Don’t agree with any ‘blanket’ recommendation even if people are over 65. There has never been full informed consent which for medics and public health authorities equates to complicit guilt. It’s time for the business (efficacy / necessity) of all vaccines to be looked at. A good start would be removing all liability clauses for manufacturers. Peace
Just a random thought that the overuse of the vaccine is consistent with the American tradition of overuse of every pharmaceutical from antidepressants to antibiotics so this should surprise no one. The corrupting influence of big pharma on doctors and the public that all their products are good for us and the more the better without critical thinking of the risks and benefits as well as data proving their real safety and effectiveness is tragic and dangerous.
Agree. I think that it is a symbiotic relationship: Pharmaceutical industry is profit driven and pushes more and more. US culture is aggressive and asks for more and more. But yes, we overdue a lot.
This article is spot on. And the principle it targets is pervasive among North American guideline writers, and seemingly crosses specialties: that being a focus on simplicity and “knowledge translation”, at the expense of accuracy and fidelity to the foundational evidence.
This has been rampant in cardiology for at least the past 10 years. Everyone with HFrEF needs to be on triple, and now quadruple “foundational therapy”, never mind that the undergirding studies had different EF and functional class inclusion criteria. Every HCM pt with an apical aneurysm, EF<50, or LGE > 15% on CMR, needs an ICD regardless of their ESC HCM SCD risk score. All based on either bupkis, or egregious extrapolation of data, and all in service of “keep it simple, stupid”. (I was tickled when the Europeans in their 2023 cardiomyopathy guidelines gave the ACC an open handed slap down of their “new” HCM risk criteria).
For the healthy skeptic/ novice cynic like me, this is a sorry state of affairs. Gone are the days when major (North American ) society guidelines could be relied upon as a compendium of the state of the science; these days it’s more a summary of an (at times secretive) agenda.
One of the biggest differences in those European countries is that they have national health care systems and so the government is paying for healthcare and they don't want to pay for what they don't need. In the US money is made from healthcare and so getting everyone to get the vaccine is a huge money maker for Pharma which is the largest lobbying group in DC!
The truth is that there is no such thing as "Covid". Anyone that doubts this simply hasn't done their homework. Read the initial paper out of Wuhan claiming that they "isolated" a novel coronavirus. They did no such thing. They suctioned some bronchial secretions from one sick patient, took some short strands of nucleotides, and plugged them into a computer that formulated a number of genomes from them. These are called in silico genomes. Virologists seem to have a peculiar definition of "isolation". Some investigators sent requests to the CDC and many other labs around the world asking for any evidence of isolated or purified Covid cultures. All responded that they had no such evidence.
What we have had are seasonal upper respiratory infections that may or may not be due to viruses. Every year a number of vulnerable people (mostly frail elderly or immunologically compromised) die in a cascade of illnesses that were started off by the URI. Some years are worse than others. The death rate in 2020 was well within this range of variation. No treatment has ever been shown to be effective and no vaccine has ever been shown to have any preventive action.
Maybe it's time also to drop the blanket recommendation for those over 65. That's somewhat of an arbitrary number. As someone who falls into that category--( and yes, in response to your remark about 72 year olds not knowing whether they are above 65, most of us can count)-- I am wary of boosters. I had a frightening reaction (near paralysis) to the second covid shot; and then developed a rash named "covid arm" after my first booster. Though above 65, unless the situation changes with me or with the virus, I do not plan to get any further covid shots!
The CDC, FDA, and HHS are lost causes. They have no credibility remaining, and I do not see any way they can rehabilitate their reputation. It would be best to put them out of their misery and wipe them off the face of this earth, certainly out of this country. Maybe take Big Pharma and Big Health with them. Those in these organizations responsible for the damage done to the people they were to protect need to be indicted and tried, and if convicted, relieved of all their ill-gotten gains and face any punishment set by the court, up to and including the rope. #NoAmnesty #NeverForget #NoQuarter
"We have reached out to those who experienced severe adverse reactions and are urgently researching therapeutics and ways to make future vaccines safer.
