There are more than one hundred ways an RNA molecule can be chemically modified after it is synthesized. The functions of many of these modifications, collectively referred to as the epitranscriptome, are largely unknown.

Here’s the problem with medicine and our genome. We are toddlers, tinkering with a system we barely understand. In much the same way as anyone capable of reading can consume a book on calculus, comprehending what actually stands in the book is another endeavor entirely. We’ve opened the book on the human genome and with our basic comprehension and reading skills we now feel we are qualified to fiddle around with the building blocks of life.

Nothing could be more irresponsible.

Our limited knowledge, coupled with a voracious appetite for exploration and profit, has opened Pandora’s box, and there is no putting the genie back. The pandemic, origins aside, was the key to propelling mRNA technology into the world. Tech that companies like Moderna and others had invested billions of dollars in developing. In point of fact, Moderna’s entire business structure, worth billions, was built on the hopes of mRNA succeeding.

Until the pandemic struck, things looked bleak for both Moderna and mRNA. the treatment had encountered numerous hurdles, no the least of which was the CDC, who restricted the use of untested mRNA technology in trials to end of life patients. If you’re at deaths door, risk becomes irrelevant. Delivery mechanisms (a substance to carry the mRNA into the cell) were another aspect no one in the industry had been able to resolve. Yet, suddenly in 2020, miraculously, a working mRNA Covid treatment was developed in record time.

Not just one, but two, a product from Moderna and another from Pfizer/Biontech. Now call me skeptical, but I have a really hard time believing in miracles, no matter how much money you throw at something. It turns out the miracles came at a heavy price, and unfortunately there does not seem to be a ceiling to this price, as more and more patients report an ever increasing number of side effects from the mRNA vaccines.

As icing on the cake, late last year Moderna conveniently announced an mRNA treatment for heart conditions, the irony of which cannot have been lost on hundreds of thousands of people who’ve suffered heart damage from the first round of mRNA “approved” treatments. You cannot make this up and watching the narrative unfold over the last three years has been nothing short of jaw dropping.

mRNA, in this authors opinion, holds massive promise, possibly 20 years down the line, as a tool to effectively combat diseases like cancer on a genetic level. Why 20 years? Well it is going to take us that long to truly grasp the far reaching implications of tampering with our bodies internal clock. Twenty years of cautious science, uncovering dependencies between systems and how all the dots connect. Right now, we can barely crawl, and yet we are attempting to run. It is costing people their lives.

Altering the human genetic code

Strictly speaking, mRNA vaccines, if they adhere to their licensing protocols, cannot interact with human DNA. DNA based Covid vaccines can, so if you’re worried about having your DNA changed, vaccines from Janssen and others are of far more concern. mRNA cannot alter DNA as far as we know and based on our current understanding of cellular traffic. If you have time and the inclination, an article I wrote in 2021 explains the flow of traffic inside a human cell and like any traffic system, there are rules. RNA affecting DNA is a no-no.

That being said, there are very few hard and fast rules in nature that aren’t, on occasion, broken. Spillage occurs, much like a drunk driver who accidentally ends-up driving against oncoming traffic. So can mRNA do this? It is possible. However unlikely, the contamination of DNA cannot be ruled out. If your goal was to alter our DNA, you would rather opt for a DNA-based vaccine.

mRNA can however effect changes within our bodies on a cellular level, and in many ways, this poses far more risk than DNA manipulation. How? Well, take for instance the Covid vaccines, designed to interact with our ACE2 receptors, receptors that the SARS-COV2 virus targets. It turns out that certain organs within our bodies are more susceptible to having these receptors activated. The testes are a perfect example and reduced semen motility after inoculation with Pfizer BNT162b2 has now been clinically proven as a side effect.

What we don’t know about mRNA therapy

Rather than espousing the risks carried by an unproven medical technology at a cellular and genetic level, I’ve opted for listing a few of the unknowns. Possible effects and interactions with mRNA, other medicines and more. It’s possibly worth mentioning at this point that I believe the technology has huge potential, both for medical advances against disease and for exploitation.

Lets start with mRNA and HIV therapies. This group was not represented in the mRNA Covid clinical trials and we have no idea of the potential interactions between the two therapies or how mRNA will impact HIV in the host. There is prior knowledge of the flu vaccine, for example, waking up HIV and exposing it to the immune system; but it has been unclear whether that was only happening in flu-specific T cells, a known place where HIV hides. Now new evidence suggests mRNA has the ability to wake latent HIV.

mRNA and it’s effects on nursing mothers and infants was completely ignored in the original trials, despite this group being an established part of a vaccine cohort in trials. We know now that mothers can pass the spike protein through their breast milk to the nursing infant.

A growing body of evidence now suggests that there is in fact a large degree of risk to nursing infants from the mRNA vaccine, risk that in some instances results in cardiac related damage or death and new research just published in Jama now recommends mothers do not breastfeed for two days after receiving the mRNA vaccines. This is what they discovered.

Of 11 lactating individuals enrolled, trace amounts of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 mRNA vaccines were detected in 7 breast milk samples from 5 different participants at various times up to 45 hours postvaccination.

Sadly, too late for most mothers, many coerced into the vaccine. We have no idea what the long term medical implications are for the infant, and yet, President Biden and the CDC website still suggests vaccinating 6 month old children, effectively doubling their exposure.

The impact of mRNA on a fetus is also largely unknown, yet we still recommend pregnant mothers be vaccinated, showing no regard for the safety of the fetus. Some emerging data suggests a dramatic increase in stillbirths and miscarriages, where causality is ascribed to lockdowns and lack of access to proper medical care, while an overwhelming spate of recently published research suggest no short term dangers exist to the fetus.

Again, none of this research was done prior to the mRNA being administered in 2020, it is all post 2021. Did we simply get lucky, telling pregnant women there was no risk, when in point of fact, we had no idea? Time will tell.

The untested impact of mRNA on Cancers. Cancer patients were underrepresented in the original Covid trials. While some may argue that as most of Moderna’s work done on mRNA leading up to the so called Covid “vaccine” was based around developing cancer treatments, mRNA poses no risk to this group, the opposite may in fact be true. Cancer cells are responsive to mRNA therapy. What we don’t know is if mRNA therapy intended for a different target, say Covid, will awaken dormant cancel cells.

• New research shows patients with hematologic (cancers of the blood) malignancies appear less likely than those with solid tumors to have detectable immune responses and this extends to patients undergoing chemo.
• This paper in Nature on Cytokine release syndrome in a patient with colorectal cancer after vaccination with BNT162b2

Children as young as six months are the latest guinea pigs in the global clinical trial underway for mRNA technology. Ethically and morally inexcusable and sanctioned by the FDA, CDC and President Biden, you are told it is safe to inject your children with the Covid “vaccines” when in point of fact, we have absolutely no idea about the long term impacts and the trials used to justify the treatments in children are nothing short of laughable and will serve as an embarrassment to science and medicine for generations to come.

Adverse events, and the unknown. With a list of Serious Adverse Events (SAE’s) as long as your arm, all the Covid vaccines, including and especially those utilizing mRNA, came with risks, most of which were down played. Damage to your heart, Myocarditis and Pericarditis (for which Moderna conveniently had another mRNA therapy in the pipeline, released recently), blood clotting, Bells Palsy, the list goes on and on. While we are rapidly discovering the many unknown short term side effects for some of mRNA therapy, we still have no idea of the long term SAE’s. Two questions arise.

Are these effects, both immediate and long term, the result of the mRNA based delivery or the actual spike protein generated by the treatment. Only time and honest research will answer this question satisfactorily and it is one that must be put to bed as new flu shots, cancer treatments and more are rolled out on the back of mRNA technology. All regard for long term, established safety protocols have been thrown out the window.

Unintended consequences and the complex interactions of cellular based medicines on an organism as complex as the human body cannot be calculated, accounted for or anticipated, at least not yet. We have gaps in our knowledge on a biological level and only a minimal understanding of the toys we are tinkering with. if we have no qualms enforcing this on pregnant women, that in itself should give us pause for thought.

The risks for cancer patients in remission is another topic of debate, after recent reports that mRNA has triggered latent cancer cells to resume growth.

What we are discovering about mRNA Covid Therapies, post treatment

A recent study from Cleveland Clinic highlighted a fear that has been raised by a few medical outliers who chose to speak out against the “vaccination regimen” at risk of professional ridicule. Focusing on the bivalent vaccine, it reported a worrying trend. With every successive booster, the patients risk of contracting Covid actually increased.

The risk of COVID-19 varied by the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses previously received. The higher the number of vaccines previously received, the higher the risk of contracting COVID-19 (graph below)

You can view the full results of the Cleveland Clinic study by following this link. Now while there may be certain problems with this study pertaining to their cohort, their findings are substantiated by findings from two other studies.

Breasts Cancers seem to be on the upswing. Evidence continues to emerge about axillary lymphadenopathy following COVID-19 vaccination and it is now a recommendation that women undergo a breast screening, post vaccination. It is known that the Pfizer vaccine can cause swelling of lymph nodes, often suggestive of breast cancer. However, any enlargement of lymph nodes can potentially indicate cancer, so this symptom should not be ignored.

This creates an ideal environment for misdiagnosis. Ensure your doctors and health providers know you’ve been recently vaccinated, but make sure you a properly screened and that the swellings are not merely dismissed out of hand because of your recent vaccination.

People with gastrointestinal conditions (GI) should be carefully monitored after vaccination for Covid 19, according to a paper published on PubMed entitled Gastrointestinal Complications of COVID-19 Vaccines. Their patient experienced post-vaccination acute diverticulitis and colon micro-perforation following a Moderna booster dose.

