Trust No One.
We are being told that since most of us have been vaccinated against viruses as children, we should not be concerned about taking the COVID-19 vaccination. We normally accept a medical professional’s advice without question. But these are not normal times.
We live in a time when our historians can dream nightmares, and convince the government that they are historical facts. We also live at a time when our: economists, accountants, lawyers, unions, political scientists, and journalists only publicly severely criticise the policies of the political parties they do not support.
It does not benefit a nation to lose the independence of its professionals. The hypocrisy of partisan professionals has now forced us to question everything – including the COVID-19 vaccine.
VIRUSES.
Our children are normally vaccinated against the: polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and hepatitis B viruses. These vaccines work in a similar manner.
When our bodies are invaded by a new virus, cells in our body go to war against the invader. As the virus invades more of our cells, we tend to get sick while our bodies figure out how to defeat the invader.
The healthier we are, the more time we can give our bodies to figure out how to defeat the virus. If we are unhealthy, then we may die before our bodies can defeat the invader. That is why being healthy is a good defence.
Once our bodies have figured out how to defeat the virus, there are cells in our bodies that remember the winning strategy. If that virus invades our bodies in the future, the winning strategy is implemented, and the invader is quickly defeated.
NORMAL VACCINES.
Vaccines for viruses work by giving our army cells the time they need figure out a winning strategy. This is done by weakening a virus, so that it cannot do us much harm. This weakened virus is then injected into our bodies for our army cells to learn to defeat.
Since the invading virus is too weak to do much damage, we do not get sick while our cells learn to develop a winning strategy. Once our cells can recall the winning strategy, we are said to be immune.
THE NEW VACCINE.
The mRNA vaccine is different. Rather than inject our bodies with a harmless virus, for our cells to learn to defeat, they plan to manipulate part of the virus’ messenger RNA (mRNA), and inject that in our bodies. This mRNA has been manipulated to instruct our own healthy cells to mutate.
The aim is not to have our army cells go to war against an invading virus, but to learn how to render a scientist-programmed mutation harmless.
THE BOUNDARIES OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE.
We do not yet completely understand how our cells figure out the strategy of defeating viruses. We simply introduce a weakened virus, and observe the results.
In trying to develop better solutions, scientists push the boundaries of scientific knowledge. This normally results in many failed experiments – all of which help to advance scientific knowledge.
Scientific advancements depend on individual scientists exploring the unknown. The method of exploration is by doing experiments. Employers who manage such scientists, understand that the freedom to explore must be balanced by the liability risks, which are enforced by Government regulators.
The COVID-19 pandemic allowed scientists to develop a vaccine based on a different technology – mRNA. The normal next step is to manage liability risks, by doing more experiments to confidently determine the short and long-term health consequences.
At this time, the short-term consequences are known, but the long-term consequences are completely unknown. They can only be known by doing experiments and observing the results.
The pandemic is being used as an excuse to give some scientists the freedom to do a global experiment – on humans. The employers who manage these scientists have been given immunity from prosecution if anything goes wrong. All the failure risks are on those who take the vaccine.
THE VACCINE OPTIONS.
If the mRNA vaccine was the only available option, then we may justify the global experiment on the idea that necessity is the mother of invention. However, the planned global experiment not necessary – a conventional vaccine is available.
Of the three vaccines currently planned to be used in the western world, two are mRNA mutation technology, and one was developed using the conventional method of introducing a weakened virus.
Barbados plans to import vaccines for the general population in March 2021. Our doctors are promoting the mRNA vaccine as safe, when they have no knowledge of its long-term health consequences. Why is that?
Before the vaccine arrives in Barbados, perhaps these doctors should explain to us why the mRNA vaccine is preferred, if a conventional vaccine is available.
Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer. He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com
All the concerns and questions have been answered so far? The medical fraternity in Barbados and elsewhere have endorsed the science of COVID 19 vaccine so what is Grenville’s point?
Grenville,
Stay in your lane.
RE All the concerns and questions have been answered so far? The medical fraternity in Barbados and elsewhere have endorsed the science of COVID 19 vaccine
IS THIS REALLY TRUE?
RE Grenville, Stay in your lane.
COULD YOU PLEASE KINDLY TELL US WHERE HE HAS ERRED?
Nothing wrong with these questions, David.
As for staying in his lane – I think he has accurately broken down the processes so that the average person can understand. And it is quite true that we do not know the long term effects.
I thought about that long time ago.
My idea is that if something’s not broken then there is no need to fix it. I would like an explanation for this new type of vaccine. That is not unreasonable.
@Donna
Do we know the long term effects of most vaccines?
Please note that I ascribe nothing nefarious to the motives of the authorities. I just think greater communication is in order in this case. Today’s climate demands it.
My nephew is a physician. I have know him as we say in Barbados “since BEFORE he was born” since I introduced his parents to each other.
