I get lots and lots of email. And comments, don’t even ask. If I spent time answering all my email and comments, let alone the calls to my NPR show, I wouldn’t have time to do anything else.
But I do read many of them, and some of them stand out. This one did because of its length and lots of questions. I’ve edited it a bit for brevity but not content. Let’s go!
Dr. Paster: I read your article last week in The Buffalo News (about a patient who wouldn’t get vaccinated on grounds of personal liberty). I have a few questions about Covid that are not being addressed.
Question: Why is the treatment still being referred to as a “vaccine” when it doesn’t prevent the virus or its transmission? I believe when the CDC altered its definition of vaccine to a level of protection rather than immunity, its credibility was damaged.
People are also reading…
If the mainstream medical community were honest with the populous about this therapeutic, the people would be more inclined to participate, as with the flu shot.
Let’s be honest, this doesn’t prevent Covid or prevent spreading Covid. At best, it reduces the severity of infection and symptoms.
Answer: The CDC didn’t alter its definition. A vaccine is “a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases.”
And, dear reader, you are wrong. Many people never get Covid because they are vaccinated.
Now, how much it prevents the spread of Covid is up in the air. But it does prevent the disease in most people. And most importantly, you are roughly 25 times more likely to be hospitalized if you are not immunized and get Covid.
Let me put that into perspective. Getting vaccinated is like wearing a seat belt – it protects you but doesn’t guarantee you won’t get into a car crash.
Q: There is very little conversation about other therapeutics that, at this point in our Covid journey, are proven beneficial. I can’t help but believe the marriage of big pharma and the government is pushing the “vaccine” over any other treatments.
Why are the therapeutics being downplayed/ignored?
A: Unfortunately, we don’t have a “magic bullet” like penicillin to treat Covid. We have convalescent serum, the steroid dexamethasone, remdesivir, the rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib (Olumiant) and the new drugs by Merck and Pfizer.
As for other “proven beneficial therapies,” everything you read on the web doesn’t stand the test of science. I am a numbers science guy. That’s what I write about in my column, talk about during my TV work and my radio show and post on my Facebook page. The snake oil therapies, that you are referencing, have failed the test of science, including hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, bleach, UV therapy and the recent one referenced by Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson: mouthwash – which the mouthwash people immediately debunked.
Q: The man you referred to in the article has now had Covid. Why would you continue to push a “vaccination” for someone who should now have natural immunity?
A: Excellent question. For some viruses like measles and chicken pox, once you got it you didn’t get it again except in rare conditions. As for chicken pox, we vaccinate against it because the long-term consequence, often 50 years later, happens to be shingles. We don’t know what long-term Covid will bring.
Many who suffered from polio before that immunization was available now develop post-polio syndrome, which includes progressive muscle and joint weakness and pain, fatigue and exhaustion with minimal activity, muscle atrophy, breathing or swallowing problems, sleep disorders and decreased tolerance of cold temperatures.
Again, we don’t know what post-Covid might bring.
Q: Why is there almost no conversation about vitamin D, zinc or exercise and weight control in this message when we know that at the very least, obesity is a significant comorbidity?
Instead, every message is “get vaccinated,” while there continue to be threats to lock down the very places that inspire better health, i.e. gyms.
A: You’re right that taking vitamin D and zinc, taking off weight and exercising are good lifestyle tips. We locked all the gyms down before vaccines. I think we should open them up, but there should be two kinds of gyms – one where everyone has to show proof of vaccination and one where no proof is required. Then you can join the gym of your choice. Leave this up to the consumer, rather than the government.
Q: Beyond your article, I have to ask about the push to get children “vaccinated.” If it’s true they don’t spread or suffer serious consequences, why introduce a drug that may migrate to their reproductive organs and heart with who knows what future consequences?
A: First, there is no evidence that immunizations affect reproductive organs – hogwash. Now kids may not get too sick, but they may get post-Covid syndrome, if that exists later. For my wife, Penny, and I – or kids vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, meningitis, etc. – this is just another vaccine. Good parents vaccinate their kids regardless of their political persuasion.
Q: Instead of chastising this man in your article for choosing liberty, the first-line responders in hospitals should be using proven therapeutics: remdesivir, convalescent plasma etc. No, instead – I suspect due to his unvaccinated status – they sent this sick man with Covid pneumonia and low oxygen saturation home to suffer alone. Perhaps they were hoping for a bad outcome so he could be added to the list of deaths to continue to push the vaccine.
A: Oh, come on. Really?
Q: Why are the unvaccinated labeled pariah?
A: No one is calling anyone names here. But quite simply, if everyone was vaccinated, as with measles, we’d wipe this out. Stay well. Stay informed.
Dr. Zorba Paster's column runs Saturdays in WNY Refresh in the print edition of The Buffalo News, as well as weekly in the Wisconsin State Journal and other newspapers. His Wisconsin Public Radio show, "Zorba Paster on Your Health," is broadcast in Buffalo at 3 p.m. Sundays on WBFO-FM. Email him at refresh@buffnews.com.