Sperm motility in men should be monitored in patients who have received multiple boosters and want to start a family. There appears to be a direct correlation in the reduction of sperm motility and the number of mRNA vaccines administered to a patient. Whilst recovery takes between 10 and 14 days after a second does, research does not exist for third, fourth or fifth doses. You can read the paper, entitled Covid-19 vaccination BNT162b2 temporarily impairs semen concentration and total motile count among semen donors here.

Of course, this above mentioned list of issues is in no way comprehensive, that would require nothing short of a book, but rather is provided to highlight certain ongoing issues.

Getting to the heart of mRNA’s problems

Sudden Death and the hashtag #DiedSuddenly follow you wherever you go on Twitter and other social media platforms. Cardiac related issues experienced by healthy teenagers and young adults are on the increase and many prove fatal. These incidents are matched by the number of videos of people of all ages dropping from an apparent stroke, most performing the same macabre contortions before collapsing to a mostly unknown fate.

To exacerbate mRNA’s headaches, it is being forcibly administered to patients without their consent in hospitals where the patient undergoes surgery. Some hospitals still refuse life saving medical interventions like organ transplants if the patient is not “vaccinated”. A global spike in excess deaths, up by hundreds of percentage points in some countries over the last two years also demands an explanation and vaccines are seen as the most likely culprit.

It would seem that even if mRNA survives it’s rocky introduction to humanity with no further serious long term adverse events, its reputation will have been seriously damaged, perhaps even irreparably. A little ironic justice metered out for the damage it has inflicted on the reputation of actual vaccines.

A spate of Happy Coincidences

If you believe in them. Personally, I don’t, but actually separating fact from fiction around mRNA’s sudden meteoric rise to fame is rapidly becoming an improbable task, as the tangled web surrounding it continues to become more complex. Rather than trying to unpick it, I’ve opted for listing a few interesting, and often overlooked, facts surrounding mRNA in the last three years and earlier.

1. The National Institute for Health (NIH) and Moderna developed the Moderna vaccine in partnership, with patent rights, US Patent Application No. 62/972,886 entitled 2019-nCoV Vaccine filed in June of 2020, residing with the NIH.
2. NIH, alongside the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious disease (NAIAD) and Moderna have researched coronaviruses, like MERS and SARS, for several years, and signed a contract in December of 2019 that stated “mRNA coronavirus vaccine candidates [are] developed and jointly owned” by the two parties.
3. Since 2015, the National Institute for Health (NIH) and the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious disease (NIAID), knowingly provided funding to a specific group of American scientists and their institutions and businesses to perform Gain of Function (GOF) research, despite a moratorium.
4. The publicly stated intent of these scientists, working under the auspices of Peter Daszak, Ph.D and EcoHealth Alliance, Inc was to develop a more infectious version of the coronavirus and to achieve their ends they chose a Chinese scientist working out of a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
5. EcoHealth Alliance is a non-profit group that has received millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funding to genetically manipulate coronaviruses with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
6. During this period, Dr Anthony Fauci was director of NAIAD and Dr. Francis Collins director of the NIH. Jointly they controlled about 10 billion dollars of funding annually, placing them in a position to control and distort the public Covid narrative.
7. The same Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance interfered on numerous occasions with investigations into the origin of the SARS-COV2 virus, creating a narrative contrary to a manufactured laboratory origin for the virus. For those with time and intent, the full list of EcoHealth Alliance emails released under Freedom of Information, can be found here.
8. Dr Fauci, in September of 2022 and only days away from retirement, as a parting gift to EcoHealth Alliance from the NAIAD, awarded a $653,392 grant to the company to analyze “the potential for future bat coronavirus emergence in Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.” This despite the company’s failure to produce records pertaining to Wuhan and their involvement in the GOF research undertaken there on their behalf.

In closing, I have no compunctions about leaving you with my impressions of the duplicity of pharma, governments and regulatory bodies foisting unproven medical technology down our throats and sadly, there is no defense that can be raised by any of the parties involved that would excuse their actions.

Hindsight is offered in part to offer comfort to the those who are now being held accountable. It’s easy, they claim, to criticize now, after the facts. That, of course, is complete and utter nonsense. Anyone with a grain of common sense able to follow something to its logical conclusion knew months into the pandemic that we were being manipulated, cajoled, coerced and prepared for amass vaccination campaign. Everyone with an inkling of medical training knew that mRNA was a potential horror story waiting to unfold, and yet, here we are, two years later, recommending we now “get the kids”.

It is the betrayal by science, the community in general and the professionals who undertook oaths to protect their patients that is perhaps the most saddening part of the pandemic shambles. It is this betrayal that will impact medicine for generations to come. “Trust me, I’m a doctor,” the punchline to a pandemic joke coming soon to a stand-up venue near you.

Part 4 of the Covid Files. When is a vaccine not a vaccine?

The post The Covid Global Clinical Trials for mRNA. Thank You for Participating appeared first on Medika Life.

During six weeks, we will examine all the aspects surrounding the last three years and the draconian and, at times, absurd manipulation of the media to convey a narrative that, it turns out, had little to do with your health and well-being. We’ll examine the demise of critical science, which some would argue is already long gone, but the pandemic brought it home. Covid shots and tech (mRNA) will be placed under a critical microscope and the origins of the virus that brought the world to a standstill will be discussed.

Make no mistake; if you’ve been jabbed against Covid, then you’ve been coerced into participating in the largest global medical trial ever undertaken. Good science weighs risk/benefit alongside risk/risk – the risk of the disease alongside the risk of the treatment.

Medika Life stands for objective science and exchange – proper critical science undertaken with the goal of improving lives. By that, I refer to sound critical science undertaken to improve lives, science that is open to criticism and uncensored peer review. Cautious science, designed to protect and save lives – to do no harm. A path that science currently, under the duress of politics and profit, has forsaken. Sometimes, science cannot be – should not be – rushed.

Take vaccines as an example, life-saving routine treatments critical to the safety of our children and treatments we would administer with little thought to safety. During the last two years, the “labeled” Covid vaccines have damaged the credibility of what vaccines are in many people’s minds – therapies that prevent disease and its transmission. Credibility that had taken generations to build. Ironic if you consider that the Covid products were nothing more than the equivalent of the flu jab and never a vaccine.

Each article in the coming weeks will examine a range of issues based on real hard data and facts, including the validity of the treatments (vaccines), mRNA technology, lockdowns and masks, virus origins, the actual reality of Long Covid – is it the result of long-term damage from the virus, reaction to the virus combined with the vaccine or another clinical pathway. What of people who have survived the so-called “Sudden Death” syndrome and more?

Read Medika Life and enjoy access to the most comprehensive analysis of our post-Covid lives. For more than two years, Medika has questioned numerous aspects of the pandemic, including mandates and the “vaccination” of children and healthy adults.

Facts have emerged subsequently to support these views and we’d like to provide you with an authoritative range of articles to refer to that are properly referenced and contain actual facts. Our goal is to get people thinking. Questioning is not a crime. It leads to new ideas and innovations.

Here is a list of reading to look out for. The links to these pieces will be activated as they are published and you are welcome to reach out to us with questions and suggestions.

• Welcome to The Covid Rabbit Hole: A dystopian maze filled with deception and misdirection.
• The Covid Global Clinical Trials for mRNA. Thank you for Participating.
• When is a vaccine not a vaccine?
• On the Origin of Covid, with apologies to Darwin
• Covid’s Elephant in the Room
• Sudden Death, Pure Bloods, Myocarditis and more.
• Lockdowns and Mandates, Politics, Medicine and Orwell.
• The Demise of Freedom of the Press and Censorship.
• Is Long Covid a real thing?
• Learning to trust again in a post-Covid society?

The post The Covid Files: A Series Separating Pandemic Fact from Fiction appeared first on Medika Life.

In response to the MEP’s question, if the Pfizer mRNA vaccine had ever been tested before its release to the general public on its ability to prevent Covid transmission, Ms. Small responded by admitting it hadn’t. If the comment is accurate, we must determine how this disclosure impacts trust in scientific exchange and public health.

“Regarding the question around did we know about stopping immunization before it entered the market…No., We have to really move at the speed of science to really understand what is taking place in the market.”

Small then continued to justify her answer and you can watch her full response above by forwarding the video to the timestamp of 15.31.

Roos then immediately took to social media at the conclusion of the hearing, questioning on what basis governments within the EU had justified Covid vaccine passports if the vaccine was unable to affect the transmissibility of the virus. The main reason that people were vaccinating to protect each other was based on a fiction.

From a medical perspective, this admission matters tremendously. If the vaccines offered little to no communal benefit of protection against the transmission of the virus, the justification for, for instance, vaccinating school children is questionable. The known risks of the vaccines and listed SAEs far outweigh the benefits to this population.

By extension, the same logic can be applied to young and healthy adults not at risk from any comorbidities. It would appear that the argument offered by Governments and Health bodies for the public to act in the interests of protecting their fellow citizens was nothing less than disingenuous. A fabrication designed to coerce public compliance, exposing yet another fundamental flaw in the global management of the Covid pandemic.

The need for these products in the high-risk population is clear. Covid can kill and it is critical that public health institutions enjoy the trust of the public for the health system to function effectively. Otherwise, communication breaks down, creating chaos. To discover more truths and fictions relating to mRNA vaccines, read this piece.

The post Pfizer Confirms mRNA Vaccine Never Tested for Preventing COVID Transmission appeared first on Medika Life.

