COMMENTARY: The great vaccine debate

The story of human existence is one filled with phenomenon both natural and manmade. These include but are not limited to; hurricanes, pandemics, wars, triumphs, defeats, discoveries and technological advancements. The need to survive and to gain a survival advantage ironically have led to our greatest innovation and discoveries. As I observe the heated debate on whether to vaccinate or not to vaccinate in the face of the global pandemic, I cannot help but reflect on the purpose of life and the formal and informal education I have gained so far. I have also gained a profound appreciation for obtaining information from trusted and credible sources, the importance of truth, transparency and facts, and the destructive power of false and misleading information. Today, the vetted information from traditional sources such as churches and schools holds more value than ever before. Educators, religious ministers, politicians, the media, have to re-double their efforts at ensuring that information disseminated to the masses is truthful and serves the purpose of informing and advancing mankind for the greater good.

Published historical information indicated that, the bubonic plague also known as the Black Death, killed tens of millions of people across Europe in the 1300s. Pestilence was traced as far back as the late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age. Written text indicates that this period was marked by cultural evolution, domestication of animals and plants and settlement in permanent communities. Pestilence such as Measles, Smallpox, Whooping Cough, Typhoid fever, among others, have wreaked havoc on human populations. The commonalities of these pandemics of old and what we see today is that the spread is dependent on human to human or animal to human contact and movement of infected people and animals into new areas. In the 1300s, quarantine and isolation was therefore the method used to stop the spread of the plague that ravaged Europe. Like today, there were those who survived the onslaught of the plague and may have developed some form of resistance.

Subsequent epidemics/pandemics, increase in knowledge of bacteria and viruses, and ultimately the innate instinct to survive led to the discovery and development of vaccines. Although the basic principle of immunization was used in the far east to treat diseases for centuries, according to recorded literature, the first vaccine was developed in the west to treat smallpox in 1798. There are varying factors that make a new virus or bacteria lethal and one of these is the absence of the proteins/antibodies created by our immune system to fight these diseases. Vaccination is essentially a practice of training our immune system to create the antibodies to fight a particular virus or bacteria without getting us sick. To me it sounds like accelerating a process that takes a longer time in nature thereby decreasing the probability of large loss of human life. In the absence of a vaccine for any new pestilence, the good old practice of quarantine and isolation is all we have. The spread today, like the stone age, depends on human contact all enhanced by technological leaps through the centuries in speed and ease of travel. The faster we get from one part of the hemisphere to another so goes the spread. It is therefore only natural that the speed of vaccine development match the speed of transmission in the natural balance of life.

In all this I am left to ask; What if viruses and bacteria serve as a check on overpopulation? It is a known fact that all living organism growth within a community will eventually lead to self-destruction due to shortage of space and food and the accumulation of waste to removal of waste ratio. If that community does not evolve it is a sure way to extinction or some may say equilibrium. To ensure continuation of life there must be migration in and out of that community, adaptation to other food sources and environments and the elimination or recycling of waste. Even then new environments can be just as destructive as pestilence. What if the presence of microbes like the plague and COVID serves as drivers of the continued evolution of all life forms? It is clear that while some will die, others survive and eventually develop new antibodies for the fight. These new antibodies are then passed on in off springs. After all, there are still large human populations in Europe, China, India, Africa and the Americas all of which at some point in time have experience some sort of pandemic that have resulted in millions of deaths.

The debate to vaccinate or not to vaccinate seems to me to be a natural part of the survival instincts of humans within a community. Some migrate out of the population to ensure their survival while others are afraid of the unknown and look for justification to remain in the current comfort. The fact is ultimately we all will go through death and the vaccine serves as an opportunity to increase our probability of surviving the current pestilence. Vaccination has allowed man to influence the natural selection process through increase in technology, driven by the innate need to survive. While many will get a pass from the vaccine, many more will die from war, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and other ailments. Increase population density means increased contact and competition for space, resources and increase waste production. The spread of the virus from human to human and its ability to mutate is not so different to our existence and our ability to adjust to an environment. It is the basic drive of the continuation of life in the face of ever-present possibility of extinction. What puzzles me is why isn’t mankind using that same enthusiasm to fight poverty, global warming and all the other global human moral plagues that has caused the death of millions.

As the pandemic rages on and the debate over vaccination continue, I would suggest that individuals make informed decisions in that respect. Science and knowledge are the gift we have to survive this biosphere and morality is the guide to co-exist in balance. We are controlled by the biological and other natural forces of nature and there are those among us who spend their lives understanding these forces for the benefit of mankind. Today the dissemination of information from traditionally trusted sources such as the institutions of higher learning, churches and governments need to be truthful, transparent and honest and most of all meant to serve the greater humanity. I believe the debate we see today is a symptom of the deterioration of the trust in those institutions where facts become insignificant.