I am not a person who trusts things blindly. I have spent the morning vaccinating and came across two people who had some reservations about being vaccinated. After a discussion with them about the benefits as well as the risks that they were concerned about, both had the vaccine.
In medicine, I have had my own views which have gone against the advice at the time, examples being how atenolol was recommended as the best drug for the treatment hypertension in the past, and how when my wife was pregnant with our first child, she was advised to avoid peanut butter in pregnancy. I know that I cannot trust any government fully which is why I did my own research into MMR safety (for the record, I feel any potential risks of the MMR vaccination are small and are outweighed by the huge risks of not having the vaccination, including consequences of infections with rubella, mumps and measles that I have seen).
So I understand that there is doubt when it comes to trusting the government when it comes to COVID-19. A matter made worse by how advice given early in the pandemic is different to the advice now. But that change in policy has been driven by greater knowledge about this plague.
What I do not understand is the need to spread likes and half truths about this.
On example is about how Dr Elisa Granato, one of the first people in the Western World to be given a vaccine against COVID-19 in a trial died. Since her 'death' she has continued to discuss the valuable work she has done to fight this disease.
Other examples exists as well, one being a woman who had foot problems, though the people who post the link between this and her vaccine, omit how she was in the control group.
There are also those who seek to make a profit from the 'cures' for this. One example is Mike Lindell seemingly trying to profit from Oleandrin, which he has promoted as a cure against COVID. Much like how Forsythia was promoted as a fake cure in the film contagion by the conspiracy theorist Alan Krumwiede in the film. In a previous blog post, I cited the issues I had with a video spread to spread misinformation about COVID. At the end of that video, people can find out more, by buying the book published by the Vlogger. Strange that.
One patient did mention that it is just like the flu. Living and working in the UK, I can point out that with over 120,000 deaths due to this illness, it is not just like influenza. In addition to this, influenza does not have people requiring oxygen, CPAP or ventilation for so long, let alone the long term effects like Long COVID.
The facts are simple. We know vaccination works against the original strain of COVID-19 and offers partial protection against several of the variants that now exist.
We know that variants need to spread once formed and facemasks reduce the risk of spread (look at the rates in nations where use is highest). In a nation like Taiwan, if someone is infected and the virus mutates, because most people stick to the rules, the odds of that mutation spreading are low and therefore, the virus dies either when that person dies, or when they fight of the disease. However, in nations like the UK and the USA where rates per person have been higher, variants have formed and spread, and the refusal/inability of some people to isolate themselves is going to be a factor.
We can believe those who seek to profit from COVID-19 lies, or we can look at the facts and see how nations abroad have reached zero, or almost zero COVID levels by following the rules of social distancing and mask wearing.
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