I don’t always feel comfortable sharing my views within my work community but I was reading an article shared by one of you lovely people recently and felt maybe as the year turned to yet another new number it was time to articulate what resonates for me on this interesting time we are living in. I started this article including a set of references to papers and interviews relating to points below but I removed them as I want this to be about the bigger picture of the way we relate to ourselves and each other within our communities and not about which side of the discussion you fall on. My aim isn’t to persuade anybody one way or another, it is to raise the question about what drives our beliefs and how we respond to others who don’t hold the same beliefs.
There is hardly a more divisive and caustic topic than the SARS-COV-2 virus and the global/national/individual response to it. Everyone I know has been personally impacted – whether it be by the virus itself, the vaccines, the mandates, the lockdowns, the economic impact, the effect on mental health and not to mention the division it has caused. A client recently suggested to me that society had already become very divisive and that all this pandemic has done is throw an illuminating light on that. I felt that was an interesting view and worth a thought but it can wait for another time another blog.
Lets state up front … I am pro choice. I am perplexed at the current state of affairs around the world, but more than that I am totally perplexed at many peoples attitudes towards those that do not share the same view as them. No where is this more perplexing (that’s a lot of perplexion) than in the dialogue surrounding vaccine mandates.
I work in the wellness industry and people have been asking what my views are on the vaccines. It’s my passion that we thrive in these magical lives of ours but I want to make this very clear – I am not qualified to provide guidance to individuals on any choices they make regarding medical intervention, any medications or procedures. And I never would on ethical grounds.
I firmly believe that people should be given a chance to carry out a risk/benefit analysis based on their own personal health circumstances and be free to decide based on what they feel is best for their situation without fear of abuse or discrimination. It is and it should be a fundamental human right to decide what goes in your body, especially anything that carries an element of risk. This should not be a controversial statement but sadly at the time of writing, (January 2022) it is.
Governments all around the world are promoting the Covid-19 vaccines as a panacea to beat Covid, however countries with the highest vaccination rates are now offering (or mandating in the case of Israel) ‘booster’ shots as it is evident that the effectiveness of the vaccines wears off after a few months. Even the World Health Organisation has now advised that ‘no country can vaccinate its way out of this pandemic.’ Rather than taking this as an opportunity to look at early treatment options or alternative treatments governments are doubling down on their efforts to vaccinate their populations.
Let me make this clear also, I am not now and never have been against vaccines! I have had plenty vaccinations over my life, I am all for any vaccine that is safe and effective or where the benefit outweighs the risks to an individual or community. It is evident that the current generation of Covid-19 vaccines work to decrease the number of hospitalisations and deaths relating to the virus, however only temporarily. They are not, despite the misleading inferences through main media channels, sterilising vaccines and they do not stop you from contracting the virus or passing it on to others.
Even in my small universe, I know clients who have suffered clots and others who have told me that their menstrual cycles have changed, their immune system has been compromised or latent viruses have reappeared since their vaccination. These are anecdotal reports but I am not going to ignore them just because we are told something is ‘safe and effective.’ Yes, the virus could have been worse still for these people, which is why it is necessary that medical intervention remains a choice.
What concerns me most is that young people are now being told to take the vaccine to “protect” older generations (see comment above about these vaccines not stopping the contagion chain) when we do not have long term safety data and children are far less statistically at risk of dying or severe illness from SARS-COV-2 than adults. The UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recently did not recommend extending the vaccination rollout to include healthy 12-15 year olds, however politicians decided to pursue the rollout anyway.
An article recently published in the American Heart Association Journal warned that MrNA vaccines ‘dramatically increase endothelial inflammatory markers and Acute Coronary Syndrome.’ Couple this with the fact that there are excess non-covid deaths since the vaccine rollout which has increased since the booster rollouts and it should, at least, give pause for thought and space in our beliefs that there is a possibility we aren’t right.
Professor Norman Fenton of Queen Mary University in London has been analysing the UK Office for National Statistics mortality data and has come to some very interesting conclusions. He notes that the vaccines appear to protect the vaccinated from dying from covid in the UK, however all-cause mortality for 2021 increases shortly after the rollout of the vaccine for each age category. I recommend looking him up.
From the outset of the pandemic I have been waiting for preventative measures to be discussed. Where is the focus on good nutrition, regular exercise, exposing yourself to adequate amounts of sunshine, getting outside in nature and remaining in close contact with people you love? And, most importantly, trying to reduce stress as much as possible. These are the key elements to staying healthy and are the best way to prevent any disease not just this disease.
Unfortunately, the focus has been on staying indoors, maintaining a distance from people, wearing masks and the media has consistently propagated stress-inducing fear.
It bothers me that one of the simplest ways to reduce disease could have been to hand out vitamin D to everyone, yet we have only myopically insisted on a vaccine that does not stop infection or transmission.
Please note that I fully support those who choose to vaccinate themselves. I know many felt a civic, familial duty or moral responsibility to do so or are high risk themselves. But I also fully support those who choose not to get vaccinated because they have already had covid, they have previously had an adverse reaction to a vaccine or for whatever reason believe it will cause them more harm than good. I am not going to share which group I personally fall into.
The fact is two people can come from a place of love and end up with diametrically opposing views. This is not a black and white issue and it is deeply concerning that certain governments and the media are making it so. We have created a world in which anyone with dissenting views is labelled a conspiracy theorist or anti-vaxxer. There is no room for healthy debate and highly respected professionals who speak out are being censored and smeared.
I know most of you reading this will have already had to make a decision or will in fact have been coerced into it. Given that Austria has now made it a legal requirement to be vaccinated and mandates are the new normal in many places I think it is prudent to decide what our limits are now, and it is imperative that we are able to make an informed decision.
Are you ok with infinite booster shots? Are you ok with vaccines and boosters for your young children? Are you ok with people in your community being ostracized from society, fined heavily, prevented from medical treatments and education, sent to jail for not wanting to receive a medical procedure? These are hypothetical questions but if we lose bodily autonomy to our government, we are heading down a very slippery slope and there’s no going back. There could always be a pretext for the next thing, if we allow it to happen.
I have doctors in my close circle and they will tell you that doctors have always had to make a call, triage, as to whom will receive treatment when resources are limited. Would you prefer these decisions to be in the hands of trained doctors or a one size fits all government dictate.
I share this post not to convince anyone of anything, I only want to create awareness and critical thinking. Things are not adding up to me and I personally fear if we keep going down this path, we may face terrible unintended consequences.
I have been brought up to speak out if I see something that I feel is wrong. I have been frightened to do so because I have already experienced loss of business because I dare to stand up for what I believe and I have been bullied and criticized simply for asking questions to open debate. I can justify the background to the views I hold but I have found the loudest critics on all sides of this are the ones who can’t say where their beliefs that they are protecting so strongly have come from … just ‘that’s what I believe’.
I hope you receive this not with the attitude that I am trying to tell you what to think but as a heartfelt wish that you make your own inquiries … the mainstream is not ‘the truth’ … it may be … but maybe it isn’t. When we decide, definitively, what we believe, we close the door to new information. How often scientific research changes previously ‘scientifically’ supported ‘facts’. Let’s keep the discussion open and leave just a little space that there may be another truth other than the one we currently hold.
And please … lets not add vaccination status to the list of things we discrimate for in society.