The questions are endless. The speculation and unadulterated bullshit circulating on social media is unprecedented and all across America, daily deaths and infection rates from Covid keep rising. As we apparently no longer “trust science”, thanks to amateurs speculating online, legions of health and wellness quacks, and rogue doctors who’ve lost touch with reality, we need to look to other forms of support for the common vaccine. We need to examine what we know about vaccines and apply a little common sense.

1. Evidence-based proof

Frontline healthcare workers are currently receiving the Covid Pfizer vaccine across all American towns and cities. It’s a common-sense decision to first protect those that protect us. Dead doctors and nurses are of little use in a pandemic and they’ve been dying in record numbers. This strategy has also provided excellent proof-of-use for the vaccine doubters, which number, according to some research, around 50% of the American population.

Look ma, no hands. It’s an absolute and undeniable show of faith by the medical community in the science, research, and trials Pfizer has undertaken with their vaccine. Every vaccination photo taken, every vaccination video posted, helps strengthen the message across social media.

The Covid Vaccine is SAFE. Look, I’ve just been vaccinated with it.

Make no mistake, vaccines are at war with the anti-vaxers. The fact that these groups and individuals are publically excommunicated from their professions makes little difference. It is the digital age. People wear their shame like a badge of honor, they pin it to their profiles, and the public lap it up. 

The only way to counter this sea of misinformation is to drown it out. To help build a wave of evidence-based proof, Medika Life and MOBILIZE™ Health is publicizing doctors, nurses, and frontline healthcare staff who get vaccinated under the tag #vaccinechallenge. You can find their images and videos on dedicated pages across our site and on our social media feeds.

You can join us, if you’re one of those brave frontline members, by adding your vaccination and voice to the project and help us build the hashtag. Follow the links below to do just that.

For adding a video or to view the latest videos, follow this link.

For adding photos or to view the latest shots, follow this link.

2. Consulting the numbers for evidence

Vaccines have been around for a while. They are undoubtedly the most administered medication across the globe. More vaccines are produced and used than any other form of medication. Think for a second how every child born will receive a whole course of vaccinations before they turn 2. In the last few decades, we have used hundreds of billions of vaccines. Billions, not millions.

These numbers tell us a few things we don’t need a science degree to figure out. I’ll list the obvious first and then we can examine each point below.

• Vaccines are one of the primary sources of income for pharmaceutical companies. Can’t argue this right? Number one seller = number one earner.
• Every medication has a few people that are going to react badly to it, some fatally. Our huge variances as humans make this unavoidable. We are unique and this causes issues with medicines. What works for me may potentially kill you. No other drug has been more exposed to this risk than vaccines.
• We know more about human responses to vaccines than any other drug. Why? Well, again, most used drug.
• You, yes you, were vaccinated repeatedly as a child and possibly as an adult? The fact you are able to complain and bitch about vaccine safety is a pretty clear indicator you survived. Repeatedly.

Now let’s examine these logic-based statements about global vaccine usage over the last few decades.

Big Pharma getting it right

Noe one can afford a faulty product distributed globally, particularly if that product could prove fatal. Pharma companies are no different and doing anything to threaten potential vaccine lines by releasing a dangerous vaccine is completely counterintuitive to running a successful business. It is the equivalent of selling a rifle with the barrel welded closed. Pointless and something only an idiot would consider. Pharmaceutical companies are not idiots.

DO NOT CONFUSE TRIALS with approved vaccines. Yes, there is a questionable ethic behind how some pharma companies test and trial their vaccines and other drugs. Denying this fact is counterproductive to rebuilding trust. Trials are mandatory to ascertain if a drug is safe. Sometimes things go spectacularly wrong. it happens. 

This is not however a discussion on the ethics of large pharma. It is about the safety of products that have successfully passed this trial phase. Approved vaccines that make it into the arm of almost every human on the planet. Poisoning your customers is something any company would rather avoid, particularly if you are dependent on them for more business. If you disagree with this point then I’d recommend you avoid going into business.

The luck of the draw

Every anti-vaxer has a list of websites that highlight alleged death and disease they associate with vaccines. Much of their data and evidence is highly questionable but as I said earlier, we aren’t here to bandy science about. We are here to establish safety by using common sense and logic.

Every vaccine has a properly trialed and established risk of use. For every million people, for argument sake, that take the vaccine, 2 will develop disease x, 6 will develop disease y and 10 might drop down dead from an allergic reaction. These are known, documented, and acceptable risks for this and other medications. 