We have all been there. We have watched our favorite team score enough to have a comfortable lead going into the final minutes of play. We may have even contemplated leaving early to avoid a congested parking lot or highway home. 

Then, before you realize it, key members of your team make bonehead errors or underestimate their opponents. Now, with the outcome not as straightforward as it once was, we resort to biting our nails, covering our eyes, or rubbing our superstitious lucky charm a time or two.

Such is the case with this current stage of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the late Spring and early Summer, cases were low compared to the prior six months. Vaccines from multiple manufacturers were readily available. Federal and state vaccine mega-sites gave way to community physician offices along with franchise and so-called mom-and-pop pharmacies as outlets for immunizations.

Hospitalizations, emergency room and urgent care visits, and even death rates due to COVID were trending down. Restaurants, hotels, and airlines took advantage of the new demand for travel and leisure activity. Life appeared to look normal again, and unfortunately, the public interest in COVID-19 vaccinations — the primary tool in our arsenal against this awful illness — waned.

Unfortunately, the result is that the landscape we face with COVID-19 in the late Summer and Fall is entirely different from the Spring, thanks to the Delta variant.

According to the CDC, the current average number of new coronavirus cases during the last seven days is just above 140,000. Contrast this with an average of less than 9,000 new cases during the fourth week of June.

The total number of individuals hospitalized due to COVID-19 has also spiked to about 90,000 as of the writing of this article.

It was once viewed as a silver lining that children generally speaking experienced less severe disease than adults. Generally, this holds true as the American Academy of Pediatrics reports that of all the children who are infected with COVID-19, less than 2% become sick enough to need hospitalization. Still, 1,900 children were hospitalized due to COVID-19 in mid-August.

At the end of June, that figure was just over 400. The availability of pediatric ICU beds, particularly in the southern states, has become severely limited. We are running out of beds.

High census rates in pediatric wards have challenged hospital systems making finding available beds for even non-COVID pediatric patients difficult. This negatively affects the quality of care for children seeking treatment for asthma, pneumonia, and even severe ailments like seizures. Even more tragically, 400 children have died directly due to COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

No matter what part of the country or even the world you are in, the thought of severely sick children can cause nail-biting and overall queasiness in even the most stalwart individuals. The following offers up some answers to some frequently asked questions that parents, school officials, and coaches will wrestle with during the back-to-school season.

What is the best way to prevent my child from getting infected with COVID-19?

If your child is 12 years of age or older, the single best prevention mechanism is the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination. Just as it has in the adult population, the Pfizer vaccine has achieved remarkable efficacy against infection.

In children aged 12–15, the vaccine has been shown to prevent infection 100% of the time compared to controlled groups of the same age bracket.

No vaccine is perfect, but vaccination can prevent severe illness requiring hospitalization, ventilator support, and emergency room visits. That can potentially lead to death can be averted even with a breakthrough infection. The mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) also perform excellently against the Delta variant, though the Moderna vaccine is currently approved only for those 18 years of age and older.

The other critical motivating factor for vaccinating this population is that while the jury is still out on the ability of young children under age 10 to transmit the disease to others, adolescents seem to be able to transmit the disease nearly as effectively as adults.

The bottom line is that the more people vaccinated — parents, teachers, students, school officials, etc. — the more likely we can reduce community spread and eliminate further variants.

What are the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines?

The side effects are similar to those in the adult population. They include pain at the injection site, fever, fatigue, chills, headache, and muscle aches. These side effects usually resolve within 48 hours.

On a much rarer note, there have been some cases of inflammatory conditions affecting the heart. Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, while pericarditis is defined as inflammation of the lining around the heart.

There have been over 2 million COVID-19 vaccines administered to children aged 12–17. There have been 19 cases of heart inflammation. This amounts to nearly 9 cases per million COVID-19 doses.

Boys have been affected more than girls, and the symptoms usually occur within a week after the second dose. Myocarditis at much higher rates than this occurs in people who have been infected with COVID-19 in both pediatric and adult populations.

The Pfizer vaccine has undergone rigorous safety protocols and has been granted Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA. The New England Journal of Medicine describes a vaccine trial involving nearly 40,000 people.

The vaccines are generally safe, but like most medications and immunizations, a small percentage of the population may be allergic to one or more vaccine components. If an individual develops an allergic reaction to the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, he/she should avoid a second dose.

Can the COVID-19 vaccine give my child COVID-19 disease? 

The COVID-19 vaccine is not a live vaccine. While it may give you some temporary body aches and fever, as described above, active coronavirus disease is not one of its side effects.

Will the COVID-19 vaccine interfere with other vaccines that my child may be due to receive like the flu shot? Should I stagger the other adolescent vaccines my child should be due for? Which is more important?

All vaccines are important. When the COVID-19 vaccine first became available it was recommended to have an interval of time between it and other common vaccines like the influenza vaccine. As we have had more time to study the vaccine and how it interacts with patients and impacts their health, that recommendation has been lifted.

There is no longer a waiting period between COVID-19 vaccines and other vaccines.

You or your child can be immunized against COVID-19 and other diseases even on the same day. This is consistent with other traditional vaccines that your child receives. At 2, 4, and 6 months as many as six vaccines are given simultaneously.

Can the COVID-19 vaccine cause infertility either now or in the future? According to the CDC, there is no evidencethat the COVID-19 vaccine causes reproductive problems in either males or females.

Can pregnant women or breastfeeding women receive COVID-19 vaccines?

As more and more data has emerged, the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant and breastfeeding women have become more apparent.

Research data has shown no increased risk of miscarriages in pregnant women. By contrast, pregnant women, especially those early in their first trimester, are at increased risk for severe illness if they get infected with COVID-19. Getting vaccinated can help reduce the risk of severe infection in this population.

Also, antibodies to the disease have been noted in the blood of infants born to mothers who have received the COVID-19 vaccine. These antibodies, which can also be passed on to infants through breastmilk may afford some protection to these young, vulnerable babies.

Can patients under 12 receive the vaccine if my healthcare provider orders it?

This would be considered an ‘off-label’ use of the vaccine at this point in time. Children younger than 12 may need a smaller dose than that currently given to adolescents and adults. 

For this reason, the FDA and American Academy of Pediatrics discourage giving the vaccine to children younger than age 12. The situation is fluid, though, and more data is emerging every day. There could be announcements concerning the COVID-19 vaccine for younger children emerging as we venture into the Fall.

Will my child need a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine like the adults get 8 months after the second dose?

As of now, no booster dosages of COVID-19 vaccines are required after the second shot in adolescents younger than 18 years of age.

What can I do for my child less than 12 years of age?

The next best way to prevent COVID-19 infection in children is to employ the uses of masks or facial coverings in children two years of age or older.

Teachers, staff, coaches, and visitors should also wear masks while indoors. Until we have better control of the infection rate, both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals should wear face masks while indoors. The vaccines are remarkable in preventing severe illness and hospitalizations, but breakthrough infections can occur.

More importantly, data appears to show that while vaccinated individuals are largely free from high morbidity, they can, in fact, spread the virus to those around them. Encouraging children to wear masks while indoors would go a long way toward preventing infection.

Remember that transportation mechanisms like school buses, public transit, and even carpool vehicles also count as indoor venues. Masks should be worn in any vehicle that carries people from multiple households.

Wearing masks outdoors is much less crucial. The risk of transmitting the virus is greatly decreased in outdoor settings. Participants at outdoor events with large crowds may need to use masks if they are particularly congested.

Can my child participate in sports during the pandemic?

Physical education and scholastic sports are important to the overall health of children. They contribute to their overall physical fitness. They also provide social interaction, which contributes positively to their emotional well-being.

However, like in other scenarios, children who play indoor sports in closer contact with each other for a longer period of time are at increased risk of contracting COVID-19.

Hence, those who play basketball, wrestling, and hockey have been shown to have higher transmission rates than children who play soccer, football, and rugby outdoors.

Mask wearing can help in reducing the transmission of the virus while playing sports. Studies have shown that mask-wearing in general during physical activity is well tolerated.

There are sports, however, where mask-wearing is contraindicated. These include gymnastics, cheerleading that involves tumbling, and wrestling. It may be difficult to employ the use of masks in sports in which the athlete sweats fairly profusely. Also, masks would not be useable while swimming or doing water sports. Spectators, coaches, trainers, and staff should also wear masks and participants on the sidelines.

Masks should also be worn in locker rooms and other areas, including travel buses where athletes gather in groups. It is also important for children not to share water bottles.

What should I do if my child tests positive for COVID-19?

Parents of children who test positive for COVID-19 should notify their pediatric primary care provider fairly urgently. Children without any symptoms or with mild symptoms warrant a phone call to their medical home or a telemedicine visit. This helps to document the history of COVID-19 infection in the child’s medical record and assists in educating parents about the quarantine period and the reasons to notify the office should symptoms worsen.

Children with moderate symptoms with persisting fevers should be examined in the office by their pediatric provider. The quarantine period varies as children will manifest COVID signs differently.

Generally, though it may be challenging to ascertain the exact day of origin of infection, 14 days is considered the acceptable quarantine time for most.

If a child has no symptoms at all, they may be able to return to school ten days after the first positive test. Those children with more symptoms, especially with syncope, chest pain, and shortness of breath, may not only need to quarantine longer but also cardiology evaluation or at the very least an electrocardiogram (ECG).

What else can be done to prevent the spread of this disease?

The infection control principles that have been widely employed before the pandemic still hold true today. Frequent handwashing with soap and water or hand sanitizers containing at least 60% ethyl alcohol is still vital in reducing transmission.