We stand behind the public health idea that 'We're all in this together!' and therefore urge Congress to pass HR 5142, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Modernization Act and then work to remove liability protection from vaccine manufacturers. How else will they be held accountable for patient safety?
Thankfully for those who experienced complications, we live in a country with an ethical, compassionate approach to vaccine injuries and would never dream of abandoning, minimizing, or gaslighting them, or leaving them with crushing medical bills and ruined lives. That would be wrong. And any public health system that behaves in such a manner should be immediately disbanded and rebuilt with firewalls against pharma influence that puts patient safety after profits."
Seriously, anyone on Team Humanity: would you take 5 min to call your reps in DC and ask them to support vaccine injury compensation reform? We currently have no functioning safety net.
You can read the true stories of injured people, read over 3000 published studies on injuries, and get talking points for how to approach your reps here: react19.org
The US response to covid vax-injured people is one of the worst in the world. The politicians will only care when enough people tell them to. So, please, speak up for them.
Your italicized statement would be heaven. 65 might even be too young. Certainly 80 year olds should get the jab, or you know, figure they lived a long life and pneumonia, or other respiratory illness, might just be an old human’s friend, like I heard in medical school years ago. Beyond that, people should just do what they want.
I'm 79 years old. Healthy female and do not plan to have ANY vaccine this year. My PCP will be very upset. I appreciate your statement that people should do what they want.
I agree with many of the other commenters who feel you have overstated the performance of these vaccines. I am a practicing primary care physician. my first question for patients is “have you had Covid?“. I advise people strongly against the shots if they have had Covid as they most certainly have better immunity from the actual illness than the vaccines. I personally don’t feel strongly that anyone should get this latest booster. It’s been quite a few months since I have recommended these vaccines to anyone.
Don’t agree with any ‘blanket’ recommendation even if people are over 65. There has never been full informed consent which for medics and public health authorities equates to complicit guilt. It’s time for the business (efficacy / necessity) of all vaccines to be looked at. A good start would be removing all liability clauses for manufacturers. Peace
Just a random thought that the overuse of the vaccine is consistent with the American tradition of overuse of every pharmaceutical from antidepressants to antibiotics so this should surprise no one. The corrupting influence of big pharma on doctors and the public that all their products are good for us and the more the better without critical thinking of the risks and benefits as well as data proving their real safety and effectiveness is tragic and dangerous.
Agree. I think that it is a symbiotic relationship: Pharmaceutical industry is profit driven and pushes more and more. US culture is aggressive and asks for more and more. But yes, we overdue a lot.
This article is spot on. And the principle it targets is pervasive among North American guideline writers, and seemingly crosses specialties: that being a focus on simplicity and “knowledge translation”, at the expense of accuracy and fidelity to the foundational evidence.
This has been rampant in cardiology for at least the past 10 years. Everyone with HFrEF needs to be on triple, and now quadruple “foundational therapy”, never mind that the undergirding studies had different EF and functional class inclusion criteria. Every HCM pt with an apical aneurysm, EF<50, or LGE > 15% on CMR, needs an ICD regardless of their ESC HCM SCD risk score. All based on either bupkis, or egregious extrapolation of data, and all in service of “keep it simple, stupid”. (I was tickled when the Europeans in their 2023 cardiomyopathy guidelines gave the ACC an open handed slap down of their “new” HCM risk criteria).
For the healthy skeptic/ novice cynic like me, this is a sorry state of affairs. Gone are the days when major (North American ) society guidelines could be relied upon as a compendium of the state of the science; these days it’s more a summary of an (at times secretive) agenda.
One of the biggest differences in those European countries is that they have national health care systems and so the government is paying for healthcare and they don't want to pay for what they don't need. In the US money is made from healthcare and so getting everyone to get the vaccine is a huge money maker for Pharma which is the largest lobbying group in DC!
Yeah, I think they're at least doing the work to consider the best policy based on the evidence.
The truth is that there is no such thing as "Covid". Anyone that doubts this simply hasn't done their homework. Read the initial paper out of Wuhan claiming that they "isolated" a novel coronavirus. They did no such thing. They suctioned some bronchial secretions from one sick patient, took some short strands of nucleotides, and plugged them into a computer that formulated a number of genomes from them. These are called in silico genomes. Virologists seem to have a peculiar definition of "isolation". Some investigators sent requests to the CDC and many other labs around the world asking for any evidence of isolated or purified Covid cultures. All responded that they had no such evidence.
