If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times: life just can’t get back to normal until a vaccine is ready for stopping Covid-19. Owing to fear, aggressively cultivated panic, and blind trust in what we are disingenuously told is “science,” this view has taken on such momentum that challenging it seems unthinkable – possibly even a punishable offense.
On the one hand, we hear that American ingenuity and freedoms (which of course should be appreciated) have already enabled us to be on the verge of producing said vaccine in record time. On the other hand, several Catholic voices have focused on questions about a vaccine that, at some point in its development, might make use of cell lines derived from aborted fetuses.
That objection is important, as is our responsibility to be vigilant about demanding untainted alternatives (though such vaccines may, in certain circumstances, licitly be used since material cooperation is sufficiently remote). There’s a broader issue, however, that needs much more attention than it has received.
I am talking about the entire premise that a vaccine is necessary for people to resume their lives – which, from a public health standpoint, is absurd. There is even talk that it may become mandatory – that resuming basic activities such as work, school, travel, commerce, etc. will be contingent upon getting the vaccine. That would be an extreme, overtly totalitarian maneuver, not a sincere, well-grounded public-health measure.
A couple of pertinent considerations should be sufficient to raise serious questions about the vaccine-as-the-only-solution mentality we find ourselves immersed in today.
The overall survival rate for those exposed to the coronavirus is likely somewhere north of 99.6 percent. Covid-19 mortality has largely run its course in a great many places (as viruses tend to do). And no vaccine has ever been successfully developed for any virus in the corona family.
Should this lead us to conclude that normalcy should not return “until we have a vaccine that we’ve gotten out to basically the entire world,” as Bill Gates insists?
I support the proper medical use of vaccines, of course. Who doesn’t? But Gates’ statement is ludicrous on its face – and unavoidably prompts the question of what could motivate it? His misanthropic population control mania is no secret; nor is the suspicion that he is keen on using vaccines – among other technologies – to reach that end.
His wife, Melinda Gates (nominally a Catholic), has taken to the pages of Foreign Affairs to fret about the impact Covid-19 will have on contraceptive supply chains. This while, the masses have been enduring crippling, surreal lockdowns, and massive unemployment, which make dark suspicions about not-so-hidden agendas hard to dismiss.
The actual number of people who have died as a result of Covid-19 has been difficult to ascertain, in part because the authorities and a compliant media have deliberately conflated possible Covid-19 cases with deaths resulting from underlying conditions. After months of incessantly dire media accounts, the CDC just reported that actually only 6 percent of the deaths attributed to Covid-19 – less than 10,000 people – did not coincide with underlying, lethal conditions.
Close to half of the Covid-19 deaths in the United States have occurred in nursing homes – an indictment of authorities that carelessly exposed this vulnerable group to known carriers. How safe and effective will The Coming Vaccine be for the elderly, compromised population that Covid-19 mainly kills? And for the masses under a full-court press to submit to the shot?
It may actually trigger a harmful response, if not immediately (as adverse events from ongoing trials attest) then subsequently, upon eventual exposure to the pathogen.
That manufacturers aren’t held legally liable for whatever happens under these “emergency” circumstances does not inspire confidence. And efforts to study how best to coax people into getting vaccinated – Yale is testing which kind of sales pitch (e.g., guilt and other forms of emotional manipulation) would be most persuasive – doesn’t exactly inspire confidence either.
Injecting healthy people with a vaccine that is not needed and may cause some harm is not part of the traditional ethical playbook. And it is, purely and simply, untrue to think it is an urgent necessity upon which everything else must revolve. It’s the demand for “safety” run amok….
The above comes from a Sept. 16 article in The Catholic Thing.
The link to Catholic Thing appears not to work.
Yes, there are many Covid deaths with other serious conditions. Perhaps a bit of ‘chicken and egg’ .
I certainly would be very sceptical of a vaccine approved the week before the election.
I agree an effective vaccine must reach all on the planet.