We have learned after a year and a half of experience with COVID-19 that respiratory droplets contribute to spread of the disease much more than the virus on hard surfaces. Still, it is prudent to wipe down hard surfaces, especially where you work once daily.

Also, if you or your child feel sick or exhibit symptoms, there is no need to play the role of an all-star. Children who are sick should not attend school without first being tested. While the CDC does not place a preference on whether to use the rapid antigen test or the PCR, your child’s school district may.

It is important to find out which test they will accept from your school officials to avoid wasted time and misunderstandings.

Finally, as parents, you are your children’s greatest advocate. Lobbying your school officials to ensure that proper attention has been paid to employing at least 3 feet of social distancing in the classroom and investing in modern HVAC units that can promote adequate ventilation is vital.

As a nation, we have come a long way. A year ago, we all were stuck indoors with our kids trying to teach the new math using Zoom or Google. Gone are the days of strategically planning how we could score toilet paper from our local brick and mortar stores. We are definitely in the second half of this battle against COVID-19. Now more than ever, though, we must refocus our efforts to secure the win.

It is critical to understand that decisions made by segments of one population can negatively or positively affect another. It is also important to note that the virus does not respect state lines. Instead, it will continue to replicate itself — and potentially bring new variants — along the path of the least resistance i.e., the unvaccinated.

In states where COVID-19 rates are higher, like New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, pediatric hospitalizations are low (less than five pediatric admissions per 100,000). However, states like Texas, Alabama, and Georgia, where the adult vaccine rates are significantly below the national average, have pediatric admission rates that are staggering by comparison (15–30 pediatric admissions per 100,000).

We must make intelligent decisions down the stretch in the same vein as a quarterback engineering a team’s final drive. For us, that means getting a COVID-19 vaccine if you have not already.

Vaccines will go a long way toward protecting those who are unable to get vaccinated; namely our younger children. Also, wear a mask indoors whenever possible. By implementing these steps, we can leave COVID-19 behind us once and for all and feel empowered enough to stop biting our nails and raise our hands in victory. We might even be able to share a congratulatory high five.

Agboola O. Fatiregun, MD, FAAP

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The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine met the FDA’s safety and efficacy criteria to expand the emergency use authorization. Until now, the Pfizer vaccine was approved for use in people 16 years and older.

Pfizer previously announced in a press release highly encouraging results from their Phase 3 clinical trial. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was 100% effective and generated a high antibody response in children aged 12–15.

The Phase 3 study included 2,260 US participants. The research detected only 18 cases of Covid-19, and all were in the placebo group. None were in the study participants who received the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine was 100% effective in preventing Covid-19 in this age group.

The side effect profile in children was similar to those in adults. Injection site pain, fatigue, headache, chills, muscle pain, fever, and joint pain were the most common side effects.

Until recently, infection rates in children have been low. Children are often asymptomatic carriers but can pass the infection on to parents, teachers, and grandparents. The rise of variants such as B.1.1.7 is changing the way we view Covid-19 in children.

A March outbreak linked to youth sports in Minneapolis was a public health wake-up call. Health policymakers noted how fast Covid-19 infections in children can spread to the general public.

The FDA press release reports the CDC has confirmed 1.5 million Covid-19 cases in children age 11–17. The American Academy of Pediatrics data shows over 3.85 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic.

Fortunately, most children infected with SARS-CoV-2 do well. Children account for only 0.00%-0.21% of all Covid-19 deaths. 

Vaccinating children helps prevent the further spread of Covid-19 and helps the US move closer to herd immunity. 

Like the Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines, the Pfizer vaccine does not contain a live virus. One cannot catch Covid-19 from these vaccines. The mRNA vaccines do not enter our cells’ nucleus and do not alter vaccine recipients’ DNA.

These vaccines do not use an adjuvant to enhance vaccine efficacy. An adjuvant is an agent used to provoke a more robust immune response. These vaccines do not make use of adjuvants.

Immunity does not come immediately after vaccination. It takes time for your body to build up protection. The Pfizer mRNA vaccine requires two doses. The first shot primes the immune system to produce protective antibodies. The second dose kicks it into high gear.

Here is what we know about post-vaccine immunity with the two Covid-19 vaccines currently available in the U.S.: In phase 3 clinical trials, the Pfizer vaccine showed a 95% efficacy seven days after the second dose. The Moderna vaccine offers 94% immunity at least 14 days after dose number two.

Two weeks after completing the vaccination course, recipients can breathe a sigh of relief. Their risk of severe disease from Covid-19 is very low. But we must remember that the risk is not zero.

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We first started hearing the stories a few weeks after the covid vaccinations started. Male colleagues who’d discovered the hidden side effect of the Covid vaccine, who’d discuss it in hushed tones of awe among their fellow male colleagues. “Did it happen to you too?” The sort of sheepish questions you’re hesitant to ask in case someone thinks you’ve lost the plot.

As it turns out, it was a shared experience, widely felt by inoculated health care workers and as we’re nosy by nature we set about examing ingredients from both the Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines to try and identify the culprit for this welcome side effect. We came up empty-handed. Granted we’re not chemists by trade, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look through listed ingredients to ascertain if any could possibly cause the type of side effects men were experiencing.

We even went to the lengths of contacting two experts to ask the question. Nada, zippo, zilch. No ingredients listed in either of the vaccines could possibly result in the side effect experienced by our male colleagues. Whatever was causing it, sadly didn’t appear to be bottled inside that vaccine, so now the question remained.

Why were men experiencing prolonged and amplified sexual drive and desire for in some cases, up to two days after receiving their vaccination?

Note, this wasn’t simply restricted to medical staff. As the vaccine rollout reached other segments of the population, we still occasionally heard stories, but to a lesser degree than within the medical profession. That was the clue we’d been looking for and could have explained why so many doctors’ wives were nagging them repeatedly about not missing their appointment for that “second dose”.

The ultimate ‘happy ending’

Vaccine manufacturers had not inadvertently stumbled onto a new, amplified version of that now-famous little blue pill. What was going on here was good old-fashioned human psychology. The secret ingredient no one had thought to include in the vaccine ingredient list. Hope. The covid vaccine represented a life raft, a little yellow bobbing sign of hope within the grasp of the drowning men who’d spent the last year treading water, fearful for their own lives and those of their family.

Think of the soldier, eating his last meal, on the verge of being executed by his captors, when the sound of gunfire reaches his ears and his prison door is thrown open by liberating forces. He’s been saved, brought back from the ledge of death and the relief he experiences is instant and prolonged. For days he wanders aimlessly in a heady state of intoxicated elation thinking one thought, over and over “I’m alive”.

This is exactly what doctors and frontline healthcare workers faced with the coronavirus, day after day, month after interminable month, and while the threat was manageable, this kind of continued stressor wears away at you. Really, really wears away.

The threat of an unknown future and possible death. If it sounds melodramatic it isn’t. It is exactly what these individuals have lived with on a daily basis for over a year now. The covid vaccine represented the get of out jail card, the little yellow life raft, and the turn of the key in that jail cell. Freedom and the certainty of life tomorrow and the day after, for both the healthcare worker and their families. All you had to do was hang in there long enough to get vaccinated. A year is an awfully long time when you’re dodging bullets.

So the elation those little vials released was huge and immediate. The soldiers had just been handed their Kevlar and they felt invincible. Their wives and partners were about to experience the benefits of this rush of endorphins. In most cases, more than once. Being men, as soon as we’re not consumed by thoughts of our own impending death, we turn our focus to the really important stuff.

All across America, for the first time in months, bedroom doors were closed and children lay in the dark, listening to the sounds of parental bliss repeatedly issuing from behind those doors. For a few fleeting moments, all was forgotten and all forgiven. The warriors had returned triumphant, dragon slain and they were going to claim their sacrificial virgins.

And so, unbeknown to Pfizer and Moderna, they hadn’t just developed a simple viral vaccine, they’d also just happened on the most powerful aphrodisiac known to man. The promise of life.

Unfortunately, after the initial round of vaccinations, another unexpected administrative side effect has emerged. Hospital administrators are now having to process a growing mountain of requests from spouses. They are politely having to decline requests for additional covid vaccinations. Each response letter contains a carefully wrapped little blue pill.

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The Houston Methodist Hospital System made national news for being the first to require its staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The response was a mixed bag of support and public pushback. While many understand the benefit of vaccinated healthcare workers in a hospital setting, others felt uncomfortable with an employer mandate.

CEO Dr. Marc Bloom hopes to create the safest environment as possible for patient care. Increasing the number of vaccinated workers reduces the risk of spreading the infection from health providers to patients.

Hospital staff vaccinations create a safe environment for patient care. He stated, “When we choose to be vaccinated against COVID-19, we are prioritizing safety by helping stop the spread of this deadly virus and keeping our patients, visitors, and colleagues safe.”

Mandatory vaccination is a bold move but one backed by scientific evidence. A CDC report showed the messenger RNA vaccines are 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 infections in healthcare workers and first responders.

The CDC published updated information on vaccination’s safety and efficacy in healthcare workers in the March 29th Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. This update analyzed Covid-19 vaccines in a real-world setting. The findings showed the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 infections among healthcare personnel, first responders, and other essential frontline workers.

So far, 89% of the hospital employees are vaccinated. The Houston hospital gave out $500 bonuses to those who received their Covid-19 vaccines. Hospital administrators were required to begin the vaccine process in the middle of April.

The hospital is following the influenza vaccine policy it implemented in 2009. On June 7, unvaccinated employees will be placed on a two-week suspension giving them time to begin the vaccination process. Like other required hospital vaccinations, employees will not be permitted to return to work unless they are vaccinated. The hospital considers employee vaccinations to be a patient-safety issue.

