Should Everyone Get Vaccinated

Work

We all know the story: Responsible Al who never misses a day comes into the office sneezing and coughing. We offer Al a cough drop and tissue paper, hold our noses and hope Al doesn’t make us sick. But he does. Later that night, we start to have the same cough and before you know it, we are debating if we are going to pull an Al and come to work the next day. Saturday is the day we must go and visit our mother-in-law in the nursing home….

School

We are always rushed in the morning, and our eight-year-old is complaining they are not feeling well. With the carpool, 9:00am meeting, and no one available for a last-minute baby-sitting favor, we are forced to send the child to school. Unknowing, in the carpool ride home, your child is with another youngster’s sibling who has an immune deficiency. With the windows rolled up and everyone singing the latest pop chorus jingle, soon everyone in the car has the infection.

Social

Another scenario: you are not feeling your greatest, but you promised a group of friends that this time you were not going to flake on drinks. You take a couple of Tylenols and an hour later, you are at the bar, hoping the gin and tonic will be an excuse for your red eyes. You are laughing and hugging, and by the end of the night, you feel one hundred but notice your friend now has that same sneeze you woke up with.

Sound familiar? Life happens all the time, but that does not make us bad parents, irresponsible co-workers, or a bad friend. What if this time, it is more than a cold? What if the bad cough, congestion, or fever are more than just a cold or the flu. What if in our post-2020 world, this is COVID or a new variant. Have we done the right thing by avoiding a vaccination? Yes, we are ok, but what about those around us who are not as lucky.

 In 2019, there were 22,000 reported deaths from the flu in the United States (CDC.GOV). In 2020, there were over 360,000 deaths due to COVID-19 the numbers tell the story of just how important this vaccination may be.  

by

Dane Flanigan

CEO ultraHealth Agency

Do we have enough for everyone?

Should the United States pay for the world’s Covid vaccine.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus The Philosopher Horace:

 “Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.” It is your concern when your neighbor’s wall is on fire.

Talking with friends and family in different countries, I was surprised to hear how many have not yet received a COVID vaccine, yet we are still facing a global pandemic. As Americans, we tend to think of things as if on a unilateral, English-speaking globe… but that is not the world. It is made up of millions, no sorry, billions of people in different countries and continents who have different languages, cultures, and governments.

There will be an argument over licensing and distributing the vaccine to other countries. Viewing the stock prices of J&J, Moderna, and Pfizer, they are all doing well, and there is the prevailing economic issue of who paid for the vaccine to be researched, tested, and produced?  In the December 20th issue of Forbes appeared an article, “The People’s Vaccine—Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine Was Largely Funded By Taxpayer Dollars.”  So Americans paid for it…but, again, this problem is larger than just one country.

In 2019, international travelers spent $155 billion as reported by ustravel.org. That means billions of dollars flowing into the United States and thousands of jobs created. We also have states that rely heavily on foreign investment with California, Florida and New York at the top of the list. What will happen if these visitors stop coming to the United States or stop traveling all together? When they do travel here, will they bring other variants of the virus?

According to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, “Based on our most recent estimates from CDC surveillance, the B.1.1.7 variant is now the most common lineage circulating in the United States.” What if that impacts our herd immunity? Regrettably, there could be other variants generating in other parts of the world that could be even more threating, and we need to think about stopping that now.

People are people no matter where they go from Lexington, Kentucky to Abuja, Nigeria to Ahvaz, Iran. It is amazingly simple to say that people matter – because they do. It should not matter how the vaccinations were produced or who paid for them. We could all be affected by the inaction to non-action of people during the pandemic.

To circle back to the statement by Horacio, as citizens of the globe, we have to think of other countries as our neighbors and do our best to bring this global pandemic to an end.  If our neighbor’s house burns, it should be everyone’s concern.

By Dane Flanigan

Why People are Scared of the Covid Vaccination

from: My Shot ll Hamilton Animatic YouTube

There are some valid reasons people have to the Covid -19 vaccinations, getting the most information might be our best shot.

We now have three vaccines to fight COVID19. Moderna, Pfitzer and Johnson & Johnson’s versions have proven to be effective. Nature Medicine surveyed 19 countries and only 71% of the population surveyed said they would take the vaccine.  As Americans hit drive-throughs, pharmacies and hospitals, people are excited that relief is on the way but not everyone is getting the vaccine. Why not?

It came quick. For some, there is the fear that the vaccine was rushed. In the past, a vaccine would have taken years to develop, test and bring to the market. Because of the global pandemic, the trials and tests were placed at the front of the line.

There is always an overall phobia of doctors and needles. Let us not pretend that everyone is comfortable going to the doctor’s office. It probably goes back to when we were kids, and the only good thing about the physician experience was the occasional lollypop and Spider-man band aid that we could show to our other siblings.  

We are also dealing with the sentiments of the anti-vaxx movement as seen in a 2019 April 19th   interview with Insider.Com, where Dr. Peter Hotez outlines the views of the movement,  “It’s this massive propaganda campaign and by some estimates there are almost 500 anti-vaccine websites on Facebook. They weaponize Amazon… we are seeing real public health damage being done.” That was the kind of disinformation we had before the worldwide pandemic. What are we going to face next?

We take the wait and see approach. There are those who are awaiting to see what happens to everyone else, which is not a bad stance. People over the age of 65 years and those with underlying conditions are vulnerable, so we need to be mindful that our refusal to vaccinate could affect them, especially those in daily interactions with the public.

“If we can get to 80% population immunity by the end of the summer, then we won’t see a surge next winter because this is basically a winter respiratory virus and it’ll be back unless a significant percentage of the population get vaccinated,” said Dr. Paul Offit. Can we get to herd immunity if we take the wait and see approach?

It is a personal decision, but let us make it a smart one. If we ado or do not get the vaccine, let us reach out to valued healthcare professionals and ask them to help. Our doctors have more medical history than we do personally looking at any random article found on the internet.  There are vaccine-educated practitioners in every hospital. Let’s get us get the most information possible and make the best decisions. 

CDC Information on Covid -19 inoculations

by Dane Flanigan

ultraHealth Agency