The link takes you to a really interesting article on St. Robert Bellarmine
A number of people subscribe to the inaccurate reporting about the CDC saying that only 6% of deaths are directly related to Covid-19. That is not what the CDC reported. They said that doctors only listed covid in 6% of the reports on deaths. If someone has a serious lung condition, but is managing it well and staying alive, then contacts the covid virus and dies, they didn’t die because of the lung problem, but by the onslaught of the virus. Two hundred thousand people have died because of the virus in only six months. There are even some who believe that herd “mentality” er. immunity is the solution. Let everyone get it, or at least 60-70% of the people. and the virus goes away. No scientist believes the virus will go away. We have 350,000,000 people in the country. If 60% of the people get covid-19, that is 210,000,000 folks who will be ill. The death rate among folks who have covid-19 is 2.9% or 6,090,000 deaths. So let’s not worry about a vaccine. Especially when you consider that vaccines didn’t work for whooping cough, measles, polio, etc. Right?
Great article. Someone has done some research! I would not take the vaccine but I have no doubt an attempt will be made to make it mandatory. That should be easy. Consider how easy it has been to force an entire population to obediently wear a useless mask and allow the government to shut down their businesses and prevent them from religious services. We have become a nation of sheeple. We are unwilling or unable to think for ourselves and look to the government to tell us what we can and cannot do. We deserve what we get.
I agree. We should and we do look to the best scientists, who happen to work for the government, to tell us what to do in a pandemic. To say that a mask is useless is irrational. We know, from past practices, and best practices, that if we had all worn a mask in the first couple of months of the pandemic, in addition to keeping our distance and sheltering in place, and been consistent across the nation, we would not have killed 200 thousand people. When a person doesn’t wear a mask s/he is saying they don’t care about their fellow humans. You wear the mask to avoid giving the virus to other people, and only minimally to prevent yourself from getting it. If we thought for ourselves, I’m sure that we would all wear masks anytime we are outside or inside with other people. I starting to believe that you can’t fix stupid!
Cranky old man, please document your source stating that cloth masks or disposable paper masks are effective in filtering viruses.
You can go almost anywhere on the web and find corroborating evidence that wearing a mask is an effectifve way to diminish the spread of germs, virus, etc. That is why surgeons wear masks in an operating room The evidence is everywhere. However, the CDC and the WHO created some confusion by telling people not to wear a mask, before they knew the extent of the strength of the virus, and then reversing their recommendations. More confusion came this week when the political arm of the government released suggestions not supported by the scientists. Here in the west nearly everyone was wearing a mask because of the firestrom smoke. I wonder why? In one part of Indonesia, if you are caught without a mask you are assigned to the grave digging squad, a bit harsh don’t you think? Our culture is not prepared, since WWII to sacrifice for the whole. Isn’t our job as Christians to do whatever is in the best interince of our fellow men and women, even if it involves some inconvinience?
Cranky old man: what is your medical background? (A PhD from CNN doesn’t count:
From Science News (one of many sources):
In one study, a mask that used 16 layers of handkerchief fabric was able to filter out 63 percent of 300-nanometer-sized particles. (The coronavirus is between 50 to 200 nanometers in diameter.) But that mask was harder to breathe with compared with thick, tight-fitting N95 respirators, often used in hospitals, that can block minuscule particles. Wearing a cloth mask with that many layers would be uncomfortable and may “cause some to pass out,” the researchers wrote in the letter.
Peggy, let’s agree that one article doesn’t a science make. We were told in March, by the members of the President’s Task Force that if we did everything correctly, wear a mask, keep six feet apart, stay in our homes except for special occasions like doctor’s appointments, etc., that we would only have 200,000 deaths from Covid-19. Well we didn’t follow the recommendations and the country is a mess virus wise. Because of our refusal to come together for the common good, the prediction is that that we will have another 200,000 deaths by year end. Everybody I know wears a mask when they leave the house, go to a store or other sites where there are other people. because they don’t want to infect other people. I’ve talked to lots of people about “the mask” issue, and not one has found it to be an imposition by the government to take a way their liberties, and these are all pretty conservative folks. It’s a public health issue, not a political issue for them.
Here is the link
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2020/09/16/the-coming-vaccine/
The link about seems to be a page that changes daily.
This is junk science by an author with an agenda that isn’t based on science. The Catholic Thing should be embarrassed to print this.