The CDC recommends vaccinations for healthcare workers include physicians, nurses, emergency medical personnel, dental professionals and students, medical and nursing students, laboratory technicians, pharmacists, hospital volunteers, and administrative staff.

These vaccinations currently include Hepatitis B, Influenza, MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella), Varicella, and Tdap (Tetanus, Diptheria, Pertussis). Most hospitals also require annual tuberculosis risk assessments. These recommendations are in place to reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infections. Healthcare worker vaccinations protect hospital staff exposed to infectious disease and reduce the risk of a healthcare worker transmitting an infection to a hospitalized patient.

The Houston Methodist system may be the first hospital to require vaccination, but others are considering their options. Texas Herman Hospital and the Baylor College of Medicine are evaluating the options.

Some have questioned the legality of a private company mandating Covid-19 vaccination for employees. A recent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidance indicates employers may require vaccination.

On Monday, March 29, 2021, everyone aged 16 and older was now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Texas.

There are three FDA-approved vaccines for Covid-19. The two messenger RNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer offer 95% protection against Covid-19. The Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna use messenger RNA (mRNA). A single strand of mRNA delivers instructions to human cells to produce an antibody against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

The Johnson and Johnson’s Janssen vaccine offers 72% protection against infection and 86% against severe disease. The Janssen vaccine uses Adenovirus 26 (AD26) as the vector to deliver DNA material into our cells to provoke an immune response.

The FDA resumed administration of the Johnson and Johnson’s Janssen vaccine after a temporary pause to study the risk of rare but severe blood clots in a small number of cases. The FDA has determined “that the available data show that the vaccine’s known and potential benefits outweigh its known and potential risks in individuals 18 years of age and older.”

The Moderna and Janssen vaccines are approved for those 18 years old and up. The Pfizer vaccine is approved starting at age 16.

All three vaccines are highly effective in preventing death.

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New emerging research raises important questions and could also potentially affect our understanding of the coronaviruses. To really understand the content of this article, a little refresher course in basic biology is required for reference. I’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible and we are going to take a few side roads to arrive at the conclusion. Stay with us as we examine the most studied viruses in the world, discover how they’ve mastered the art of subterfuge, and examine our efforts to stay one step ahead.

A human cell

Although there are many different cells within our bodies, for simplicity we’ll look at a generalized cell structure. A cell consists of three parts: the cell membrane, the nucleus, and, between the two, the cytoplasm. Within the cytoplasm lie intricate arrangements of fine fibers and hundreds or even thousands of minuscule but distinct structures called organelles.

The vaccine manufacturers are at pains to point out that the mRNA they use in their vaccines bypasses our DNA (your DNA is encased within your cell in the nucleus, the purple and deep blue bit in the image below). Vaccine mRNA is delivered directly to the cytoplasm of a cell (the light blue section below), in effect, replicating our cell’s DNA-based processes of making(transcribing) RNA within the nucleus of the cell. Our DNA also releases any messenger RNA it creates into the cytoplasm. 

According to the manufacturers, their mRNA can not be reintegrated into the nucleus and DNA of our cells. in other words, their mRNA cannot cross the nuclear membrane. Everything is restricted to the cytoplasm, as with the coronaviruses, on which their vaccines are molded. Is their explanation consistent with emerging science? 

If you’re still having trouble visualizing cell layout, have a quick look at this article that breaks down cell structure to its basic levels.

The wonders of the viral world

To truly appreciate the complexity and subtle beauty of life and nature, and to appreciate the limitations of our understanding, examine the humble virus and its life cycle. We are toddlers in a new world, just learning to read and the limits of our knowledge are reflected by our vulnerability.

Certain viruses are capable of hijacking our DNA. In fact, it is such a common occurrence, that a small portion of every person’s DNA is comprised of bits of viral code. We carry with us a history book of our ancestor’s brushes with viruses. The human genome is replete with endogenous retroviruses (HERVs, also known as retrotransposons) that have entered the human germline at various times in the evolutionary past and now occupy 8.3% of our genome. 

The HIV virus is perhaps best known for exploiting this mechanism, commandeering our DNA, from where it then orchestrates its attacks. It’s one of the reasons HIV has been so difficult to combat. This is a typical trait of the family of viruses known as retroviruses.

What’s the main difference between these viruses and your standard-issue, run-of-the-mill virus? Two key processes that differentiate retroviruses from standard viruses are reverse transcription and genome integration. Remember we learned earlier that transcription is simply another name in cell biology for ‘making’, so reverse transcription simply means reverse or backward making. Genome integration refers to the ability of these viruses to invade and commander our bodies’ DNA via their RNA, incorporating their genetic material into ours. 

Without becoming too technical, retroviruses are a type of virus in the viral family called Retroviridae. They use RNA as their genetic material and are named after a special enzyme that’s a vital part of their life cycle, namely reverse transcriptase. Simply put, this enzyme allows retrovirus RNA access to the nucleus of our cells. 

You might wonder why we’re headed down this route, as coronaviruses arent classified as retroviruses, but rather RNA viruses. RNA viruses typically invade a cell and conduct their business in the cytoplasm, where they replicate without accessing our DNA. So why the retrovirus thing? Read on, all will be revealed.

Retroviruses are capable of insane amounts of cellular and genetic engineering, processes so intricate and delicate that you cannot but be left in awe at their complexity and ingenuity. Their ingenious design is not apparent until you understand the complex engineering they can undertake to hijack our cells and reprogram our DNA for their own use. For science, these viruses pose a massive headache and it can take decades to develop mechanisms to combat them.

An important part of the retroviral war is the virus’s ability to hide within our cells without being “active”. These stowaways are referred to as latent reservoirs. infected individuals appear completely healthy. You can even pass all the tests science can throw at you and the stowaways will remain undetected. Viruses can also employ another trick to evade the body’s defenses, hiding in plain sight where the body’s natural immune system doesn’t look, so-called “immunoprivileged sites”.

Dormancy can last weeks, months, or years, ensuring the virus survives. In some instances, as with the Ebola virus, and EVD, individuals who test negative for the virus or who are asymptomatic, are in fact contaminated with latent reservoirs of the Ebola virus and can act as vectors for new outbreaks. Coronaviruses are capable of this little trick as well. For instance, in a study, infected men were found to have traces of the SARS-CoV2 virus in their semen, two to three days after recovery. Semen is the perfect hiding place for a virus and it’s one of the places Ebola chooses.

The testes, along with the eyes, placenta, fetus, and central nervous system, are considered to be “immunoprivileged sites”, which means they are protected from severe inflammation associated with an immune response. This is probably an evolutionary adaptation that protects vital structures. Immune cells are prevented from interacting with cells in the testes and the brain by means of blood-tissue barriers(BTB). 

These “immunoprivileged sites” are, in effect, safe zones where viruses may be protected from the host’s immune response, if, and only if, the viruses are able to penetrate the BTB. We know SARS.CoV2 is capable of penetrating these barriers, but don’t as yet understand how it achieves this. This is evidenced by infected cells in the central nervous system. You can read a more detailed explanation of the impact of coronavirus on the brain here.

Let’s examine the mechanism viruses use to pull off their stowaway act, as this involves, amongst other tricks, reverse transcription and this, as we’ll discuss later, may have relevance to the mRNA vaccines. Then we can examine the real reason we’re here, data released in a preprint from Harvard and MIT, entitled SARS-CoV-2 RNA reverse-transcribed and integrated into the human genome.

The viral magic trick called reverse transcription

Sciencemag first published a reference to the study above in December of 2020 in an article entitled “The coronavirus may sometimes slip its genetic material into human chromosomes — but what does that mean?”. Perhaps the best way to understand how this process works is to examine HIV, one of the most studied and best understood retroviruses on the planet. I also chose HIV as it is not subject to the flurry of conflicting information that surrounds the coronavirus.

You can skip over this, but understanding the processes these viruses use is key to understanding emerging and existing questions relating to mRNA technology.

HIV is called a retrovirus because it works in a back-to-front way. Unlike other viruses, retroviruses store their genetic information using RNA instead of DNA, meaning they need to ‘find’ DNA when they enter a human cell in order to make new copies of themselves. To achieve this, they need to access the nucleus of the cell to get at the DNA it contains. To make this easier to understand we need to examine the structure of HIV to understand what happens. Here’s a graphic to help you visualize how this works.

• HIV specifically targets CD4 cells, the body’s principal defenders against infection, using them to make copies of the virus.

Inside the virus envelope is a layer called the matrix. The core of the virus, or nucleus, is held in the capsid, a cone-shaped structure in the center of the virion. The capsid contains two enzymes essential for HIV replication, the reverse transcriptase and integrase molecules. It also contains two strands of RNA — which hold HIV’s genetic material. HIV’s RNA is made up of nine genes that contain all the instructions to make new viruses.

I’m going to skip over the virus’s attachment and fusing to the cell and focus on what happens after attachment. You can find a more detailed explanation of the HIV life cycle here. 

Reverse transcription and Integration

When HIV RNA enters the cell it must be `reverse transcribed` into proviral DNA before it can be integrated into the DNA of the host cell. HIV uses its reverse transcriptase enzyme to convert RNA into proviral DNA inside the cell.

After HIV RNA is converted into DNA, HIV’s integrase enzyme attaches itself to the end of the proviral DNA strands and it is passed through the wall of the cell nucleus. Once the proviral DNA enters the cell nucleus, it binds to the host DNA and then the HIV DNA strand is inserted into the host cell DNA.

