Who would have thought that COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination would become such mainstream concerns in 2021? Certainly a surprise to have firmly entrenched ideological camps violently pulling on either side of the American population. What started out as a Public Health measure has now taken on new scope and meanings that were never a part of the original intent. All of which has many people asking:
Where did all the science and scientists go?
The Expression of COVID-19
The information about how the novel coronavirus behaves in the world population has been generally straightforward, as coronaviruses go. The virus commonly affects the respiratory system of the infected person. Transmission of the infection is via the respiratory system. Hence the use of Public Health tools like facial masks and social distancing to decease the spread of the virus.
Unique to COVID-19 are a number of blood and neurological complications, knowledge of which we continue to collect. The virus is expressed in particularly virulent forms in those individuals with existing compromises to their immune systems. Viruses are particularly well suited to hit us where we are the most vulnerable. Even before the appearance of this particular virus, susceptible individuals died each year due to colds and flu infections.
A notable characteristic of the coronavirus is its particularly nasty ability to kill seemingly healthy individuals on occasion. The current thinking is that this tragic outcome may be a result of genetic variations but the jury is still out on a firm cause and treatment.
Because COVID-19 is new to the population, we know that many more people are affected and the numbers of those expected to die is also higher.
We knew this from the start.
Vaccines Enter the COVID-19 Fight
Science, when practiced traditionally (without political manipulations), is a questioning loop. It looks at problems, devises solutions, tests the solutions, questions the test results, then looks at problems…
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Not knowing the answer to a scientific question is normal. Unfortunately, political ideologies rarely follow this route to solutions, preferring emotional reactions instead of evidence based decision-making.
Vaccines developed and implemented in response to COVID-19 in record time are one of several tools in modern medicine’s toolbox of preventative measures.
Something worth noting is that the key concept of prevention is the reality. Not cure. The development of the vaccines from the start was with the intention of decreasing the expression of symptoms so fewer infected people would be crowding into a healthcare system ill-prepared to handle pandemic numbers. Curing the novel coronavirus was not the intent. Given science’s failed efforts over the years to develop vaccines to cure coronaviruses, it is likely not plausible.
Vaccine Opinions, Oh My!
With personal opinions being like body parts, people generally have one or two of them, COVID treatment and vaccine opinions started circulating freely. Rarely encumbered with factual information, increasingly imaginative tales spin as media fodder.
Opinions are fun and easy. You can create them at will, they don’t cost anything, and for the most part, they don’t mean anything unless supported by evidence.
When trending opinions about COVID-19 vaccines started being accepted as fact, science was rudely shouldered out of the conversations. Politics on both extremes of the ideological spectrum started trolling for popularity (read: votes). Instead of receiving much needed leadership, our understanding of what is possible with vaccine use was severely retarded by nonsense.
Very loud debates not withstanding, vaccines are not a black or white, right or wrong, situation. Vaccines of any flavor (not just COVID-19 versions) are medical procedures and are rarely a one-size-fits-all solution for all patients. The individual patient’s medical situation is considered. The physician providing informed consent that provides the patient the opportunity to make an educated decision also became scarce.
When politics intervened in the doctor-patient relationship and replaced it with popular opinion, trust was the first casualty. Trust in science, trust in government, and trust in personal decision-making were all eroded. Inconsistent statements and behaviors by leaders and institutions have not built confidence either.
A Personal Journey – Research
Many who know me know that I actually live the philosophies I espouse on this blog. Yep, the whole nutrition/exercise/mind & body thing.
Integrity is essential to who I am.
Without stepping up on an ideological soapbox, I want to briefly share my experience with the COVID-19 vaccine. (Spoiler alert: I don’t pick a side in the national debate about vaccines.)
From the start of the pandemic, I followed the science connected with the event. I read the far-from-exciting yet informative science journals. I also religiously avoid the popular press and social media accounts (aren’t they the same now?). It is interesting that I wasn’t reading objectively detached about some obscure disease but one that is at my own doorstep.
The risks of vaccines and/or COVID were mine. I have skin in this COVID game.
We all do.
A Personal Journey – Decision
The physician in me has been in charge from the beginning. When the vaccines arrived, I disqualified myself because I was not in the target group (65+ and/or immune compromised).
I kept studying and waiting.
Vaccines became available for those in their 50’s and immune compromised. Though I watched as public officials bragged about cutting to the front of the vaccination line, I am healthy and I could wait. I didn’t have the ego insecurities that supported such bullying behavior anyway.
Science began gathering evidence on the performance of vaccines in the population. There were risks along with the positive performances of the drugs. All of which I expected to see because risks/side effects are always present with any medication. Always.
With the crowds clamoring for social bragging rights and the majority of truly needful individuals vaccinated, and a vaccine mandate set out in front of my job security, I opted in for the double tap of Moderna.
I have weathered side effects from the vaccine, and I still have concerns about these effects in future. I also feel more comfortable with my contribution to public health.
From Here
I will still become infected with the novel coronavirus someday, but I will also present a COVID-tuned immune system to tackle the challenge. My preparations may or may not have been enough. Only the reality of an infection will tell.
My well-informed decision to vaccinate is mine alone to make. My personal medical history is part of my decision. Risks are part of living and although my risk adversity is personally pretty low (hey, I participate in sports that almost guarantee injuries), everyone is unique. Therefore, each person’s decision to vaccinate against COVID-19 is also unique.
Rounding the COVID-19 Vaccines Corner
COVID-19 is ongoing and there is no magic bullet that makes it go away. Preparing for the worst and hoping for the best is likely a solid approach to the challenge.
Are we rounding the corner on COVID vaccines? We are certainly seeing different ways people are responding to the pandemic. Some continue to be overly frightened by circumstances. Some have taken advantage of circumstances to bully others, which is an expression of their own fear. I believe there are also many who choose to quietly grow stronger from these challenging events. Adversity truly does reveal character and we can always choose a different character.
Therefore, an honest answer is that it depends on your perspective. The vaccination process is still abused by political leaders. However the vaccines appear to be useful in softening some of the spikes of expected increases in severe COVID cases as the virus establishes itself in the world population. Me, I’m happy to be getting older, wiser, and stronger in this pandemic. This outlook provides me with optimism and courage about the future. Or maybe it is the optimism that provides me with strength…
What’s your perspective?
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.
― Mark Twain
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