Should you get the Vaccine, or not?
The top story over the last (14) months has been the Pandemic and how it has impacted all of our lives. Many families are suffering terribly while others are flourishing. Keeping our immune systems healthy and trying to keep from going stir-crazy while confined to our homes has been our challenge each and every day. Yet, the pandemic continues to occupy every media airway you turn to.
There is conflicting information all over the news and I know it must be confusing and frustrating for many of you. I must get asked over a dozen times a day, “Doc, should I get the vaccine?”.
In answer to this question, there isn’t one answer that works for everyone. It depends. It depends on you, your current health status, your religious views, your family pressure and your world. So, it’s not an easy question for me to answer, because I don’t know your circumstances.
Do you have health issues? a compromised immune system? Do you have comorbidities that might prevent you from getting it? Are you HEALTHY enough to not get it? Have you already had COVID-19 and have antibodies? Do you have Anti-PEG antibodies? There are so many things to take in to consideration not just the fact that news media says to get it.
Do you have family that is pressuring you to get the vaccine, or holding back seeing you until you do?
Are you employed by a company that requires you to get vaccinated to keep your job?
As you all know, I prefer to focus on the data, rather than give you opinions. The CDC publishes daily, weekly and monthly statistics that I follow online, as well as many other medical journals.
How are American COVID-19 statistics compared to the Global statistics?
More than a year into the global pandemic, there’s a lot we still don’t know about COVID-19. But here’s one thing we do know: People who are obese, have hypertension, cardiovascular disease, or diabetes, fare far worse if they become infected. They are much more likely to be hospitalized. And they are far more likely to die. In fact, according to the CDC, 94% of COVID-19 deaths are linked to other “comorbidities.” Only 6% of COVID-19 deaths list COVID-19 as the sole cause of death.
Lets go back and re-read the end of that……In fact, according to the CDC, 94% of COVID-19 deaths are linked to other “comorbidities.” Only 6% of COVID-19 deaths list COVID-19 as the sole cause of death.
Since many of these comorbidities are largely preventable (and often reversible) with a whole foods diet and healthy daily lifestyle, it is not an exaggeration to say that the standard American diet has turbocharged the pandemic pushing us in to the limelight showing that we are the sickest nation amongst industrialized nations (which most healthcare practitioners have known for years).
The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, but in the first year of the pandemic, the US had 20% of the world’s reported COVID-19 deaths. How could the world’s wealthiest country, with arguably the most advanced (and certainly the most expensive) healthcare system on the planet, have fared so poorly?
The sober reality is that the United States has experienced the most deaths by far of any country in the world from COVID-19. The mortality rate from COVID-19 in the US is around 40% higher than in Europe. Is it a coincidence that the obesity rate in the US is also about 40% higher than in Europe? Or is it a clue to something we urgently need to understand?
In February 2021, a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that almost ⅔ of COVID-19 hospitalizations are attributable to four preexisting cardio-metabolic conditions: Obesity, Diabetes, Hypertension, and Cardiovascular disease.
Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, a cardiologist was one of the lead authors of the study. “It’s a sad fact,” he said when the study was published, “that this disease has been around for a whole year with millions dead and tens of millions hospitalized worldwide, and we haven’t addressed one of the major ways of preventing such severe outcomes… If individuals exercised a little more, and ate a bit more healthfully, we would see improvements in diabetes and hypertension in just a few weeks. We should be shouting this from the rooftops…”
What about the “Variances”?
As reported by Mary Petrone, Ph.D., and Nathan Grubaugh, assistant professor in the department of epidemiology and microbial diseases at Yale, in a March 2020 CNN Health article:
“A recent scientific article suggested that the novel coronavirus responsible for the Covid-19 epidemic has mutated into a more ‘aggressive’ form. Is this something we need to worry about? No, and here’s why …
The effects of mutation in real life are nuanced and generally innocuous. Using the idea of mutation to incite fear is harmful, especially in the midst of an epidemic like COVID-19 …
The genetic material of the virus is RNA, not DNA like in humans. Unlike with human DNA, when viruses copy their genetic material, it does not proofread its work. Because RNA viruses essentially operate without a spell-check, they often make mistakes.
These ‘mistakes’ are mutations, and viruses mutate rapidly compared to other organisms. While this might sound frightening, mistakes during replication usually produce changes that are neutral or even harmful to the newly generated virus. Neutral mutations, which neither improve nor hinder viruses' survival, may continue to circulate without any noticeable change in the people they infect.
Mutatons that are harmful to the viruses are less likely to survive and are eliminated through natural selection. Fortunately, when mutations occur that help a virus spread or survive better, they are unlikely to make a difference in the course of an outbreak.
Viral traits such as infectiousness and disease severity are controlled by multiple genes, and each of those genes may affect the virus' ability to spread in multiple ways. For example, a virus that causes severe symptoms may be less likely to be transmitted if infected people are sick enough to stay in bed.
As such, these traits are like blocks in a Rubik's cube; a change in one characteristic will change another. The chances of a virus navigating these complex series of trade-offs to become more severe during the short timescale of an outbreak are extremely low.”
How is the US vaccination proceeding and what are the outcomes?
As of today, according to data from the CDC, over 51 million, close to 17% of Americans, have been fully vaccinated.
