There are two types of people in the world (well 17 personality types and those are broken down into 32 subcategories but for the purpose of this, we will confine ourselves to two).
There are risk-takers and risk adverse. Those who see life through the fear-based lens and those who see life through an acceptable-risk based lens or even crave riskier behaviours.
Those who are risk-adverse tend to be more organized, suffer more from anxiety and depression and more likely to use homeopathic medicine instead of traditional pharmaceutical medication.
Those who are risk-takers tend to be more impulsive, can also suffer from mental health issues but seem to bounce back more quickly. They are more likely to use fast acting pharmaceutical medication and even more likely to try illegal street drugs.
It is not scientifically proven but it is believed that risk adverse persons tend to be leery of vaccines and many are even anti-vaxxers while risk takers are more likely to get the vaccine. While this doesn’t prove causation, this does appear to be the trend we see.
Those who are more cautious about their health also tend to believe that the body is an amazing machine which, given the right tools (healthy eating, moderate exercise etc.) will be able to withstand bacterial disease and viruses. They also tend to believe that various homeopathic additions to their diet will further enhance the body’s ability to fight infection and viral attacks. So, they use health products like Oil of Oregano, Cold FX and take multi-vitamins all in an attempt to give the body all the tools it needs to create the antibodies it needs to survive.
Risk takers tend to think their body is an amazing machine and it is capable of withstanding some level of abuse and rough and tumble. They also take vitamins and work out, but they are more comfortable with synthetic chemicals and will reach for pain medication more quickly.
Neither approach to life is right or wrong. For most, it is a learned response to their formative years, and it seems to be deeply engrained by their parent’s viewpoint of life.
(For me, there is an irony in the idea that we won’t try a vaccine until we know it is “safe” which then flies in the face of taking virtually unregulated homeopathic medication which has only been tested for negative response, never tested for efficacy and completely unregulated in terms of anti-contaminants or safety. I find that part of this complexing)
I have worked in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical production. In Canada, homeopathic medicine is made in “labs” that have never been inspected by Health Canada, stored under conditions that have never been tested and it is not required to prove anything except that the product uses ingredients approved for use in Canada. They do not have to prove it works although they are not allowed to make any claims on their packaging which has not been proven. The packaging in Canada contains very little information, instead you are referred to a website which is usually serviced somewhere else in the world where they can make any claims they like.
A pharmaceutical product, on the other hand, has to go through many levels of testing before it is released to the public. The lab that produces the active ingredient is inspected regularly and has to keep detailed records of the temperature, humidity, health of personnel, and conditions of storage to name just a few.
The lab that makes the final product is inspected regularly and has to keep records of swab testing for contaminants, temperature, humidity, batch control, storage control, health of personnel and inventory control among many other controls like security and the advanced education of staff.
The product in each batch is inspected three times before being released for public consumption. If any of those lab tests show any discrepancy or contaminant in that product, the entire batch has to be destroyed.
It was my job to keep those records so I am very familiar with the testing portion of pharma and nutra production.
Vaccines have their own set of very stringent requirements and check points. From the active ingredient testing to the transportation to the storage to the final delivery, there are checks all along the way. Once a vaccine reaches its final destination, there are still reports that are followed up on and generated to determine any adverse reactions. They can trace the vaccine back every single step of its journey from raw active culture to final destination.
This is something you could not do with any nutraceutical health product. I am not against health products. I take health products. I believe some of them work for me but let’s be clear. Vaccines are tested and retested and retested, Oil of Oregano is not.
So, does that mean a vaccine is 100% safe. No.
Going back to the idea that giving your body the tools it needs, it will develop the antibodies to fight disease and that many pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products stimulate the body to do just that, vaccine are another tool in that list.
A vaccine is simply a small protein from the virus and some proven immune enhancers and some filler. It is introduced to the body in a very small active (or in some vaccines inactive) dose and your body does all the rest.
Your body fights the protein and builds antibodies which can then fight the live virus should you be infected.
It works the same way that Vitamin C builds up your immune system or Vitamin D assists with helping the body retain Vitamin B. It works the same way we would like to believe Oil of Oregano or any other immune stimulant works.
What we don’t know is how it will work in your unique body. Everybody has a different body make up. Some of it is genetic and some of it is acquired depending on the choices you have made in your life. No medicine or vaccine or health product can accurately predict how your personal body will react. Some people have allergies, some people have auto-immune disorders (the vaccine is not being offered to them yet), some people have an overactive immune system. This vaccine will act differently on each of these people and all the testing in the world won’t reveal how your body will react.
Can it kill you. Doubtful. There is nothing in the ingredients used at this strength in this form that has been known to kill. Can it harm you? Again, doubtful but unproven. 10 years of SARS vaccines have shown no serious long term affects.
We don’t know the exact recipe for the vaccine because that is proprietary but a basic understanding of how vaccines work can tell us that the vaccine is most likely going to be an almost exact copy of the SARS vaccine with a different protein. Why reinvent the wheel when we know this works. What pharma company would start from scratch when a completely tested and viable vaccine base is already available. I would be shocked if this doesn’t reveal itself to be SARS vaccine with a new protein twist.
Can the new protein kill you? Yes. COVID can kill you. In most people it will not, they will build the antibodies they need, and they will recover. An active infection of COVID is substantially riskier than a dormant protein in a vaccine. You take the risk of catching an active infection every time you step outside of your house. But you are scared to take a vaccine?
Can the new protein in the vaccine kill you? Unlikely. As the dose either active or inactive would be too small.
Can it make you sick? Unknown. Possibly. The side effects will likely include many of the symptoms of COVID but in a much lighter form. I get every side effect of every medication on the planet so I will let you know.
The vaccine has been rigorously tested in the same manner as all pharmaceuticals are tested.
The testing that is missing in this vaccine is the long-term trials.
Those have been waived by Health Canada and the companies have released the vaccine on the understanding that they are free from prosecution for the lack of long-term testing.
From the research I have been able to do, it appears the belief is that the SARS vaccine has been tested for over 10 years and in multiple populations without any significant adverse reactions, so Health Canada feels that this vaccine is safe enough to bypass the risk. They feel that the risk of the live protein killing, or injuring people is a higher risk and therefore they have waived the long-term trials. That doesn’t mean long-term trials aren’t happening. They are. It means that they don’t have to complete the usual 5-year trial before public availability.
At any point during the long-term trial, should they see a problem, they have the ability to shut the whole process down or to isolate the problem to the batch and have the batch disposed.
Have harmful things been approved by government in the past? Yes. Many pharmaceutical products and some homeopathic products have been approved and then had that approval rescinded. Through this process both by Health Canada and the FDA have learned more about the types of testing that need to be done and put more precautions in place to avoid ever having another serious adverse reaction to a newly approved product.
We have come a long way from the way things were done in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. This vaccine is not approved for pregnant women because they now know that a different kind of testing needs to be done before we know the effect on a developing fetus.
So, is it safe? I can’t tell you that anything you put in your body is 100% safe for you. Nobody can.
What I can tell you is that the virus has proven itself to be a killer. I think my odds are a lot better with a vaccine especially when I know what tests the vaccine went through to get to market. With my experience in pharma production, I am more likely to trust the science and doctors what I have worked with than I will trust some obscure website making silly claims with no proof or some couch potato opinion.
I am a science based believer with trust issues, but I am also more of a risk taker and I will take the vaccine. What will you do?
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