Why I'm Hesitant About Accepting the Vaccine

Well, the vaccine will soon be available to me, most likely in a few weeks. I'm a bit anxious about this. I don't believe that Bill Gates is inserting nano-technology to spy on us, or that covid is an overblown hoax, and I'm by no means an anti-vaxxer. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to discourage anyone from taking the vaccine if they feel it's the right choice, I mean, we are in a pandemic and desperate times call for desperate measures. I just think we need to question it a little and make our decisions carefully. Especially since the CDC has just announced that now we will now need three jabs and that vaccinated people can still catch and spread Covid 19. Yes, I understand that according to the latest reports the vaccine will curb the symptoms of the Delta variant and keep us out of the hospital and that this is the best modern science has to offer at the moment.

My fears, however, lie with the folly of the pharmaceutical industry and with the medical professionals who accept their dogma without question. And this, my readers, is from personal experience with medical and pharmaceutical industry. As you decide how to protect yourself from the Delta variant, I would encourage you to look at the track record of how American medicine has been practiced over the last few decades, and if you're not American, see if any of this parallels with practices in your own countries. I'm not here to tell anyone to refuse the vaccine, I just want all to accept that it might not be free of consequences......

In the 1920's Alexander Fleming opened the floodgates with the discovery of penicillin. He had no idea how his discovery would play out in the development of modern antibiotics some years later. Antibiotics are amazing drugs and thank God we have them so that people don't have to die from leprosy anymore. However, doctors began overprescribing them and it wasn't until the 1980's (I remember watching this on the news as a child) that scientists and doctors started to say "Hey, maybe it's not such a good idea to overuse these wonder drugs." The result of their overuse? Weakened natural immune systems among modern populations from relying on a medication to sort out illnesses and decreased bacteria in the gut necessary to maintain homeostasis in the body. Many developed Crohns, Ulcerative Colitis, IBS, and other autoimmune diseases as a result. I was amongst these as the child of a doctor who was a huge proponant of using anti-biotics willy nilly and I had an employer who's mother had been a nurse and did the same thing to her and her sister.

So a a few doctors made a few mistakes that cost a few people their health, so what?

I wish I could say it ends there with the medical industry in the US. I wish I could say that the pharmaceutical industry had learned from their mistakes, figured out how to rectify them, and moved on. I wish I could say I was offered better options to address my issues with ulcerative colitis. That was not the case for me or others I met in the same boat. The "reputable" gastroenterologist I was referred to in the Phoenix Metro area got me hooked on anti-inflammatories, claiming I would need to take them daily for the rest of my life. And as the problem became worse, it was recommended that I take Humiera (an immuneosuppresant iv) and steroids. Basically, weaken your immune system so it won't attack itself, rather than finding a way to support and redirect it. And I was offered very little in the direction of dietary advice as the doctor claimed "that's not what I do." Call me crazy, but if you have an issue with your gut, and a doctor that specializes in digestion has nothing to offer in the way of how to eat right, doesn't that seem a little off?

I'm so grateful I ditched this doctor. Was he getting kickbacks from the pharmaceutical industry, or did he honestly believe these drugs were a panacea of health? Either way, they're both scary concepts because the pharmaceutical industry was trying to get me hooked again while weakening my body and immune system. I eventually found holistic therapies and supplements that have enabled me to be drug free and much healthier. Please, don't ever let a medical professional tell you that it's hopeless! I almost did.

So you got a bad gastroenterologist. Nobody's perfect.

But wait there's more! I was one of the kids in the 1980's prescribed Ritalin for ADHD, as was every other kid at that time. Now, I'm not gonna say that ADHD, isn't real; there is science and physiology to back this and I certainly was struggling. And I'm not gonna lie, to this day, I still have to work hard to function in "normal civilization." What I will say is that drugs are not the only solution and when I was frustrated 13-year-old boy dealing with side effects, the psychologist suggested I take Cylert. I told him I wasn't comfortable switching drugs at that point. When my parents, frustrated with my behavior to no end brought me back two weeks later, I told him I'd give it a try. The psychologist responded "Oh I think that's a bad idea, I was just reading about some of the terrible side effects of Cylert." This guy was going to prescribe me a drug before he knew that much about it, like I was to be his guinea pig. Does that not sound like malpractice?