There are also other risks that are highlighted as use expands over a period of time. The more people we expose, the more potential for little known reactions to become evident. If these adverse reactions exceed what is deemed acceptable by regulating agencies (the Food and Drug administration for instance) then the drug or vaccine is recalled. 

This almost never happens with vaccines as they are more rigorously tested than other forms of medicine. They are, therefore, far safer. If you happen to react badly to a vaccine, then you shouldn’t play cards, as you’ve been unlucky enough to have drawn that one in a million short straw. Keep in mind, there is no way of avoiding this. Somewhere, someone is going to react. That is a fact, but the odds are massively in your favor that it won’t be you.

You’re walking, talking proof that vaccines work

No small part of the reason you’ve survived into adulthood is the vaccine. Your body is riddled with a variety of different ones, as are the bodies of most other adults. The aggressive vaccination of babies and young children has saved millions of lives globally and virtually eradicated diseases that previously could very well have cut your life short.

For 99.9% of the world’s population, vaccines have been lifesaving. FACT. Why do you think diseases like polio, mumps, measles, and a host of other nasty bugs no longer bother us? Vaccines. Why do you think these diseases are again beginning to emerge in certain states? It’s because anti-vaxers refuse to have their children vaccinated. If you think this makes no difference to you, then you better think again.

How anti-vaxers threaten your life

Let’s take a little stroll down the path of not vaccinating children and see where it leads. Stay with me, as you had better believe it isn’t simply their children these groups are exposing to risk, but you as well. Your life could be forfeit simply because of misinformation and unscrupulous agents exploiting people for profit.

Adults are far more susceptible to serious complications from childhood diseases. Mumps in an adult can be life-threatening and leave you sterile. Not a problem, you say as the mumps virus is virtually extinct. 

Think again. Thanks to anti-vaxers, since 2006 the disease is back and thriving in the US. Many of those infected in these new outbreaks are fully vaccinated adults. Viruses mutate over time and if we allow new strains of old diseases to gain a foothold again in our societies, we face a massive health crisis. 

Secondary infections from catching these diseases are treated with antibiotics. Increased use of our limited range of antibiotics is leading to resistant strains of bacteria that pay no attention to antibiotics. Strains that you may catch and that may kill you. Resistant means what it says. We have no defense against these bacteria. 

So now you know. Doubt me if you like, but I can promise you now that the scenario outlined above is almost a best-case scenario if we continue to ignore simple logic and common sense. The choice is yours. Use logic to overcome the idiocy and disinformation littering the internet. Would governments risk killing off all their frontline medical staff by exposing them to a dangerous vaccine?

Vaccines work, they are 99.9% safe and we need to continue vaccinating ourselves and our children to allow science the time to develop new and novel ways of combatting viruses and new bacterial strains. 

Please vaccinate. Covid kills and if you are afraid of the vaccine and developing an allergic reaction, think of this. For fifteen minutes after you’ve been immunized, you will be in the company of trained medical personal. People who know how to deal with allergic reactions and who can potentially save your life. 

Avoid vaccination and you’re on your own with Covid. Covid may very well not kill you, but the odds are much, much higher of a covid infection putting you in an early grave, than you being killed by a vaccine. If I were a betting man, I’d pick the vaccine, every time.

The post Proving Vaccine Safety Without Relying on Science appeared first on Medika Life.

We’ve closed this project after a successful month of aid distribution in Albay. To see the families your donations have helped, please page down. Thank you to everyone who donated, none of his would have been possible without your support and we are so grateful you responded. Medika will supplement the last few dollars we’ve received and these packages will be distributed closer to Christmas as the need arises in the community.

Images displayed on this page may not be reproduced elsewhere. They represent vulnerable members of the community and are not for wider distribution.

This is our MOBILIZE™ page for our Medika Filipino Food Aid Project for the entire month of November. We began delivering food aid this week, Nov, 17, and you can follow the photos and stories of the families we are helping with your contributions further down in the article. Your money matters, and it means meals and food in the stomachs of hungry children.

We are on the ground in one of the worst affected areas of the Philippines. Families have literally been ripped apart by Typhoon Goni/Rolly. Fathers have had to watch their children washed away in the floodwaters, children have lost parents and the impact of the typhoon is immense Independent sources place the number of children at risk at between 450 00 and 700 000.

I live in this area, the Philippines is my second home, and I have experienced both the storm and it’s effects first hand. I see the affected families and hungry children on a daily basis. I have seen the dead, I have seen the hardship and I can see the problems faced by these families in the next few weeks. They cannot feed their children. They cannot feed themselves and they are in desperate need of our help.