What we have had are seasonal upper respiratory infections that may or may not be due to viruses. Every year a number of vulnerable people (mostly frail elderly or immunologically compromised) die in a cascade of illnesses that were started off by the URI. Some years are worse than others. The death rate in 2020 was well within this range of variation. No treatment has ever been shown to be effective and no vaccine has ever been shown to have any preventive action.
Yes. Yes, we do want our doctors to ignore the CDC
Maybe it's time also to drop the blanket recommendation for those over 65. That's somewhat of an arbitrary number. As someone who falls into that category--( and yes, in response to your remark about 72 year olds not knowing whether they are above 65, most of us can count)-- I am wary of boosters. I had a frightening reaction (near paralysis) to the second covid shot; and then developed a rash named "covid arm" after my first booster. Though above 65, unless the situation changes with me or with the virus, I do not plan to get any further covid shots!
Surely that message is not moving towards the truth?
Target population 6m<X<65y more than 250M.
20$ for the jab plus 20$ (or more?) for the overall cost of getting it done, it's 10B$.
For the sake of simplicity.
This is a joke.
The CDC, FDA, and HHS are lost causes. They have no credibility remaining, and I do not see any way they can rehabilitate their reputation. It would be best to put them out of their misery and wipe them off the face of this earth, certainly out of this country. Maybe take Big Pharma and Big Health with them. Those in these organizations responsible for the damage done to the people they were to protect need to be indicted and tried, and if convicted, relieved of all their ill-gotten gains and face any punishment set by the court, up to and including the rope. #NoAmnesty #NeverForget #NoQuarter
Missing from the hypothetical CDC statement:
"We have reached out to those who experienced severe adverse reactions and are urgently researching therapeutics and ways to make future vaccines safer.
We stand behind the public health idea that 'We're all in this together!' and therefore urge Congress to pass HR 5142, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Modernization Act and then work to remove liability protection from vaccine manufacturers. How else will they be held accountable for patient safety?
Thankfully for those who experienced complications, we live in a country with an ethical, compassionate approach to vaccine injuries and would never dream of abandoning, minimizing, or gaslighting them, or leaving them with crushing medical bills and ruined lives. That would be wrong. And any public health system that behaves in such a manner should be immediately disbanded and rebuilt with firewalls against pharma influence that puts patient safety after profits."
Seriously, anyone on Team Humanity: would you take 5 min to call your reps in DC and ask them to support vaccine injury compensation reform? We currently have no functioning safety net.
Here's the need: https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/insult-injured-case-modernizing-vaccine-injury-compensation
This is the proposed (bipartisan) legislation: https://doggett.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-doggett-files-legislation-modernize-vaccine-injury-compensation-program
You can read the true stories of injured people, read over 3000 published studies on injuries, and get talking points for how to approach your reps here: react19.org
The US response to covid vax-injured people is one of the worst in the world. The politicians will only care when enough people tell them to. So, please, speak up for them.
Thank you.
Your italicized statement would be heaven. 65 might even be too young. Certainly 80 year olds should get the jab, or you know, figure they lived a long life and pneumonia, or other respiratory illness, might just be an old human’s friend, like I heard in medical school years ago. Beyond that, people should just do what they want.
I'm 79 years old. Healthy female and do not plan to have ANY vaccine this year. My PCP will be very upset. I appreciate your statement that people should do what they want.
I agree with many of the other commenters who feel you have overstated the performance of these vaccines. I am a practicing primary care physician. my first question for patients is “have you had Covid?“. I advise people strongly against the shots if they have had Covid as they most certainly have better immunity from the actual illness than the vaccines. I personally don’t feel strongly that anyone should get this latest booster. It’s been quite a few months since I have recommended these vaccines to anyone.
I think no one needs the covid jabs.
Amen. If only we had reasonable and moral physicians and scientists in charge of our vaccine policies...