7-Quick Takes

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1. I am opting not to get the COVID -19 vaccine. I already had COVID back during Thanksgiving. My entire household did. We had sore throats, coughing, fatigue, loss of taste and smell, and headaches. I was the only one with a fever of 100.4. I also had intense itching on my back when I tried to work out on my elliptical (which I did the first two days after symptoms started). So knowing that I had a mild case, and knowing that the vaccine is supposed to protect against severe disease, it doesn’t make any sense to take it.

Also unknown is how well the vaccines will work in people who have already had COVID-19. All three studies excluded people with prior COVID-19 infection, although Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca plan to look at this in a separate analysis.

2. There have been reports that people who have had COVID have had severe reactions to the first shot. Anecdotally, I know of a young 22-year-old paramedic who had COVID. Three days into his disease, he was doing Cross Fit! But a few months later he got the shot because his employer wanted him to. His reaction was so severe that his parents were asking for prayers and taking him to the emergency room. Again, since my experience with the actual disease was no worse than a bad cold or a flu, why would I opt to take a vaccination that could make me severely ill. No thank you.

3. This is not really a vaccine, although it’s been nick-named that way. This is really cellular engineering. It works by making your cellular mitochondria produce a protein that it has never produced before.

From the CDC:

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines give instructions for our cells to make a harmless piece of what is called the “spike protein.” The spike protein is found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19.

https://healthydebate.ca/2020/12/topic/the-known-unknowns-of-covid-19-vaccines/

Experts have taken to social media to quell misinformation and address common concerns about Pfizer’s messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine, performing an important public service in support of robust vaccine uptake. However, some scientific information is being oversimplified to the point that it is misleading. The public’s decision to take a vaccine whose long-term risks are unclear should be a well-informed one. Clear communication is crucial to the process of informed consent and for building public trust in the fight against vaccine hesitancy.

https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/01/upholding-the-principles-of-informed-consent-in-the-fight-against-vaccine-hesitancy.html

Long-term, this is worrisome to me, especially since I have a family history of cancer in three first-degree relatives and have an auto-immune disorder anyway. Again, since this disease was so mild for me, I’d rather take a wait-and-see approach to how others manage with the shot a year or two into the future.

4. Variants of the virus become more contagious. They don’t become more lethal.

5. I’m a skeptical person. I have become more so as my trust has been broken a few times over the years. There was a polio vaccine given to us as children back in the 60s that may have put adults at increased risk of cancer. Whether the increase in cancer risk is true or not, one thing is certain – the vaccines were contaminated. So maybe that’s part of where my skepticism comes from.

6. I don’t believe that we have given treatments enough of a try, putting all of our eggs into the vaccine basket. If we could fast track testing and vaccines, I have to wonder why treatments to be given in the early stages of the vaccine haven’t gotten an equal share of attention.

7. We haven’t focused at all on health preservation. We know that COVID hits obese people hardest, yet I have never heard a public official or health proponent urging people to lose weight to lower the risk. My family and I are working on our own risks by maintaining a healthy weight or losing weight, eating a healthy diet, and getting plenty of exercise. Those are things I can control.