You’ve been contributing to our plea for help over the last few days and we are so, so grateful for every penny you’ve chosen to donate. We’ve been putting your donations to good use and over the next few days, you can see the images here of the families you’ve helped. In some instances, amazing people like young Alex Pulgarin will be thanked personally by the family his money has helped feed (see video below). We love you and we thank you for all your kindness and all your contributions.

If you would like to contribute to this project please follow the link below. Your contribution will be acknowledged on this page and we will personally ensure your money reaches the children who most need it.

Meet the families you’re helping

Delivering food to some of these families has been challenging. Roads are washed away or inaccessible and in some cases, there is no alternative but to go in on foot. For some reason, there is almost always a sodding mountain involved. Not really appreciated when the humidity is off the scales. We made sure our team were all suitably masked up as most of the families we engage with don’t have the luxury of masks and the fear of Covid has been replaced here by hunger. When you’re starving, viruses are the furthest thing from your mind.

The Pitas Family

A mother and an unemployed father with six children. They live on the outskirts of our village, on the edge of a mountain overlooking the Kabilogan river, (yes, the mountain I whined about above) remote and isolated. It is the only place they can afford to erect the ramshackle construction they live in. The children aren’t used to foreigners and still exhibit tremendous shyness when confronted by one. Normally they’d be fascinated by the camera, but you can see where their focus is in this instance.

The Balquin Family

Eight children and two parents. An almost carbon copy of the story above. The mother is working in the cornfields for a pittance every day and the father is a casual laborer who lives from one payday to the next. Work has all but dried up in the wake of the typhoon. We find the sister at home with dad and the kids.

Meals on wheels. The only way to get around in the Philippines is by tricycle, they can go places cars just wont fit in and their drivers, although licensed, trace their ancestry back to Genghis Khan. Completely fearless and … well, lets just leave it there. Here’s Dennis, looking dapper as ever, getting ready to take us out for the day.

The Benlayo Family

Forced to move from the center of the village after their house burnt down, this family has now moved to the outer fringe and has erected a temporary shelter on ground they don’t own. The husband and wife, along with their four young children, face a hugely uncertain future.

Sario Oplida and her husband

This old couple are completely destitute. Both in their eighties, her husband can often be seen wondering down the hill, coconuts in hand to try and negotiate a trade. Some days it’s for food, other times, a cigarette or two. They were immensely grateful for the food and kept enquiring if we could help them repair their roof, still damaged from the typhoon.

Milagros Mustera

Eighty years old, this old lady can handle a beating and is as tough as nails. She lives alone in a makeshift construction on the edge of town and I cannot imagine how she gets by. A crutch helps her walk and she still has a smile for her visitors. You cant kill spirit and it will take more than a typhoon to stop this little old lady.

The Arcilla Family

This family lost their home to the typhoon. A husband, wife, and four children, they have found temporary shelter on a friend’s property. The husband is a casual laborer.

The Monje Family

Five children and one on the way. The husband is a part-time laborer and the wife doesn’t work. Real poverty and your heart bleeds for the children. Her gratitude for the food was overwhelming.

The Quilala Family

Although the husband works as one of the Barangay (Village) Tanod’s (police) his meager salary is woefully inadequate and on the heels of the typhoon, they have been plunged into a very dire situation where they are struggling to feed their five children. We met up with him at his place of work, at the local Barangay hall.

The Nota Family

An estranged mother with five children. She sells Balut (if you don’t know what these eggs are, I recommend staying ignorant) and her income is woefully inadequate, Covid and the typhoon seriously having affected these vendors. I warned you about the eggs!

The Patiam Family (Alex, this is where we spent your money)

A grandmother with the cutest bundle of little girls. There are six children and without a husband to provide, things are beyond tough for this family. It hasn’t broken their spirits though and you can see it in the video. Her son has been forced into her house, bringing more mouths to feed. Alex, there’s a special thanks from these little faces embedded for you below.

The Owogowog Family

This old couple lost their home completely to the typhoon. They’ve been put up in temporary shelter and were thrilled to receive food relief. We even managed to coax Dennis out from behind the tricycle wheel for this one.

The Pamat Family

A single mother with five children. The father of the youngest child contributes to the household but it isn’t nearly enough to keep every tummy filled. She was overwhelmed with the generosity your donations have made possible.

The Benisa Family

Possibly the saddest case we visited today, two families, two mothers and two fathers, simple farmers, trying to provide for a household of thirteen people. There are seven children in the house, along with a grandparent. You can see the living conditions for yourself from the photos. We didn’t want to intrude and simply left the goods at the door with the eldest daughter.

