SOMETHING TO SAY

I was concerned that neither Tony or I hadn’t posted anything to the blog in a few months. I was afraid it was too long between posts. Is it ok to do that, or should there be a regular schedule between posts? My family told me otherwise. Joshua Scharfstein, MD. John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine, Vice Dean of Public Health Practice & Community Engagement Professor of the Practice, told my son Ryan one day, “you write when you have something to say”. I wanted to write this for awhile, but life had other plans for me and my focus wasn’t there. I’m going to start this post with some public health thoughts, a political observation, then finish with part of what I would say if I had to give my last lecture.

Public Health – My last duty as a member of the United States Air Force Reserve was as an EPLO (Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer).  During that time, we planned for 3 major scenarios. 1) a 10K bomb in a major city, 2) the New Madrid Fault and 3) a pandemic. For some reason I don’t think we (This Country) were as well prepared for COVID as we could have, should have been.

If you haven’t received the COVID vaccine by now, you should get it. Whether you have had COVID or not. This is not a political issue, it is a public health issue. It has been and should always be handled as a public health issue. The concept of quarantining, wearing a mask & obtaining the vaccine was to not overwhelm our health care system. Doing all the above would limit the number of patients hospitalized from COVID and allow those who really need urgent care a bed and support. Health measures were put in place so COVID didn’t deplete our businesses of available staff. Stop saying I don’t trust the vaccine, stop saying I don’t want to be chipped, and stop saying my body, my right. Here are some things to think about.

• The government is not putting a chip in your arm with the vaccine. That is not how chip technology works.

All 50 States, plus DC mandate Diphtheria, Tetnus, Pertusis, Polio, Measles, Rubella, Chickenpox, Mumps (except Iowa) (pewresearch.org). Why is the COVID vaccine such an issue? Please don’t tell me it hasn’t been around long enough or hasn’t been tested enough. Over 500,000,000 shots have been administered. The best live trial you can have. One of the guys I play hockey with told me, “why would I get the vaccine if I have a 99.5% chance of not dying from COVID”. That fact is actually not true. Unfortunately, that number comes from A Tik Tok user/post and not an expect. Kind of like taking public health advise about infectious diseases and immunizations from Rand Paul. Just Google “is the chance of dying from COVID .05%”. Politifact.com has a good explanation of the inaccurate math used in this assessment.

• COVID has killed more people than every major military campaign that this Country has fought in, combined.

Another person I play hockey with told me VAERS system shows a lot more people dying from the vaccine than what is being reported. VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) is a US program for vaccine safety. It is an early warning system that helps detect possible issues with vaccines. VAERS accepts reports of any adverse event following any vaccination. Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination including deaths, does not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused health problems. (CDC.gov)

• Less people have died from the COVID vaccine than have died from COVID. If you are a numbers player, 98%+ of the people hospitalized for COVID have not been vaccinated.

Those who are in disagreement with the vaccine, professing my body, my right, are likely the same folks who are pro-life and don’t give a shit about a women’s right to her body when it comes to pregnancy. How about this. Your body, your right. If you come down with COVID and have not been vaccinated, you are on your own. You figure out how to save your life if need be. Then we can have the room for those people who have legitimate health emergencies and need urgent hospital care.

I wish the media would stop comparing the number of people who have been vaccinated in a specific area, with who they voted for. I believe this keeps pushing this certainly public health issue into the political arena and continues to divide our country. Who cares who you voted for as it compares to if you did or did not get vaccinated? I also think there must be a time when the number of COVID vaccinated meets or exceeds the Annual Flu vaccinated, so that COVID can be treated in the same manner, as an endemic health issue and not a pandemic health issue. There needs to be a point that tips the scale.

If you want the truth, I feel the same way about the flu vaccine. Get it. It’s a public health issue.

Political Observation – I think we can all agree that there are some inconsistencies in every election. We can also agree that there are never enough of them to any large degree to find the need to overturn an election or state that one has been stolen by the other party. The Republican party lost the presidency and they need to stop peddling lies. We know all politicians lie in one way or another, but this is blatant, unethical, immoral embarrassment.

It bothers me that there are individuals in the senate & house that want everyone to just drop the inquiry into Jan 6. I say absolutely not. We should be concerned with the issue until all the facts have been gathered. Once again those who participated in the Jan 6 insurrection are rightfully going to jail, except the one person who was the provocateur and initiator of the lie. Can you say dictator. Read your history. May I remind you of the first quote above. Obi-Wan may have been old, he may have been fictional, but he was wise.

We should be equally concerned with recent State laws that are being presented that limit someone’s ability to cast a vote. In my opinion voting laws, rules & systems should be set at the Federal level. Constitutional amendments 15, 19 & 26 require the voting rights of US citizens (cannot be abridged) based on race, color, previous condition of servitude, sex or age. Voting is a constitutional right. A right that only the federal government can change through changes to the constitution. States should keep their hands off. Please don’t think that I want the federal government involved in everything. But I do believe there are certain systems that should be the same across the board. Every person eligible to vote (and whom that is can also be debated) should be given every opportunity to vote with minimal barriers.

Republican legislators trying to make it harder for persons to vote by reducing hours, locations, and mail in voting should own their truth. You’re afraid to allow people of color, low income or of lesser means to drive how this country is governed. It is another version of Jim Crow, slavery and caste system.