After the proviral DNA is integrated into the DNA of the host cell, HIV remains dormant within the cellular DNA. This stage is called latency and the cell is described as ‘latently infected’. It can be difficult to detect these latently infected cells even when using the most sensitive tests.

Transcription and Translation, the final phase

The cell will now produce HIV RNA (remember, DNA produces RNA) if it receives a signal to become active. Our CD4 cells become activated if they encounter an infectious agent. When the cell becomes active, HIV uses the host enzyme RNA polymerase to make messenger RNA. This messenger RNA provides the instructions for making new viral proteins in long chains. 

The long chains of HIV proteins are cut into smaller chains by HIV’s protease enzyme and are assembled into a new copy of the virus inside the cytoplasm of the infected cell. The new copy of the virus then exits its host and sets off in search of another CD4 cell to infect.

Is the SARS-CoV2 virus capable of accessing the nucleus of an infected cell?

To answer this, let’s start by examining existing literature for older coronaviruses, notably SARS and MERS. What does the scientific literature say about the ability of these viruses to access our DNA? 

The problem we immediately encounter here is the scarcity of research. A lot of the outbreaks for these viruses were small, affecting sample sizes, geographical locations posed challenges in terms of collecting reliable data, and the duration of often isolated and contained outbreaks was brief. Unlike Covid, there was no widespread testing of populations, so even something as simple as suggested mortality rates are skewed for these viruses, as scientists were unable to account for asymptomatic and mild infections in the broader populations.

Now would be the perfect time to underscore the rationale for widespread testing. We can not truly assess the impact of a virus on a population unless we can develop a cohesive data set for a large majority of the group. Say you‘ve’ an island of a hundred thousand people, 1000 are hospitalized and 100 die. Can you claim a ten percent mortality rate for the virus? Absolutely not. Can you ascertain if asymptomatic carriers are transmitting the virus or how long they act as reservoirs? Absolutely not. 

While you can argue that a percentage of this data may be compromised as a result of human error, it remains essential. Testing, as widespread as possible, is critical to forming a proper understanding of any virus and highlighting areas of concern. It’s how investigative research has arrived at the report below. Discrepancies are showing up in PCR tests that cannot be explained away with historical research.

The Preprint

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictitious crime solver, Sherlock Holmes would have felt very much at home in a modern virology setting but may have frowned on the profession’s proclivity for forcing data to conform to accepted models, rather than examining alternate solutions, however improbable. Researchers at MIT and Harvard have uncovered evidence of segments of SARS-CoV2’s genetic material mixed in with ours. They’ve come up with a hypothesis to explain these bits of viral code, backed by in vitro experiments. 

You can access the preprint in the NIH National Library of Medicine, and I have referenced large portions of it below. The paper, “SARS-CoV-2 RNA reverse-transcribed and integrated into the human genome” is already contentious, simply by its title alone. It’s the scientific version of covid research clickbait and the question we need to ask is does it hold up under scrutiny? Below is the paper’s abstract and I have highlighted portions in bold.

Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding and recurrence of PCR-positive tests have been widely reported in patients after recovery, yet these patients most commonly are non-infectious. Here we investigated the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 RNAs can be reverse-transcribed and integrated into the human genome and that transcription of the integrated sequences might account for PCR-positive tests. In support of this hypothesis, we found chimeric transcripts consisting of viral fused to cellular sequences in published data sets of SARS-CoV-2 infected cultured cells and primary cells of patients, consistent with the transcription of viral sequences integrated into the genome. To experimentally corroborate the possibility of viral retro-integration, we describe evidence that SARS-CoV-2 RNAs can be reverse transcribed in human cells by reverse transcriptase (RT) from LINE-1 elements or by HIV-1 RT, and that these DNA sequences can be integrated into the cell genome and subsequently be transcribed. Human endogenous LINE-1 expression was induced upon SARS-CoV-2 infection or by cytokine exposure in cultured cells, suggesting a molecular mechanism for SARS-CoV-2 retro-integration in patients. This novel feature of SARS-CoV-2 infection may explain why patients can continue to produce viral RNA after recovery and suggests a new aspect of RNA virus replication.

To test whether SARS-CoV-2’s RNA genome could integrate into the DNA of our chromosomes, the researchers added the gene for reverse transcriptase (RT), an enzyme that converts RNA into DNA, to human cells and cultured the engineered cells with SARS-CoV-2. In one experiment, the researchers used an RT gene from HIV. They also provided RT using human DNA sequences known as LINE-1 elements, which are remnants of ancient retroviral infections and make up about 17% of the human genome. Cells making either form of the enzyme led to some chunks of SARS-CoV-2 RNA being converted to DNA and integrated into human chromosomes.

This was consistent with the findings of fragmented viral material from the PCQR tests in the general population.

You can begin to see why this paper and research could be viewed as contentious and why it’s been met with resistance. It not only challenges our current understanding of RNA viruses, suggesting the viruses may possess a broader skillset than previously imagined, it also potentially raises new questions relating to the use of mRNA vaccines. If the vaccine mRNA is modeled on a portion of the virus, and the virus is capable, under certain circumstances of reverse transcription, what then of claims by mRNA vaccines that their products cannot contaminate our DNA?

It’s important at this point, to explain that mRNA vaccines don’t reproduce the entire virus in your cytoplasm, they merely create a copy of the spike protein attached to the virus which helps it bind with our own cells. Reproducing a portion of the virus minimizes risk and allows our body the opportunity to mount an early defense against the spike protein when we encounter the SARS-CoV2 virus in the wild. Of equal importance is the length of time for which the vaccine RNA stays viable in the cytoplasm, and we’ll examine this issue towards the end of the article.

What prompted this research?

What prompted these researchers to investigate whether viral RNA could become hardwired into our genomic DNA? Their motive had nothing to do with mRNA vaccines. They were simply puzzled by the growing number of people who were testing positive for COVID-19 by PCR long after the infection was gone. It was known that these people were not reinfected, so where was the viral genetic material the PCQR tests were identifying coming from?

The authors sought to answer how a PCR test is able to detect segments of viral RNA when the virus is presumably no longer present in a person’s body. They hypothesized that somehow segments of the viral RNA were being copied into DNA and then integrated permanently into the DNA of somatic cells. This would allow these cells to continuously churn out pieces of viral RNA that would be detected in a PCR test, even though no active infection existed. 

Through their experiments, they did not find full-length viral RNA integrated into genomic DNA; rather, they found smaller segments of the viral DNA, mostly representing the nucleocapsid (N) protein of the virus, although other viral segments were found integrated into human DNA at a lower frequency. It is important to note that the authors emphasize their results don’t imply that SARS-CoV-2 establishes permanent genetic residence in human cells to keep pumping out new copies, as HIV does.

How has the scientific community reacted?

“This is a very interesting molecular analysis and speculation with supportive data provided. I do not think it is a complete story to be certain … but as is, I like it and my guess is it will be right.” — Robert Galeo, Head of the Institute of Human Virology

“Impressive and unexpected. Because it is all pieces of the coronaviral genome, it can’t lead to infectious RNA or DNA and therefore it is probably biologically a dead end. It is also not clear if, in people, the cells that harbor the reverse transcripts stay around for a long time or they die. The work raises a lot of interesting questions.” — David Baltimore, a virologist at the California Institute of Technology who won the Nobel Prize for his role in discovering RT

“LINE-1 elements in the human genome rarely are active. It is not clear what the activity would be in different primary cell types that are infected by SARS-CoV-2.” — Zandrea Ambrose, a retrovirologist at the University of Pittsburgh

“I’m not yet convinced but it’s believable, solid evidence shows that LINE-1 RT can allow viral material to integrate in people. The evidence of SARS-CoV-2 sequences in people should be more solid, and the in vitro experiments conducted by Jaenisch’s team lack controls I would have liked to have seen. All in all, I doubt that the phenomenon has much biological relevance, despite the authors’ speculation.” — John Coffin, Retrovirologist at Tufts University

What has the paper established

1) Segments of SARS-CoV-2 Viral RNA can become integrated into human genomic DNA.

2) This newly acquired viral sequence is not silent, meaning that these genetically modified regions of genomic DNA may be transcriptionally active (DNA is being converted back into RNA). Note the paper does not confirm this, merely indicates it, their FISH data is not conclusive and more study is required.

3) Segments of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA retro-integrated into human genomic DNA in cell culture. This retro-integration into genomic DNA of COVID-19 patients is also implied indirectly from the detection of chimeric RNA transcripts in cells derived from COVID-19 patients. Although their RNAseq data suggest that genomic alteration is taking place in COVID-19 patients, the point needs to be proven conclusively. This is a gap that needs to be closed in the research. The in vitro data in human cell lines, however, is air-tight.

4) This viral retro-integration of RNA into DNA can be induced by endogenous LINE-1 retrotransposons, which produce an active reverse transcriptase (RT) that converts RNA into DNA. (All humans have multiple copies of LINE-1 retrotransposons residing in their genome.). The frequency of retro-integration of viral RNA into DNA is positively correlated with LINE-1 expression levels in the cell.

5) These LINE-1 retrotransposons can be activated by viral infection with SARS-CoV-2, or cytokine exposure to cells, and this increases the probability of retro-integration.

What questions can we now ask?

The author of this paper is well respected and considered brilliant by his peers. There can be no doubt about the authenticity of the research and although the paper has not yet been subjected to peer review, another consequence of the pandemic, it certainly will be. It is our hope that the results from the research act to spur on further research to eliminate or conclusively show the validity of the suggested mechanisms, both in -vivo and in-vitro. 

