Dakota Beacon

Yesterday the president said he expects to have a coronavirus (COVID-10) vaccine by January.  He says he is really pushing it.  He believes it will be Johnson & Johnson that comes through, although he’s not particular who gets there first - he’ll “take his hat off to them”. 

These words will sound encouraging, especially bolstered by a concurring opinion by Anthony Fauci, who has become something of a coronavirus guru.  Of course there’s nothing we can all agree on like the idea of getting “back to normal”.  We need to have life return - this has been a nightmare for all of us.  Some of us will never be back in business, and that’s not just a gloomy outlook talking - that’s fact.  Life won’t be the same regardless of what comes next.

As much as we all want a solution, we need to be far more cautious with respect to the development of a vaccine for this.  Vaccines are a dirty business at best.  And the public doesn’t hear any of the worst of it.  There is a lot under the rug there.

Last night I was listening to Ben Shapiro’s Friday show.  He was blathering on, rapid-fire, about how Congress is going to get rid of the liability problem that hobbles development of vaccines like this.  News flash, Ben.  This was taken care of long ago.  In the late 1980s, in fact.  That’s right.  The pharmaceutical industry blackmailed Congress into that years ago.  After they were slapped with millions of dollars in claims by victims of their vaccines - people whose lives or whose children’s lives were literally destroyed by them.  They had no defense.  So they told Congress that they would stop making vaccines . . . unless they were guaranteed that they could injure people with impunity.  So Congress stripped the American people of the right to sue for damages - arguably totally unconstitutional, but since when has that given them pause?  And President Reagan, so often a ray of sunshine, this time signed a bill depriving us of our right to be made “whole” when injured.  Good show, that.

We have literally no protection against this.  You can imagine the effect it has had on the Big Pharma industry.  Why bother seeking cures for anything, be it cancer or heart disease or anything else?  Why look for treatments for coronavirus attacks?  You might have liability issues if you kill people with any of those.  Obviously we have incentivized drug companies to put everything into vaccine development.  The sure thing.  And with the “hurry-up” imposed by Mr. Trump and Dr. Fauci et al, we will have some pretty sloppy work in the offing.  

I recently listened to a lengthy interview with none other than Robert Kennedy, Jr.  I don’t usually link material from what we see as “the left”.  But not all issues are “left” and “right” issues, not everything fits into a neat little slot.  Some issues cross party lines.  I don’t agree with Kennedy on everything - to tell the truth, I haven’t heard his position on most issues, although I’m sure we would disagree on many inasmuch as he supports Democrats and identifies as one himself.  (No surprise.)  But when people from all sides of other issues find common ground, I like to hear what they agree on and vaccines are such an issue.

Kennedy says he is not an “anti-vaxxer”.  He supports vaccines, but, he says, only if they are developed through careful trials and are found to be safe for humans and administered appropriately.  He noted in the interview here, with Patrick Bet David, that quite often vaccines are administered to totally inappropriate subjects - children who are not subject to the disease they are being vaccinated for, for example.  He notes many unethical episodes in recent years where vaccines have been used with some disastrous results, especially in under-developed countries.  It seems those people are expendable to the developers of these vaccines.  

We all remember the drive to develop one or another vaccine.  An aunt of mine got a swine flu shot back in the 1970s.  She became very ill and had resultant nerve damage.  She was never able to use her left arm again.  She died only a few years ago and had the damage the rest of her life.  My brother’s child got DTP shots as a baby and nearly died.  I worked with a woman who had been a nurse.  She had to give up that profession because she could not get help for her (adult) daughter.  The girl, as a toddler had been bright, curious, healthy, doing very well in her intellectual development, when she got these “baby shots”.  Her mother had not been worried about it - after all, she was a medical professional and believed in them.  From that day on the child quit developing.  Oh, she grew physically, but she was permanently brain-damaged.  There was no other cause for the damage.  There are other cases, well-established cases, which is why the drug companies went to Congress to be let off the hook for them.

Vaccines can be a great thing - possibly.  But many vaccines are very dangerous, and not just the newer, exotic ones for new diseases.  And even the worthwhile ones can be misused by the medical profession and the drug pushers who underwrite them.

You might well be one of those people who consider anything that comes from the pharmaceutical companies is wonderful.  That’s okay.  But make sure you have heard the information you need to know before you take that position.  Make sure you don’t take anything for granted without doing some research on it yourself - keep an open mind.  And make sure that you understand the risks and that there is no redress if you or your loved ones are injured.  And remember this:  when there is no liability but only reward for being the “first”, are drug companies motivated by your best interests?  Are they motivated by concern for appropriate levels of care?  Are they concerned with protecting themselves by not harming the public?  

There are problems with vaccines.  Some have been tainted with HIV.  Some have been harmful in themselves, and some carry greater risk than your chances of harm from the disease from which they are supposed to protect you.  Some are misused for increased profits.  The American public has not been well-served by expedient measures to excuse drug manufacturers from responsibility for a proper standard of care in development of these vaccines.  

We should support the idea of allowing people who, faced with a terminal condition and wish to try a medication or treatment that has not been “proven”.  We can learn from these examples and they are voluntary, so we are not abusing anyone’s rights nor, in such a case, endangering their health or safety.  It is not the same thing when we inject a healthy person with a dangerous product on the pretext or in the expectation that they will avoid contracting what they don’t have.  At the very least, we should demand a very high standard of care in its development and free will in its use.

I hope you will take the time to listen to Robert Kennedy, Jr.  This is an informative, in-depth conversation with Patrick Bet-David.  When you’ve heard him out you might disagree, you might agree, you might want to find more information.  But at least you will have some questions perhaps - you will be richer by that much.  And you owe it to yourself, your family and the public.  We are likely to have heavy pressure to accept these vaccines.  We need to know what that means in terms of risk.

Undoubtedly I will get a lot of flak for taking a position against reckless reliance on and use of vaccines, but we should all be willing to consider all sides and admit all evidence before we dig in and abuse anyone else for taking a different view.  It’s up to you - take a look and see what you think.

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