Had I not been given Ritalin everyday, multiple times per day for years while my body was still developing, I might be taller and might have learned a bit sooner how to work with my nervous system. I'll allow that I needed it here and there, or at least until a better solution could've been found, but the pharmaceutical industry sold it to my parents as the only solution and they ate it up. The psychologist told me "you'll be miserable and lonely for the rest of your life if you don't think of the medicine as your friend." Again, don't let a doctor manipulate you with absolutes. It's by studying energy medicine, craniosacral therapy, and meditation that I've learned how to keep from disassociating as a constant defense mechanism and find my place among the living.

So your psychologist made a mistake, grow up and move on! You had a few questionable experiences with doctors, join the club!

I won't waste too much of your time with vaccine conspiracy theories or autism linked to the Measles/Mumps/Rubella shot, or how the number of vaccines required has grown since the 1980's for children. In fact, my son's received many of them. I will say that I've seen toddlers have horrendous reactions to vaccines and become hospitalized. Some continue to carry the damage as they develop into adults. There are plenty of healthcare professionals who have these patients and I worked for one of them.

What really brought this home for me was my son's pediatrician. I trust her and she was very respectful of our decisions concerning our son's health. It was clear she would've preferred we give him all his vaccines at once, but she was agreed to administer them little by little. She told us he'd need his second MMR shot at age five. I asked "Does he really need a second one? Why?"

She said, "It ensures protection from Measles/Mumps/Rubella as ten percent of children don't get the full protection from the first vaccination."

"Isn't there a way to check that he has the protection so that we can avoid this?" I asked, brow a little furrowed.

"Well, you can get a blood titer and that should tell you." Why didn't she offer this information off the bat!? Wouldn't you want to spare your child another needle and more chemicals if possible? Let's just pump him up with more vaccines before checking if it's really necessary. It's practices like this that make me weary and suspicious of the way modern medicine is practiced.

If you don't see what I'm trying to say right now and how it relates to the current vaccines and the pandemic, I'll spell it out. Just because the medical industry create a standard, doesn't necessarily mean it's safe, effective, or the best/only option in the long run for each individual. And let's tell it like it is: pharmaceutical industries are businesses; they are there to profit first and assist second. It is for this reason that all patients must educate themselves and make the final call about their own health. Please understand that I sincerely believe modern, chemical medicine is 100% necessary; I simply question the way it's practiced.

We hear very little about treatments, developing cheaper and more conveinent testing methods, or research into non-chemical protection from covid. I know time is of the essence and we're all desperate to have unlimited human contact again, but I find it hard to believe that a vaccine is our only option. Or do we have to suck it up and accept that the possibility exists that we may have to deal with some side effects down the road? We need to be ready to accept that.

I accept that I may have to take this vaccine, especially if I want to go back to America and visit my family again. Nor do I want to discourage anyone from taking it if they believe it's the right choice. Furthermore, if a vaccine is the wrong choice for you, PLEASE WEAR A MASK AND GET TESTED REGULARLY. And I'm glad my parents have taken it and were I elderly or without a small child, I wouldn't think twice about having a jab. But given my experiences, I feel I have every right to act cautiously.

My experience has been that the medical and pharmaceutical industries, at least in the US, have a terrible track record for the patients' best interests. I'm completely certain that I'm not alone in having experienced shady treatment by American medicine, been treated more like a customer than a human, or been gaslit by doctors and the pharmacutical industry because I didn't like the way their drugs were making me feel. It's crystal clear that the health ministries around the world are not completely certain themselves as to the best route for protecting us. And how could they be? This is an uprecedented problem and they're only human. So please, be careful, be mindful, and be willing to accept that even if the vaccine is the best or only option, there could be consequences. Stay safe and take care of your friends, loved ones, and neighbors. We all need each other's support right now, even if we don't see eye to eye in how that support should appear.