It’s well known that in-vivo results don’t always translate when the experiment is transferred to a living host, therefore it’s essential we continue the research to its logical conclusion. The paper raises a number of issues, possibilities that we don’t as yet have conclusive answers to. The mere fact we now have to ask these questions would suggest caution moving forward until we have conclusively addressed potential concerns.

1. Can RNA from an RNA virus, SARS-CoV2, reach our DNA?

It would almost certainly seem so. Whether in one piece or in genetics bits, the virus appears to be finding its way into our DNA. PCR tests are finding the viral genetic material when they shouldn’t. If the mechanism the paper describes is responsible, that is cause for concern. There may prove to be other mechanisms involved we don’t as yet understand, perhaps involving immunoprivileged sites. More research is required.

2. If viral RNA can find its way into our DNA, can the same hold true for synthetic RNA?

It is a possibility that we cannot conclusively rule out, particularly given the fact that synthetic RNA has been engineered to be more resilient and produce more proteins than its less chemically stable natural version. This makes the cell more alert to the presence of synthetic RNA and offers the cell more time to address the foreign body chemically. In other words, the likelihood of whatever processes the natural RNA is subjected to being expressed on the synthetic version, increases exponentially. 

3. Can I infect anyone with this genetic material?

The obvious answer to this is no. This is not the same way in which the HIV virus we learned about earlier operates. These are fragments of RNA, so think of it like a computer program. If you cut the program into sections, those individual pieces may or may not be able to run on their own, but they cannot perform the original function of the program. The paper does not suggest you would become infectious to others.

The statement above does not mean that you would be unable to transmit these segments to other people, simply that the recipient won’t be able to develop covid from the fragments. 

4. Do I need to be worried about this?

Absolutely not. This paper simply explores and deepens our understanding of viruses and reminds us that we are still learning about many aspects of a virus’s life cycle. Viruses are as unique and gifted as we are and each possesses its own toolbox of tricks to ensure its survival. Remember as you sit and read this, an 8th of your body is made of bits of viral genetic code. We’ve done just fine up to now as a species co-existing with viruses and there may very well be a selective advantage to us as a species to incorporate bits of viral genetic material into our own genome. We are still learning and as technology advances, so does our understanding of this infinitely complex system.

5. So where does this leave mRNA vaccines?

mRNA covid vaccines are proving in the short term to be safer and less likely to elicit allergic responses than the more traditional covid vaccines. They also appear efficacious against new strains and can be reverse engineered to address emerging strains far more rapidly than conventional vaccines. The technology is fantastic and holds huge promise for the future of medicine. Do we know what the long-term consequences, if any, will be to us from the use of the mRNA vaccine? No. That’s the honest answer.

It’s too early into the life cycle of this technology to know for sure and we lack detailed long-term evaluations of the impacts on our bodies. The urgency of the pandemic has robbed us of the opportunity to subject these vaccines to rigorous long-term scrutiny (all the covid vaccines, not merely the mRNA vaccines) but let’s not forget, that without the pandemic, we would not have made this leap in technology, perhaps not for another five or six years, perhaps longer. 

So in answer to the question, is there any chance these vaccines could have their RNA incorporated into our DNA, the answer, for now, would have to be this.

We cannot emphatically rule out the possibility and nature says ‘never say never’. It’s one of the reasons we need to proceed with as much caution as possible and Medika strongly supports an individual’s right to choice in the matter of vaccination. Educate yourself and then choose, but understand that in terms of risk, if you are in an at-risk category for covid, the mRNA and other vaccines are a no-brainer. Get vaccinated. 

Compare the risk of death with an almost negligible, unquantified possibility of genetic absorption that may, or may not be deleterious to your health. Then roll up that sleeve and thank your nurse.

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These expanded guidelines come at an optimal time as the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex copes with an increase in Covid variants. Opening up the eligibility pool will help reach the 29 million Texas residents. After Governor Abbot reopened the state 100%, the race is on to see if Texas can vaccinate enough people to beat the variants’ rise. 

So far, Texas has administered 9.3 million doses, and the state expects to receive an allotment of 900,000 more this week. Six million Texans have received at least one dose, and 3 million are now fully vaccinated. Recent data from the Texas CARES project, the largest Covid-19 testing database in the United States, showed only up to 24% of Texas have Covid-19 antibodies. 

The Texas Department of State Services (DSHS) associate commissioner Imelda Garcia said, “We are closing in on 10 million doses administered in Texas, and we want to keep up the momentum as the vaccine supply increases.” 

New DSHS guidelines have encouraged sites to prioritize those over age 80 as these patients are the most at risk for severe disease, hospitalization, and death from Covid-19. People over 80 qualify for a vaccination with or without an appointment and are to be moved to the front of the line. Pregnant women and teachers already qualify under existing regulations. 

Dallas county offers vaccination at multiple sites. Local businesses, like Krispy Kreme, are encouraging vaccine compliance through special offers. Health officials are making efforts to overcome vaccine hesitancy and racial disparities.

There are three FDA-approved vaccines for Covid-19. The two messenger RNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer offer 95% protection against Covid-19. The Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna use messenger RNA (mRNA). A single strand of mRNA delivers instructions to human cells to produce an antibody against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. 

The Johnson and Johnson’s Janssen vaccine offers 72% protection against infection and 86% against severe disease. The Janssen vaccine uses Adenovirus 26 (AD26) as the vector to deliver DNA material into our cells to provoke an immune response.

The Moderna and Janssen vaccines are approved for those 18 years old and up. The Pfizer vaccine is approved starting at age 16. 

All three vaccines are highly effective in preventing death.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be approved soon under the Emergency Use Authorization providing the United States with a fourth vaccine option. Data released on March 22 showed the vaccine is 79% effective at preventing mild disease and 100% effective at preventing death. An approved vaccine from AstraZeneca would give the US a fourth safe and effective option along with the Pfizer, Moderna, and Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Here is what we know about post-vaccine immunity with the two Covid-19 vaccines currently available in the U.S.: In phase 3 clinical trials, the Pfizer vaccine showed a 95% efficacy seven days after the second dose. The Moderna vaccine offers 94% immunity at least 14 days after dose number two. The Janssen vaccine takes effect after 14 days as well. 

Two weeks after completing the vaccination course, recipients can rest assured their risk of severe disease from Covid-19 is very low. But we must remember that the risk is not zero.

The Covid-19 vaccine protects us from getting the disease. However, at this moment, we do not yet know if the vaccine prevents transmission. There is a growing amount of encouraging evidence regarding the protective effect of the vaccine against transmission, but at this moment, we don’t currently know whether a vaccinated person can still transmit the SARS-CoV-2 virus to others.

No vaccine is 100% effective, and according to the current data, 5% of those getting a Covid-19 mRNA vaccine may still be at risk. 

Vaccine recipients should continue to wash their hands, wear a face mask in public, and practice social distancing.

Texas residents can register for the vaccine here.

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I was sad to see the headline in the LA Times yesterday, but not surprised. A large number of California’s healthcare workers are refusing to get vaccinated against Covid and it’s created an uproar. The article, entitled, Some healthcare workers refuse to take COVID-19 vaccine, even with priority access, has created an uproar and highlights systemic failures within the current government’s vaccine campaign. 

It has also highlighted the ethical dilemmas around vaccination and vaccine safety at a time we can least afford it. Are these healthcare workers within their personal and professional right to refuse the vaccine?

The problem California’s frontline healthcare is highlighting is not a vaccine issue. They trust vaccines. They are almost to a man (women, other) vaccinated and they vaccinate their children. Their problem is one of trust. If the covid vaccine had been touted as a medicine or treatment rather than a vaccine, they would still be refusing it. It’s just hugely unfortunate, at this point in our history, that it happens to be a vaccine. 

I’ve linked to the tweet of the article below to allow you to gauge the public response, which is an overriding one of indignant anger. Should we be upset with these healthcare professionals and do we have the right?

Safety and Obligation

The obvious and most worrying issue posed by their decision not to get vaccinated is the question of safety, not to the nurses and doctors themselves, but to patients, particularly the high-risk sectors of the community. Do the unvaccinated doctors pose a greater risk to patients in terms of transmission of the coronavirus to patients?.

Many elderly patients require constant medical attention for one ailment or another. The same applies to people with known risk vectors, high blood pressure, heart conditions, obesity, etc. Do they now have the right to refuse care from professionals that have chosen not to receive the vaccine? Do patients have a right to be told who has been vaccinated and who hasn’t?

And what of the healthcare workers? Are they not obliged, in the interests of patient safety to take the vaccine. Are they not obliged, as responsible members of the medical community to set an example. 

Perhaps, the most relevant question is this. Why do these science-based professionals not trust the process and assurances given by Pfizer, Moderna, and the FDA regarding the safety of the vaccine? A small percentage of these individuals suffer from the same issues that trouble the public. A lack of reliable information. Conflicting narratives have plagued the war against covid in the US from the outset.

Should we perhaps consider enforcing vaccination for certain public-facing sectors that offer vital services? For example, should vaccination be compulsory for healthcare, policing, and social services, not to mention the politicians?

It’s a complex, ethical nightmare riddled with really complex questions, some of which I have raised above and unfortunately, most of the blame for the current sad state of affairs must be laid squarely at the door of the Republicans and the incumbent President. 

To try and understand the positions of the healthcare workers who, don’t forget, are still risking life and limb, vaccinated or not, let’s try and unpack the individual components that have led us to this point. They will point to why the vaccine itself is actually not the major underlying reason for people’s refusal of it. 