Vaccinations are occurring every day with the goal of saving lives and stemming the pandemic, but there is a chance that fully vaccinated people can still receive a positive COVID-19 test and come down with the virus. Washington state just reported over 100 positive COVID cases after fully vaccinated individuals. We have to remember that even the pharmaceutical manufactures admit it will NOT prevent you from getting it, at best it MIGHT lessen the symptoms. So you really have to ask yourself if injecting yourself with an experimental vaccine is worth the risk depending on your own current situation.
According to U.S. drug regulators, Pfizer’s vaccine is 95% effective in preventing infection of the virus. Moderna’s was shown in a clinical trial to be 94.1% effective, while Johnson & Johnson’s was 66.9% effective. The percentages are for two weeks after the final vaccination.
How long will the vaccine protect those vaccinated?
As with most aspects of the virus, the answer is not completely clear. Why? Because although we have been battling the pandemic for more than a year, the vaccines were granted emergency use authorization relatively recently. So experts have not had time to observe their long-term effectiveness (again, no long term studies have been done to show safe OR effectiveness).
Federal health authorities have not provided a definitive answer to this question, but based on clinical trials, they know that vaccine-induced protection should last a minimum of about (3) months. In the real world, the protection should last a bit longer, though the length of time still needs to be determined with further studies (we have already seen patients have antibodies for over a year who had positive COVID). We know the best antibodies is always natural, meaning you get the virus full on or partially and your body identifies, signals and builds antibodies. We also know that once they are built they are lifelong so we assume, with great certainty, that the same will be true with COVID antibodies from POSITIVE individuals.
Immunity could also depend on what happens with future variants. If a person were exposed to a variant capable of evading vaccine-induced antibodies, a vaccine might not be as effective as initially expected.
Research is showing that people who had more severe cases developed a stronger immune reaction than those with milder forms of the disease.
All of that said, antibodies from vaccines will wane. And although it is a gradual process, once antibodies decline to a level that is no longer protective, reinfection is possible. I have a feeling COVID vaccine will be much like the flu vaccine where you need it yearly and it is 50/50 at best.
So far, evidence suggests the available vaccines are still effective against most variants, but that will change as the virus continues to mutate (remember, the job of a virus is to mutate and change to stay alive). As time passes, the current vaccines will become less effective, similar to the Flu vaccines that have been available since 1945.
The CDC reports, that the influenza vaccine was 45% effective against the 2019-2020 seasonal influenza A and B viruses. Specifically, the flu vaccine was 50% effective against influenza B and 37% effective against influenza A.
So, as you can see, it’s just a matter of time that COVID-19 vaccines will have a similar effectiveness as the virus mutates providing less and less immunity over time.
Several states have already seen infections among people who were fully vaccinated.
The Illinois Department of Public Health is tracking cases of individuals who have been vaccinated and test positive for COVID-19. According to IDPH, of the more than 1.6 million people who are fully vaccinated, 217 reported a positive test more than two weeks after their last vaccine dose.
In Washington state, Epidemiologists have found evidence of 102 breakthrough cases since Feb. 1 in the state who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Eight of the patients required hospitalization and two, both over 80 years old with underlying health issues, died. All contracted the virus more than two weeks after being fully vaccinated.
Fully vaccinated refers to people receiving both doses of the vaccines produced by Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech. A third option, from Johnson & Johnson, is a single dose and waiting the two weeks for full antibodies to develop as per manufacturer guidelines.
The cases are confirmed with a positive test. Investigators are now working to determine details on what happened.
Should you get vaccinated?
It’s a personal choice YOU need to make.
Its the same as saying “should I feed my kids sugar”? Its a personal choice, but the choice should come with highly informed information, not just because the news says so.
mRNA vaccines are a new type of vaccine to protect against infectious diseases. To trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Not mRNA vaccines. Instead, they are injected into our bodies, disguised to not be recognized, and trigger an immune response inside our bodies. That immune response, which produces antibodies, is what protects from getting infected if the real virus enters the body.
Under an EUA, the FDA may allow the use of unapproved medical products, or unapproved uses of approved medical products in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions when certain statutory criteria have been met, including that there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives.
I personally have been keeping my body healthy and my immune system strong to lower my risk of chronic disease that makes COVID-19 far more dangerous. The mRNA vaccine testing was administered to a small population of healthy individuals prior to being released for use under the (EUA) Emergency Use Authorization.
The choice is yours to make. Are you healthy? What kind of pressures are you getting from your family? From your employer? Your decision in this case is a very personal one, that no one can make but YOU!
What is our next step?
We need to concentrate more on strengthening our bodies’ natural defenses through healthy living. After all, eating well, and getting the right kind of exercise protects not only against this virus but every other infectious and chronic disease as well.
More attention needs to be paid to nutrition and what food and nutrients can help keep your body healthy and free of excess inflammation and chronic disease. This was important before we had a pandemic.
But it’s even more important now.
It’s imperative for you to protect yourself and your family from the four pre-existing cardio-metabolic conditions: Obesity, Diabetes, Hypertension, and Cardiovascular disease. By exercising more, and eating healthy, we can see improvements in diabetes and hypertension in just a few weeks.
If you feel you still need to get vaccinated, and you live in NJ….
As NJ’s Governor Murphy increases outdoor gathering limits and increases capacity for large venues, our restricted worlds are opening back up. If after reviewing the CDC statistics and information presented above and you still feel that the vaccine is right for you, I support you with love and respect and be here with open arms. This is not a situation where if you are “anti” or “pro” you will be shunned or treated differently, at the end of the day we are all in this together and we live in a country that we are free to make our OWN healthcare decisions free of anyone else’s pressure.