I trust him, even with my life. He has advised that I take the covid vaccine as soon as it is available. I will take covid vaccine advice from a beloved physician relative and NOT from an engineer whom I have NEVER met.
And “yes” we HAVE to trust. How can a community survive without trust? When the traffic light signals green, do we not ALL trust that the traffic engineers know what they are doing, and don’t we ALL proceed through the green light?
If I can trust a traffic engineer EVERY day that I go out on the road, then I can trust a doctor.
Yes I will trust our doctors and our public health officials.
It would be completely idiotic to take medical advice from a structural engineer, rather than from a physician.
Please note that when my toilet leaks I do not call a carpenter.
And when I need a haircut I do not call the butcher.
Anytime I need structural engineering advice I will call Grenville and I will take his advice. I will not ask my physician nephew to second guess Grenville when it comes to structural engineering matters. Because in truth my nephew know not one damn thing about structural engineering. Lol!
Stupssseee!!!
Cuhdear Bajan,
I am not taking medical advice from Grenville. I am simply stating that we should ask questions and insist on good answers. I trust but not blindly.
Because infrastructure designed by engineers do fail just as medical advice often changes due to previously unknown and unintentional side effects.
No guarantees expected but no preventable death for me.
I ask questions.
Grenville has erred by not including structural engineers within the list of socalled professionals unworthy of the public’s trust.
He has erred in making a few points over and over as if following the edict that seven times repeated convinces hapless readers.
Certainly, not that the bajan publics would have liability protections, but Grenville has erred by suggesting that Big Pharma already has universal defenses to law suits when the US congress has rejected such approaches by McConnel several times.
Grenville has erred by just being Grenville. LOL
Yes, and Grenville greatest error is his presumption that this pandemic has no antecedents.
@ Cuhdear BajanDecember 30, 2020 8:13 AM
“If I can trust a traffic engineer EVERY day that I go out on the road, then I can trust a doctor.
Yes I will trust our doctors and our public health officials.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Would you also put such ‘blind trust’ in the likes of Dr. Mengele, Dr. Kevorkian, Dr. Shipman or even those (including the nurse(s) involved in the Tuskegee ‘research’ project into Syphilis?
But we must admit that medicine has come a long way since the days its ‘practitioners’ used to share the same ‘surgery’ as barbers.
Out of sheer compassion for the suffering elderly would you be prepared to back a call for making ‘Euthanasia a legal option for those who do not want to go through the process of geriatric pain and suffering especially if they are suffering from an incurable and debilitating disease like many cancers?
Since Bim- with is fast growing greying population with a decreasing number of ‘able’ bodies to care for it- likes to style itself as the Little Switzerland of the Caribbean why not show how much it can punch above its weight and introduce such a ‘far-sighted’ piece of legislation just like it introduced that far-reaching piece of legislation called the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act?
David,
By now, yes. If there are risks we have to acknowledge them and weigh them. We cannot just say it is safe without knowing.
It is quite probable that the odds would favour the taking of the vaccine. I’ll most likely play those odds. Better than walking around in a suit of armour, lacking the warmth of hugs and kisses from friends and family, keeping
an uncomfortable distance from everybody, unable to mingle at parties, festivals, movies, concerts, sporting events, plays and many of the other joys that make life worth living.
But you have to admit that the pandemonium this virus has caused could possibly encourage desperàte leaders to be less scrupulous in safeguarding our future health in an attempt to salvage the present.
Nothing wrong with questions.
@Cuddear Bajan, what rubbish are you going on about this morning? Since they stole the patent for the Stop Lights from that black fellow they had over a hundred years to perfects its working. Why Shouldn’t you and a vast majority trust the engineers in this case? Your Nephew I’m sure you’re proud of him and you want me to know that you have doctors in your family, look here, ain’t no doctor bout here can speak to the ramifications of this Vaccine as Mr Philips has done, I’m sorry, but you need to put aside your Bajanisn and let what the gentleman has to say sink in somewhere in your brain. You are not required to take his advise, but to brush it aside because that is not his field of expertise is as bajan as cou cou and flying fish. Furthermore, it does not present you as intelligent and knowledgeable as you want to project. Since the mid ’90s while living elsewhere after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease I was amazed at the many doctors/specialists who encouraged me to visit with them armed with whatever materials I’d researched to aid in my treatment. Sometimes they were quite willing to let me suggest a course of action. I’m not a doctor.
@ Whitehill
Thank you. People only know what they know. Doctors are not medical scientists, they apply received knowledge. Barbadian doctors have to depend on the WHO, PAHO, the American CDC, CNN, the BBC, etc, all of which is available to ordinary people.
They do not carry out their own research.
Anybody who thinks we should trust the authorities blindly should research the recent preventable tragedies of the Boeing 737 max.
See what measures Boeing have NOW taken to ensure the safety of passengers and people on the ground.