Our Current Benefactors

Medika would like to give a huge shoutout to the following people who have chosen to help the children in our area of the Philippines. We are so grateful for your kindness and the children and their families thank you.

Dr. Michael Burg, Dr. Patricia Farrell, Lisa Bradburn, Teresa Pulgarin, Alex Pulgarin, Dr. Jeff Livingstone. Vincenza Zurlo, Kyle Gordon, Jordan Clevenger, Pia Bertelsen, 101 Battalion – the Lads (you know who), Dr. Hesham A Hassaballa, Hershy Marton and Janie Chouinard,

We are still far from done and with good fortune and more of your selfless donations, plan another drive for the last week of November. Keep up to speed with us here and on BeingWell.

Round 2 – November 26

I’m thrilled to announce that, thanks again to your generosity, we’ve been able to fund a second run, and with good fortune, may even get in a third by the end of the month. We spent yesterday packing parcels, each specifically designed for the family it’s going to. On Saturday, we’re delivering and we’ll upload the photos right after so you can see first hand how much your money has meant to these children and starving families. This was the kitchen floor yesterday.

Almira Battaler and her four daughters

This family is a special case and I wanted to put them at the start of the update to highlight their plight and to bring home to our readers just how much we have to be grateful for. The mother lying on the bench is Almira Bataller. She recently gave birth to a little girl who turns one soon. It’s her fourth child and her last. Almira is dying and the little faces in the photo below will soon be on their own.

Almost immediately after the birth of her fourth child, Almira started experiencing problems with her legs. She has gradually lost the use of them. The muscles have atrophied and she has no sensation from her hips down. We found her lying on the bench, a catheter dangling loosely beside her. Her abdomen has already started to distend and she is clearly dying.

It’s unlikely she’ll receive the medical attention she needs and from her current appearance, it may have already been left too late. We aren’t going to simply leave it there. It’s unacceptable and I’ve requested her family provide me with copies of her clinical reports so we can seek advice from the relevant experts. This isn’t my field of expertise but I would hazard a guess of neurological trauma.

We cannot simply sit idly by and watch these children lose their mother without a fight. Watch this space.

Gloria Balonzo

A widower on her own and our first stop of the day, out in the sticks. I missed the photo of the caribou (water buffalo) blocking our path up the hill, when we got back he’d moved on.

The Balquin Family

Four children, a couple and a grandmother. We’ve figured out now that if we give the kids lollipops, they stick around for the photo and don’t hide in the house.

Merley Balquin

Merley stays alone with her youngest son in a ramshackle home against the mountain. She is ill and the child’s future uncertain.

The Baru family

A remote settlement with a young daughter. They’ve been given shelter and a caretaker position on a coconut and agricultural plot.

The Sapatos family

Twine over the last few months I’ve seen this house dragged back upright as it keeps getting blown over by the typhoons. Now, its just been left at a slant. The eldest son is wheelchair bound and the family exist on subsistence labor in the fields when available.

The Nacario family

Seven children here and only the father has occasional work as a casual laborer.

Maria Bolina

A widower on her own, forced onto a piece of inaccessible ground against the mountain where she’s built herself a rough home.

An early morning view from the top of one of those pesky hills. Yes, the road is at the bottom, with the rice fields in the distance. Someone find me a city planner.

The Placios family

A grandmother caring for three grandchildren. You can see the damage to her house from the photo.

The Millena family

Another family with three children, left to survive with the grandparents. Their home was completely demolished by the storm and they’ve made themselves temporary shelter in a friends back yard

The Manga and Lorgonio families

This little settlement is in the middle of the rice fields and is home to three families. There’s no shelter or hiding from the typhoon out here and these little homes bear the full brunt of the storms as you can see from the images below.

The Igbuhay Families

These two families live beside each other on the river bank and were flooded when the storm hit. Luckily all the family members survived, but the houses sustained significant damage. Four adults and six children, all in desperate need of help.

Milagros Llorin

A widower who lost her home to the typhoon

The Datoon family

A wife and four children living in what remains of their house after the storm. The husband is a casual laborer when there is work.

Antonio Saule

Our most eligible bachelor, Antonio lives on his own and rarely finds work. He was out looking for work when we came knocking and he showed up later at the house, only too glad for the food.

That’s it for now. We’ve managed to donate food to over 40 families so far and we are ever hopeful of a last few dollars as the month draws to a close. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you for your generosity so far. It’s made a huge difference in our area and you can rest soundly knowing that while you enjoy your Thanksgiving meals, there are other happy little mouths chewing away, all thanks to you.

The post Medika’s Call for Food Aid for Starving Filipino Children appeared first on Medika Life.