Someone said to me that the drugs and vaccines wouldn’t be used if they didn’t work, right? And yes, there is truth in that. However:
Acetaminophen can help with pain, but it is the leading cause of acute liver failure[i]
Statins (eg. Lipitor) do lower cholesterol, but are a frequent cause of kidney problems[ii]
ACE inhibitors do lower blood pressure but are fast becoming a leading cause of kidney failure
ASA can reduce pain, but also causes bleeding ulcers that frequently land people in hospital
Proton Pump Inhibitors do reduce stomach acid, thereby relieving things like GERD, but also increase the risk of stomach cancer by two-fold[iii]
Again, these examples are just a tiny fraction of the examples out there, and clients are too often not informed of the risks of taking these treatments. One person I know was told by their physician that the pain they were experiencing since taking statins was “normal” and not to worry about it.
Hopefully you don’t need any further explanation about why I find it extremely difficult to simply trust, the government and the medical system, that they have our best interests at heart.
The science
The “unvaccinated” are often accused of not understanding the science or getting their information about the vaccines from the wrong sources. Well, if the following are the wrong sources, then we really have a serious problem!
Moderna Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine
Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine
AstraZeneca Vaxzevria COVID-19 vaccine
Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine
While I am not an immunologist or virologist, I couldn’t do my work without some knowledge of the innate and adaptive immune systems (among other things). If you’d like to go down that rabbit hole with me here is an article on cytokine storm https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMra2026131?articleTools=true . Warning – it’s pretty heavy reading if you’re not used to all the science speak.
When reading this stuff it can be easy to understand why people would want to get a vaccine, especially in light of all the fear that is so prevalent in the media.
Fear of dying
Fear of causing others to get sick
Fear of causing others to die
Fear of new variants
Fear of the unknown
Fear of how our peers will perceive us
Fear of losing one’s livelihood
And then I watch as more fear is being lumped on top of the above fears.
Fear of reprimand
Fear of being fired for not getting vaccinated
Fear of being lumped in with the nutjobs, conspiracy theorists, and… ooooo… Trump supporters.
Fear of fines
Fear of losing the right to travel
Fear of… so many things
It can’t be easy for most people to navigate through all this and make a decision about what they are going to do when it could potentially, dramatically, affect their health, even years down the road, no matter which decision they make. There is one thing I do know though, and that is that most people DO NOT make their best decisions when they are afraid!
The promotion of all this fear by government, the various medical authorities, and the media also gets my mind asking WHY?
WHY are medical workers (that I and others know) being threatened with reprimands, and worse, if they try to advise patients about both the pros and the cons of getting the vaccine so that their patients can make truly informed decisions?
WHY do the side effects for the vaccines written on the government website[iv] not match the side effects that you can read in the vaccine information (see links above)?
WHY are adverse events after vaccination not all being reported?
WHY did Dr Hinshaw say, “not fully vaccinated” instead of unvaccinated in her public address on September 28th?[v]
WHY do the official statistics keep reminding me of the book, How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff?
I have many, many, other questions, but this is already too long. Suffice to say, good science is based on questions and, I feel, that a healthy society should also encourage critical thinking skills and the asking of questions. Questioning should not be discouraged, and those who question should not be demeaned!
So, in regard to vaccination or any other important decision, I feel that it is important to collect the information (pro AND con); question the information one has been given, found, and/or researched; satisfy oneself that they have enough of the information needed to make an informed decision; and then decide. Then, please, respect the decisions of those who have done the same, even if we don’t agree with their choice.
Based on this and many other questions, concerns, and information, I have chosen not to get vaccinated at this time. Thus, I will attend classes via Zoom. I will continue to wear a mask, wash and sanitize my hands. I will self-isolate if I am experiencing any symptoms that could be caused by COVID in order to minimize the risk for others. I also reserve the right to change my mind based on new information.
[i] Monograph – Acetaminophen. Accessed on Medscape 12/9/08 [ii] Product Monograph for Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium tablets) Pfizer Canada Inc. Date of Revision: March 20, 2017 [iii] Long-term use of proton-pump inhibitors and risk of gastric cancer: a review of the current evidence https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6415482/ [iv] https://www.alberta.ca/covid19-vaccine-myths-and-facts.aspx [v] Dr Deena Hinshaw September 28, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbd22iacLoY
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