A Broader Conversation About Vaccines - Part #4

2019 Novel Coronavirus (CoVID-19): Part XX
2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV (first named); COVID-2019 (later named disease); SARS-CoV-2 (final name of the virus causing COVID-2019), COVID-2019 Pandemic:

January 29, 2021 update Part 20 (Vaccines - Part #4)
Paul Herscu ND, MPH
Herscu Laboratory 

 

Hello and good day to you and yours. 

This COVID-19 Update #20 is the companion piece to COVID-19 updates #17, #18, #19 and forthcoming update #21 all of which focus on vaccines. I focus here on vaccine reactions, leaving other pieces aside for now.

Lastly, I will soon write about what you, your loved ones and patients/clients can do to help prevent side effects from the vaccine if taken and to mitigate side effects that may arise. 

Let me begin with the following statement:

“On the one hand, we have the current medical establishment showing statistics that demonstrate that by vaccinating children, we are able to either immunize the population or at the very least diminish the severity of the infections. On the other side is the (alternative) community that counters with pointing to the countless children who are sicker since being vaccinated. These two sides are so far apart that there is no room for compromise or even civil discussion. The facts are so obvious, so glaring, to both sides, that conflict is inevitable. This conflict does not help the concerned parent or thoughtful physician one bit. Conscientious parents are stuck in turmoil, trying to do the right thing, but not being clear on what the right thing is. Passions rule instead of reason.

What I would like to do is avoid the conflict part. I would like to begin with observations, and then see if this model of mine can explain the observations in a clearer way. Can the model help us understand not just what happens in vaccinations, but tell us what happens in epidemics, why some people get sick while others do not. It is time for a dispassionate delving into as many facts as possible to see the reality before us. With a clearer understanding of the real issues, we are more able to make decisions appropriate for ourselves, our families and our patients.”

In written form, I wrote the above in 1995 and then again in 1999. Not much has changed, except that these two poles have gotten further apart, and the current discourse caricatures reality more and more. The added layers of social media and less civility do not help.

What follows is a very short discussion on virus, vaccines and general reactions. I italicize very short because it is a part of a much larger description that I published 20 years ago which is itself part of a much larger topic that I have taught for the past 30 years. That said, I write this so that everyone could understand complex science easily. 

Generally speaking people tend to think of vaccines as good or bad things, in a very dichotomous way. But really, vaccines present a much more complex topic. Everyone has a sort of belief and an agenda. What I would like to describe here, though, is less about that and more about what actually happens, and why, from a conceptual model that I have held since I was still in school. While it fits within the world of classical homeopathy, it also fits within the larger world of observational science. First on bugs, then on vaccines. What I write below is not in dispute by scientists or vaccine manufacturers or legal settings. The debate is the percent in question. 

Please hang in there, as I have a very important request at the end. 

Here goes. 

A Broader Conversation About Vaccines - Part #3

2019 Novel Coronavirus (CoVID-19): Part XIX
2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV (first named); COVID-2019 (later named disease); SARS-CoV-2 (final name of the virus causing COVID-2019), COVID-2019 Pandemic:

January 7, 2021 update Part 19 (Vaccines - Part #3)
Paul Herscu ND, MPH
Herscu Laboratory 

 

Hello and good day to you and yours. 

 

This COVID-19 Update #19 is the companion piece to COVID-19 updates #17 & #18, and forthcoming updates #20 and #21 all of which focus on vaccines. I focus here on the role organizational and educational institutions have to change the course of this pandemic as related to vaccines.

 

The next update will focus on vaccine reactions. Lastly, I will write about what you, your loved ones and patients/clients can do to help prevent side effects from the vaccine if taken and to mitigate side effects that may arise. 

 

POTENTIAL FAILURE and CONTINUED NEED FOR A PLAN B

We know that the conventional medicine community has more money than integrative or naturopathic doctor communities do, and therefore more influence. Which means, if looking at only that medical model, there will be more and more vaccines for both prevention and treatment. The vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 are only the most current ones we are hearing, reading and thinking about. And because of all the controversy, anxiety, depression, and just bad time we have all had, this vaccine has garnered more controversy than others. 

