For memorial weekend Fred and I discuss the challenge of vaccine resistance in the US and around the world, some of the history behind the myths, snake-oil, mis and dis-information that circulates misleading people. We address the safety concerns that some have and highlight the long scientific foundation of the vaccines (On the Shoulders of Giants — From Jenner’s Cowpox to mRNA Covid Vaccines) we are using and why we consider them safe and have had our vaccination, and you should to.
The first major vaccine-related advance occurred in 1796, when Edward Jenner, a physician working in southern England, found that an animal virus (cowpox) could protect against disease caused by a human virus (smallpox)
Raw Transcript
Nick van TerheydenÂ
Hi, this is Dr. Nick, I’m the incrementalist here with incremental insights for better business, better health.
Fred GoldsteinÂ
And I’m Fred Goldstein, with accountable health here helping employers work on their employee benefits programs and overall improvement of employee health. So Nick, we got a lot of vaccine out there. But we’re beginning to run up against this issue of vaccine hesitancy, your thoughts? Well, so
Nick van TerheydenÂ
first of all, let’s sort of talk about that watershed moment of who would have thunk it, we reached an excess of vaccine that exceeds the demand. I don’t, you know, just the fact that that’s the case is extraordinary. Unfortunately, for some of the wrong reasons, it’s not that we don’t have the people to vaccinate. But because there is resistance. And, you know, let me divide up a couple of sort of strands on this. First of all, understand resistance, you know, if you don’t know what’s going on, you know, just accepting things is very difficult for people. And we’ve even seen in the healthcare space, a little bit more of a struggle for me, because I would expect folks to be in the healthcare space, I’m even talking clinical professionals who are saying, I’m not having this vaccine. And some of that’s to do with, or at least I believe, this perception that this is, you know, it’s happened too quickly. There’s no way that this can be safe, we haven’t removed all the risk. Well, it doesn’t matter how long we continue to test things out, we can never remove all the risk number one, number two, that forget that this is essentially a solution that has been built on the shoulders of giants. And by that I mean, going back as far as Jenna’s cow pox, which that was 1796 Edward Jenner, working in the south of England found that an animal virus cowpox could protect against disease caused by human virus, but the word virus unknown, the word parts, the new parts, because, you know, that was essentially a descriptive term. You know, in the good old days when medicine was really descriptive, you knew. And to be clear, many of the anatomical terms I learned are essentially sourced out of Latin. So the acid tabulation, which is where the hip sits in, acid tabula is a bowl, and it looks exactly like a ball. Anyway. So we’ve got, you know, this incredible progress from people that didn’t even understand that back in 1796. And then we’ve had all these innovations we’ve learned each and every time the most recent, that’s relevant to us is this messenger RNA vaccine. And we knew about those A number of years ago, thanks to the dog eared determination of some researchers who just wouldn’t give up on this. But what they got together with another organization and some other researchers was a method of delivering the problem with messenger RNA is it’s sort of it gets chewed up in the body, they found a way to sort of deliver it successfully. So this is not a vaccine, that’s 12 months, six months, or whatever you want to call it. This is a vaccine that’s hundreds of years in the development, everything that we learned, including all the mistakes and understand we’ve had challenges, we’ve had problems, but we learn from all of that. So understand that and apply that to the thinking and to be clear, I know you have I have my whole family has in fact, my family represents the full spectrum of vaccination we’ve had every one that’s legally valid in the in the United States, we’ve got a full study, albeit it’s a small end, but it is. So that’s part one. Part Two, is the folks who just seem to be I don’t know how to how can I politely describe them? They don’t seem to, I don’t know what their reality consists of. They are believing information that is pushed out by folks who have a vested interest, typically financial, let’s pick, you know, the non physician who was struck off the register, who created much of the measles, MMR resistance based on a study that was 12 children. And he falsified the data. And he had a financial interest in the outcome. And in terms of the treatment, and that’s essentially the big people that are pushing out this information, have a vested interest, there’s 12 of them. And what are they care? Well, they want you to buy Jade eggs to stick in places, and I just and what a struggle for me is this is damaging, because we need to vaccinate as many people around the world as possible. We cannot afford this resistance.
Fred GoldsteinÂ
Yeah, it’s really interesting to see a year plus into this. And the vaccines have been going through all their tests, etc. And then to have somebody come out like this gentleman in California with the orange county board of supervisors who asked the physician in Orange County, does it track. Is there any intention of tracking folks? The orange county health care agency director said nope. There is no intention of tracking folks with vaccine passports. And he said, the supervisor then said, Is there any in the vaccine? We heard about the injection of a tracking device? Is that being done anywhere in Orange County? So imagine that some people will listen to that. And they believe it.
Nick van TerheydenÂ
It’s a complete irresponsibility, anybody that is in any position to be perpetuating those kind of myths. Stop watching TV and science fiction series. If we could do that stuff, we’d be doing it a long time ago, but we’re not. And to be honest, the coordination of sticking things into needles, just watch the process, how would you know which chip got injected into you. So let’s be clear, there is no basis. But it is the responsibility of people to make sure that they perpetuate facts. And if I had one piece of advice that I think I try and live by, always have a level below anything that you’re going to share as an expert. So whenever I share an article, I read the original story, not the media story or the media headline. And if you don’t do that, you’re doing a disservice to all of your fellow mankind.
Fred GoldsteinÂ
So it’s go to the source. That’s what’s important and understand the relevance of that source and understand also, when you look at scientific articles, etc, you’ll see the limitations of the study. If they’re any good. They’ll talk about what it does say or potentially says, and some reasons why there may be issues with it in the limitation section.
Nick van TerheydenÂ
And I’m not, you know, I’m just an ordinary physician, I don’t have a virology, background, immunology, all of those and all of these people are contributing, and I pay attention to all of them and try and distill some of that. But here’s what I would say about the papers. I just did the count today, because I was curious. I have 506 papers that I’ve read over the past year. So that’s information that I’ve consumed, digested, you know, and made some determination based on the statistical analysis, the validity of those studies, not all as good or you know, and I try and disseminate that extraordinarily carefully, because I think it’s really important to disseminate information that is as accurate as it can be at the time that is disseminated.
Fred GoldsteinÂ
Absolutely. And we appreciate you looking at all of those 506 studies, Nick, that’s incredible. So this is Fred Goldstein with the cannibal health thank you so much for listening this week. If you’d like more information, please go to a cannibal health LLC calm.
Nick van TerheydenÂ
And this is Dr. Nick on the incrementalist here with incremental insights for better business, better health.
