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I have read many opinions and listened to many people over the last few months concerning COVID-19 vaccination. Some people see no real justification for not taking the vaccines and many go even further and support mandating of the vaccine. Some of these persons are quick to dismiss others who are reluctant to take the COVID-19 vaccine and describe them as selfish, unthinking, insane, among other unflattering adjectives.<\/p>\n
But I can\u2019t just dismiss those who do not wish to take a vaccine, especially those vaccines that use the new technology involving placing DNA instructions into the body to cause cells to produce the spike protein of the corona virus. This technology is used in the AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.<\/p>\n
Clearly these vaccines work in the short term! and the short-term side effects of the vaccines appear to be worth the short-term benefits. For the most part, I buy these arguments. Let us accept that the vaccines work in the short term.\u00a0 Many people have accepted that after having followed the reports around the world about how the vaccines have thus far contributed to a reduction in deaths and severe illness from COVID-19 and some people have decided to take a COVID-19 vaccine based on these short-term observations, so let us all acknowledge that remaining vaccine hesitancy is not mostly about the short-term efficacy of the vaccines or short-term side effects.\u00a0 Yet many who are currently arguing for making the vaccine mandatory, point to these now mostly irrelevant issues related to misinformation concerning efficacy of the virus and the side effects and I suppose by \u201cefficacy\u201d they mean short-term efficacy although many appear to avoid arguments concerning long-term efficacy.\u00a0 This is perhaps dishonesty and I see that dishonesty displayed by many Caribbean leaders and others who argue for COVID-19 mandates.\u00a0 If it is not dishonesty, then it is intolerance or conceit \u2013 intolerance of the views of others and conceit or arrogance that they are right and others are wrong.\u00a0 I say intolerance because the jury is still out on the long-term efficacy of the vaccines and as a result there is no place for intolerance on that matter! This is a time for reasoning.\u00a0 People should not be forced to take a vaccine which they think could have severe long-term efficacy challenges when there is no scientific information to refute that.\u00a0 I have heard some argue that vaccines are such that if there are no adverse effects within a few months of use, then there is unlikely to be long-term adverse effects!\u00a0 That likely holds for vaccines that use traditional technology, but we can\u2019t apply that to those vaccines that use the new technology.\u00a0 Where there is such doubt, it would be unethical to mandate a vaccine!\u00a0 There are credible arguments doubting the long-term efficacy of the vaccines that use the new technology. I have not been able to dismiss these arguments because there are no credible rebuttals to them in my view, and if anything, many of the professionals who encourage everyone to take the vaccines, including PAHO and WHO officials, appear not to raise the matter concerning the long-term efficacy, and perhaps they do so conveniently.<\/p>\n
Now, all economies around the globe have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and I understand the anxiety of governments to have this thing go away. \u00a0The lock downs have affected the bottom lines of many businesses.\u00a0 Many are of the view that the only way for economies and businesses to return to normal is through mass vaccination! So, many businesses have already been requiring their employees to be vaccinated or else lose their jobs. Some Caribbean governments have already moved in that direction with respect to some categories of public workers and others will likely follow suit. But while I understand the predicament that the world is facing, I cannot support either businesses or governments making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory.\u00a0 Instead, I appeal for good senses to prevail.\u00a0 Governments should have totally honest discussions with their people and they should not conveniently withhold any information simple because they are anxious to boost their economies.\u00a0 Let people make their choices on this matter given where the science is at!<\/p>\n
Dominicans, we must reject any attempt to mandate COVID-19 vaccines in Dominica but I encourage you to make an informed choice.\u00a0 If you take a risk, take it with your eyes wide open! But I, for one, will not let anyone force me into doing anything that I think has the potential to be detrimental to me or to the wider society.\u00a0 At this stage, I am inclined to take a COVID-19 vaccine that uses traditional technology \u2013 that is a vaccine that uses an inactivated corona virus to train the body\u2019s own immune system to react. Meanwhile I am following all the COVID-19 protocols and I am boosting my immune system. Let us continue the discussion next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have read many opinions and listened to many people over the last few months concerning COVID-19 vaccination. Some people see no real justification for not taking the vaccines and many go even further and support mandating of the vaccine….","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":272890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,265,235,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-covid-19","category-homepage-carousel","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n