 

I have spent the last year describing workable simple options, numerous options really, and also the direction we were going, and that, if unchanged, we would end up with this this vaccine option as Plan A and only Plan A. I will not repeat myself here. The last two updates, this one, and the next two focus on the vaccine issue itself. We are stuck in the pro/con vaccine false dichotomy which has become even more entrenched. A very complex discussion is minimized to soundbites which does a great disservice to all. In these treacherous waters, many individuals and organizations decide to sit out the debate, put their heads down and remain ambiguous. I think this, too, misses the opportunity to help science move forward to help more people. This update is aimed at organizations, trying to give more support to positions they might be able to take today, as a way to build a solid middle, a way to break through the rhetoric, to get to a closer approximation of what really happens. 

 

Let me start with an illustration of a problem from the past, to illustrate why vaccine makers and government officials would do well to engage with naturopathic and integrative physicians soon and more closely.

In 1998, FDA approved a Lyme Disease vaccine LYMErix, with protein antigens from Borrelia burgdorferi. The vaccine rollout failed miserably. It was unclear if the vaccine protected you and how long protection would last. Additionally, you would have had to take multiple doses. Some patients felt they became chronically ill post-vaccine. No one wanted to take the vaccine and it was discontinued. A complete rollout failure.

I believe the COVID-19 vaccine rollout may also fail. It has to do with what was tested, as I mentioned in the previous update. Most of us think of vaccines as a one and done effort or a series and then done. For example, when many of us received the polio vaccine, we had one series and were done. What was measured was how likely are were to become sick and/or how likely are we were to pass the bug to someone else. That is NOT what tested in the initial COVID vaccine trials. The main endpoint tested was how many people became SEVERELY SICK with the virus in the vaccinated group versus the placebo group. But they only measured SICKNESS if you were symptomatic. In other words, they did not test everyone to see if they were getting sick, potentially transmitting the virus, but who may have developed only mild symptoms or those who remained asymptomatic entirely.

A Broader Conversation About Vaccines - Part #2

 

2019 Novel Coronavirus (CoVID-19): Part XVIII
2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV (first named); COVID-2019 (later named disease); SARS-CoV-2 (final name of the virus causing COVID-2019), COVID-2019 Pandemic:

January 2, 2021 update Part 18 (Vaccines - Part #2)
Paul Herscu ND, MPH
Herscu Laboratory

 

A Broader Conversation About Vaccines

 

This Covid Update #18 is a companion piece to #17, and forthcoming updates #19, #20, and #21. The topic of vaccination is a difficult one, with a great deal of information and misinformation circulating. There is tremendous emotion, anxiety, fear and anger surrounding the topic of vaccines. The opinions here, are for your consideration. Make up your personal choice in consultation with your health care provider. But to help inform your choice, it is useful to have information. In this post, I briefly touch on some of the science for those interested in understanding vaccines in a broader context, and in learning about the different vaccine forms and how they relate to COVID-1 vaccines.

 

In the next update, I focus on the role organizational and educational institutions have in changing the course of this pandemic. What is the big ask we want from those in the position to effect change and how to shift the discussion and the focus of our efforts so they lead to better outcomes.

 

Update #20 will discuss the framework to understand vaccine reactions.

 

Lastly, I will take up the important topic of what you and your loved ones and your patients/clients might do to potentially prevent or mitigate side-effects from the vaccine if taken. I have broken this large topic up, as there is a lot to share from several angles!

 

This piece is about vaccines and how to think/talk about the topic in general, from the conceptual model, away from the operational specifics.

 

I am writing to those that actually believe we are in trouble here. (I had an interesting moment where Amy and I were presenting a talk for a professional organization last month and a physician there said something like, is this whole thing real? I have not seen anyone with this disease yet. I said, yes, very real. What I did not say was that right before our presentation, I had a patient who was waiting for a room in the hospital because the whole hospital was full, the ICU was full, the ED was full, and the hospital was setting up makeshift oxygen tents in peoples’ cars, just to keep them alive until someone either got better or died and there was room in the hospital.) So, I am writing for you. Dealing with the reality and tragedy upon us. 

 

At this point, for many, the discussion hovers at the for or against vaccinations point. Vaccinations are good or vaccinations are bad. My goal is to permanently change this discourse so that it fits a bit closer to reality and offers you, your family, and your patients a clearer way to think about vaccines. This discussion is the same one I have given in 1990, in 2000, in 2010, and now here, again in 2020. I hope, at some point this discussion can become more mainstream to move the actual conversation to where it belongs, mirroring reality, predicting outcomes, lessening harm. 

 

Let’s get started.