The role of Trump’s toxic America

President Donald Trump’s lasting legacy will be the American divisions he highlighted and fed during his four years in office. He inherited a divided America and he has amplified those divisions for his own gain. 

America has for decades been divided along party lines. It’s been nasty, sometimes unpleasant, and, at times, downright dirty, but there was always a thin veneer of civility and humanity plastered across the festering sore of political division. 

Trump tore away this social bandage and has continued throughout his four-year tenure, to pour poison into the wound, feeding his own agendas at the expense of the American soul. Americans, duly primed, erupted, spurred on by the ever-supportive yes-men of the Republican Party. 

Guilt for the current pandemic response, perhaps better described as a clusterfuck of monumental proportions, is shared equally by all Republican politicians and should be owned accordingly. No political maneuvering by them can obfuscate their complicity in the sea of misinformation and the resulting loss of American lives. Their sad legacy continues to hound the covid vaccine.

Trust was one of the first victims of this remorseless onslaught. Decades of questionable but “sounds iffy, but we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt” believability in the American political system was destroyed overnight. 

It is this absence of trust that lies at the heart of the Californian worker’s refusal to be vaccinated. They no longer trust the system or any players involved in the system that created the vaccine. Read Pfizer, Moderna, the FDA, CDC, HHS, Lightspeed, or any other government agency or associated party. 

Every one of the large Pharma companies was embedded with government agencies over the last few months, all hoping to be the first across the finishing line. Many prominent US politicians, it can be argued, are in the pockets of, or politically beholding to, large pharma. Money and favors have undoubtedly changed hands in the past few months and will continue to do so. 

The FDA and CDC have squandered most of their credibility over the course of the pandemic. Once seen as the bastions of American healthcare and the seat of reliable and trustworthy information and opinion, their voices are now questioned openly and their halcyon days may never return. 

A complete press and social media crackdown on any contrary Covid related material was also seen by many as an attempt to control the narrative and sell an official story. A typical backlash to any form of censorship.

So from a systemic point of view, can you really blame the covid vaccine? It is a victim of circumstance and is viewed by many Americans as a product of a corrupt and unethical Kabal, led by the king of falsehoods and ably supported by his minions. 

Equally, can you blame individuals for questioning the narrative (regarding safety) produced by this Kabal to sell the vaccine to the public? Remember this is the same group that was telling us not to wear masks, that failed to provide any logistical support for healthcare workers early into the pandemic, and that has failed at every turn to effectively combat Covid. They lied for months and continue to do so. 

Why believe them now? Why gamble with your health on a product simply because they assure you it is safe? Any rational debate centered on the covid vaccine issue cannot ignore the fact that this erosion of trust is a key component. Restoring trust is a long and challenging process that requires time, a luxury we currently do not have. So what alternatives are there?

Enforcing Vaccines

Does your Government have the right to enforce vaccination? There are no doubt proponents for this course of action within the US and other governments globally. 

The answer is an emphatic and resounding NO. This would be an egregious violation of your human rights and your freedom to choose. You are not simply a vessel of the state, but an individual with rights and personal freedoms. Additionally, your current vaccination status should in no way impact your life or be used to deny you access to services.

This extends to making any form of employment dependant on taking the vaccine or being vaccinated. The reason is simple and straightforward. There is no scientific data to suggest that vaccinated people will not shed the coronavirus. As far as we know, the vaccinated are still a vector for infections. It’s why we are still advised to wear masks after we’ve been vaccinated. 

Let’s take a closer look at exactly what the vaccine does to your body, so we’re all on the same page. Importantly, to start with, vaccines aren’t an impenetrable shield against viruses. They are simply a tool to enable your body to combat viral intruders more effectively, preventing you from developing a serious reaction to specific viruses.

You can still contract the coronavirus after being vaccinated, the difference is that vaccinated people are far less likely to develop serious illness (covid). Vaccinated people will get flu-like symptoms (or perhaps none) for a few days and then you can get on with your life. A far better alternative to weeks of hospitalization and the very real prospect of death. 

The vaccine isn’t foolproof. Some vaccinated people will still become seriously ill, realistically that figure is probably between 5 and 10% of those who are vaccinated, potentially it could be far fewer. Again, we still lack sufficient data. We don’t have exact numbers and this isn’t proof the vaccine doesn’t work, it simply means it isn’t 100% effective at stopping serious covid infections.

Extrapolate that percentage into the current deaths in the US and your figure drops from over 350 000 dead to between 17 and 35 000 people. That’s a lot of people who could have been around to celebrate 2021 but aren’t, and it’s why the vaccine really matters. 

The accompanying strain on medical resources from a high death toll is also a major issue that impacts patients requiring urgent medical attention for any number of non-covid related conditions. Full hospitals cant offer you a bed when you may desperately need one.

With the very real possibility of another 350 000 Americans dying from covid in 2021 the danger is far from over. The difference now is that we finally do have access to a vaccine, numerous actually. As of now, getting people vaccinated is critical to reducing deaths in the coming months. That is a fact.

Will the Vaccine slow the virus down?

We cannot argue at this point, based on scientific data, that the vaccination will slow the spread of Covid. That is a disingenuous and misleading statement and although it may prove true in the coming months, we just don’t have the data to currently support that statement, so we shouldn’t make it or use it to justify getting vaccinated. The truth is what matters now.

Whatever statements epidemiologists may make at this point regarding the vaccine and transmission, these are conjectural, based on assumptions and modeling that is not yet supported by any existing data. 

Stop persecuting healthcare professionals. NOW. 

This covid vaccine is a personal choice. It always was and always will be. That doctor or nurse who has refused the vaccine because of personal concerns is fully within their rights to do so. They are also within their rights to expect that decision to remain private.

It’s not a choice they’ve made lightly and it doesn’t mean they will stop treating covid patients. They will still expose themselves to the risks, they just choose to rely on their own body’s defense mechanism. It is their choice. 

The covid vaccine doesn’t make them any less capable of treating you and possibly saving your life, at risk to their own. It also, as we have established, doesn’t make them any more or less of a risk for transmitting covid. 

So please stop your persecution of them on social media and in the press. They are putting their lives on the line, not yours, and to be honest, you’re in no position to pass judgment, so stop. 

What we actually know about the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines

The following isn’t lab-based or trial data, but real facts for consideration when you assess the covid vaccine. Hopefully, this will assist you in making your own personal decision. 

• Over 3 million Americans have already been vaccinated against Covid. This excellent resource from the New York Times will keep you up to speed. 
• None of those vaccinated have died whilst receiving the vaccine. It’s given under strict medical supervision and in the very rare event of an anaphylactic (allergic respiratory response) reaction, doctors or nurses are on hand to offer treatments. 
• To my knowledge, and we are a few weeks into the vaccination program, none of those vaccinated have died as a direct result of the vaccine. Those are pretty good odds in favor of a good outcome for you.
• It is far too soon to make assessments about the long-term effects, if any, of the vaccines, but these concerns are limited to younger candidates.

It would appear that both Moderna and Pfizer’s products are safe, based on the above figures. Long term effects aren’t a consideration at this point, particularly for the elderly. Today and tomorrow matter far more than events ten years away when you’re seventy. So if you’re elderly, definitely get vaccinated. If you’re in an at-risk category, get vaccinated. 

We cannot address concerns over long-term safety until the vaccine has been in the marketplace for months and possibly years. The same is true of any drug. Currently, the benefits of vaccination for the aged by far outweigh any undocumented long term risks that may or may not be present in the vaccines.

What about the other covid vaccines?

Slow down, and the FDA should take heed of this warning. You risk jeopardizing the reputation of your two successes by rushing through other EUA’s. There is a strong argument to be offered in terms of more rigorous testing prior to licensing additional vaccines and there is no longer the urgent need. 

We know Pfizer’s and Modena’s vaccines don’t pose a risk, based on actual evidence in the field. Three million is a lot of ‘trial’ subjects. 

Authorizing every new applicant to the market should now be done with far more circumspection and require more rigorous testing to ensure safety.. There is a definite risk involved with a rushed product and just because two companies have succeeded, huge companies with limitless resources, doesn’t mean that every other vaccine will be safe or without issues. 

Releasing one of these vaccines that could potentially prove dangerous to the public would be an unmitigated disaster to vaccination campaigns and the urgency has passed.

Pfizer and Moderna have offered us the opportunity to slow things down a little and apply more robust checks and balances on other vaccines. We should avail ourselves of the opportunity and be far more circumspect. 

This brings me to my final points. Reputation and resources. 

Both Pfizer and Moderna are massive companies that can not afford to fail. They have staked their reputations on the success of their products and this shouldn’t be overlooked. 

Failure on a global scale would be spectacular, and the results crippling for any company. 

Secondly, the fact that all America’s top tier politicians and healthcare workers have been targeted as first recipients for the vaccine speaks volumes to the manufacturer’s confidence in their products. While few tears would have been shed for the politicians, the healthcare industry matters. 

Kill off all America’s healthcare frontline and we’d really be up the proverbial creek hunting for a paddle. This reason alone would make me seriously consider the vaccine were I in your positions, troubled by uncertainty, rumors, and misinformation. Look at what is happening on the ground.

A final word for the US media

Now, more than ever, you need to avoid your clickbait headlines, particularly if it involves the use of the word vaccine. 

Show restraint and research topics thoroughly. Be circumspect in what you choose to publish. Your business of selling the early morning addition shouldn’t pose a threat to public health. That is something that can and will be regulated under a Biden administration. 

The cowboys are leaving the building. 

The post Why Some Californian Healthcare Workers Are Refusing the Covid Vaccine appeared first on Medika Life.