Good question of the week:
Why should I vaccinate for Covid-19?
I preface this post by admitting that I’m tired. I’m tired of Covid. I’ve spent the last year helping my patients fight this disease. Now I’m spending my days helping them fight the known and unknown complications of Covid-19. We are learning as we go, and it is exhausting and frightening.
You know what makes me more tired than treating Covid-19 and it’s complications? A year of battling misinformation. Misinformation about the virus itself. About masks. Treatments. And, now, vaccines.
But I’m going to do it anyway. I get back up every day, find a bit of light inside and keep going.
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a Family Physician who has cared for this community for 20 years. My children go to school in our public schools. Most of my very large extended family lives within a hour’s drive of River Falls. I’m pot-committed, so to speak.
It is my love of the people of this community that compels me to respond to vaccine misinformation being perpetuated by a local chiropractor. I will start by saying that I have tremendous respect for our local chiropractic community. I refer patients to our excellent local care providers, and they send patients back to me. It is collegial. However, I take offense to the insinuation that physicans do not care about natural wellness and healing. It frustrates me that people are being presented with false choice: you either seek wellness or traditional medical care, including vaccines. Why can’t I have both? Why can’t I both be vaccinated AND eat well, practice mindfulness and exercise? Why can’t I have my yoga practice and my vaccine, too? To imply that physicians are not promoting wellness is ridiculous.
Let’s break down some of the truths, half-truths and outright lies that are being spread.
1. There are no long-term studies on the safety of the vaccines. Yep, that one is true. This is why the vaccines have Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA.
2. Vaccination does not weaken your immune system or drive variant strain development. Yes, our immune system is a complex and wonderful thing, capable of responding to both current and emerging viruses. Variants are driven by ongoing natural infections. If the virus is driven out of its natural host, it cannot mutate. To imply that the flu vaccine drives mutations is to not understand how that particular virus works. Flu has 3 natural hosts: humans, poultry and swine. The influenza virus shifts each years by recombining its genetic material when its natural hosts live in close contact. This has been happening for millennia, long before vaccines were available to fight flu and other viruses. The coronavirus is also not a newcomer. To imply that we are driving genetic mutation with vaccination is hubris. We are not yet that powerful.
3. I’m sick and tired of the implication that doctors are trying to poison our patients with stuff in vaccines. There is no mercury in vaccines. Hasn’t been for years. I probably got more mercury in the excellent poke tuna that I had last night at Junior’s than I have had in any recent vaccines. Want to know the ingredients in the mRNA vaccines? Here you go: mRNA, lipids, (yes, the lipids have long scientific names, but they are only designed to help the mRNA slip into the cells), salts and sugar. That’s it. No formaldehyde, aluminum or other scary things. Chemicals like this do have a place in our homes. They make our fabrics stain resistant and our kids’ pajamas flame resistant. They are not, however, in our vaccines.
4. Vaccines do prevent Covid-19. They keep us from getting it and spreading it. You can see study after study supporting this, but I would encourage you to look closer to home. I signed more death certificates from November to the end of January than at any point in my career. The physical and emotional toll on families has been staggering. I have not seen a case of Covid in my nursing home or assisted living population since we started vaccination. I have not signed one Covid death certificate since then. We are winning, and it is because of the vaccines.
5. The Covid-19 vaccines do not cause sterility. Ugh. I’m so tired of this particular assertion. I’ve been doing this long enough to remember when the chicken pox vaccine came out. You know what was said then? Yep. Same thing. Same with the HPV vaccine. The least the vaccine nay-sayers could do would be to come up with more creative ways to scare people rather than recirculating the same nonsense. Tell people that vaccines cause Peyronie’s disease or something. Go ahead and Google it.
My husband prompted me to write this post. He reminded me that in a vacuum, people will listen to the loudest voice. He reminded me to use my voice, because I am the front lines. In an ideal world, good food, exercise, sunshine and a healthy immune system would be all we need to survive. Tell that to the people who have lost loved ones to vaccine-preventable diseases.
And now I’m going to break my own kindness rule because I want you to think about where you get your information. Think about where you go when faced with a life-threatening illness. Where you will take your child when she is on her 7th day of fever. When your teenager has such a severe headache and sore throat that he can’t lift his head. If your answer is that you will take them to a chiropractor, then by all means ignore everything I’ve written. If you want your physician to care for you, we are here. Promoting wellness AND treating disease.
If you choose not to be vaccinated, that OK. However, I would ask that you so do based on sound information. The medical community will continue to care for you regardless of what you choose. It’s what we do.
Once again, these are my thoughts and mine alone.
Rita M. Raverty, MD