Covid-19 and The Immunization Era
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
Turner classic movies recently featured the 1931 John Ford movie, Arrowsmith, based distantly on the Sinclair Lewis novel with the same name. It featured Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, and Myrna Loy. The human enemy is avarice for fame and money. The non-human enemy is bubonic plague and the vector for both is the rat, Norwegicus in Swedish ancestry areas but possibly including the Asian rat (Rattus rattus) in the West Indies. Scientific appropriateness requires our hero to first establish the safety of his vaccine and to do a double-blind study on a relatively small scale and finally, a large scale repeat again with only a designated subgroup receiving the actual agent.
The human sentiment wins out against the scientific and the vaccine is made available to all in the movie. The problem recurs in real life with the appearance of multiple vaccines including Oxford England, Pfizer, Moderna, and several others. Despite Oxford's promise to make their product available at cost, tariffs, taxes, insurance intermediation will make cost an issue with their product as well. Many of these will have passed the three-step vaccine test but the immunity conferred may be transient. I personally believe, without evidence, because the virus moves from organ to organ leaving behind evidence of its presence in covert and progressing damage with the conferred immunity disappearing as a new organ is attacked.
The old movie indicated the worldwide presence of an anti-vaccination movement. This was and is the case. Many including our very bright cleaning lady are anti-vaccination and don't believe that the culpability of the measles vaccine for retardation has been entirely disproven. In the meantime, the Covid-19 task force coordinator Birx is being viciously attacked by MOM (aka POTUS) for reverting to public health truth-teller and asserting that the virus situation in the USA is very different and far more dangerous than before. In other words out of control and in need of top-down federal management.