What they did last they should have done first. And they got that one past the authorities in the non 2×3, non backwater/backwoods, non stay-at-home Bajan Conditioned, most wonderfully functioning, least Banana Republicky, most splendiferous United States of America.
@Cud dear, I certainly don’t mind if you don’t take medical advise from me, You’d surprised at the number of women I had to spend my cash on because I was a doctor practicing without a license. I’ve stopped that shit as they, in spite of my many correct diagnoses, still viewed me as that bare foot boy who only attended the Garrison. They can kiss my ass. Speaking of kissing ass, would you like for me to demonstrate the Efficacy of Viagra or Cialis? You don’t have to make your mind up now, when you come over there will be time enough. Love ya too!
@ Whitehill
I AM A DOCTOR, AND I AGREE WITH YOU 100%
You are also a supporter of anti science narratives.
A man you elevates religious dogmas over science.
In short you are a christian, fascist, religious bigot.
@ GP December 30, 2020 7:46 AM
“RE Grenville, Stay in your lane.
COULD YOU PLEASE KINDLY TELL US WHERE HE HAS ERRED?”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Shouldn’t you, Dr. GP aka the bogus priest of false teachings, be questioning the competence of your Great Physician in the sky?
When is he (or it) the miracle worker going to send another Passover to protect his people on Earth (modern-day Egypt) from Covid-19?
There must have been thousands of both white and black evangelical Christians like you who felt the “Rapture” of wrath from the scythe of the Grim Reaper called Covid-19.
Instead of the blood from the sheep (Aries) some guts from the fish (Pisces) in the form of blessings from the Pope might just suffice.
Anybody who thinks we should trust the authorities blindly should research the recent preventable tragedies of the Boeing 737 max.
See what measures Boeing have NOW taken to ensure the safety of passengers and people on the ground.
What they did last they should have done first. And they got that one past the authorities in the non 2×3, non backwater/backwoods, non stay-at-home Bajan Conditioned, most wonderfully functioning, least Banana Republicky, most splendiferous United States of America.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
AND WHAT IS THE 2 x 3 ISLAND BEST KNOWN FOR BESIDES BEGGING, BEGGING AND BORROWING FROM THE SAME WHITE MAN WHILST TAKING ADVANTAGE AND MISTREATING ITS OWN BLACK MASSES.
Why attack GP for his christian faith?
Why not defend your faithlessness and by articulating your spiritual world views for discussion and interrogation?
Faith and science are not mutually exclusive. Some of the greatest scientists the world has seen were also theologians.
Sadly, “science” itself has become a religion of sorts to many who blindly trust it. Anyone who has deeply studied any particular area of science quickly realizes that there are many more questions than answers and that there are hard limits to the questions that science is able answer.
What Grenville is articulating is no different from discussions in every facet of life from the living rooms of the rich to the local rum shop. I have never heard of a medication that does not come with side effects and some are not discovered until many years after the drug has been accepted into everyday use.
No one will be forced into taking a vaccine (although some Gov’ts might employ sanctions against those who do not take it to protect others much like some Gov’ts have enacted policies in educational facilities against students whose parents object to them being vaccinated for other diseases to protect other students).
On TV daily there are ads promoting any number of drugs that come with significant (to me at least) side effects that I sometimes wonder why anyone would willingly take them but for some the pros outnumber the cons. I take medication that potentially have side effects but fortunately none have been visited upon me (so far), but I am willing to take the risk. We all survived the many mandatory inoculations that were omnipresent in our childhood but some of us are querying whether our children or grandchildren should be subjected to the same regime.
We are continually being reminded that life is short, (Sweetboy’s father lived past the century mark now he is gone at 79).
Que Sera Sera
@Sargeant
Exactly!
Poor you! We are known for our Covid success.
Was not Mia all over the international media being made known?
@ Dullard
A couple days ago I called for a discussion on the solidification of science as the post-Enlightenment secular religion. CoVid has reinforced this: how many times have we herd we must be guided by the so-called science. Instead of priests we now have scientists.
There are two good books worth reading: Scientific Colonialism, and Medical Racism. We must interrogate science as much as we interrogate anything else.
A young Asian registrar once tried his medical nonsense with me by talking about the propensity of Afro-Caribbean people to suffer from certain conditions. He had strayed outside medicine to talk about socio-cultural issues.
When I challenged him, he got angry and said he did not have time to discuss the matter. Not only did I know more about the subject than he did, I was involved in discussing and studying the subject before he was born.
(Quote):
A young Asian registrar once tried his medical nonsense with me by talking about the propensity of Afro-Caribbean people to suffer from certain conditions. He had strayed outside medicine to talk about socio-cultural issues. (Unquote).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
But isn’t that a well-known position taken by the members of the medical fraternity and related-scientific field in many Western societies including those in the Caribbean?
Aren’t black people known to have higher incidences of NCD’s like high blood pressure, diabetes sickle cell anemia and certain ‘other’ cancers than say Caucasians?
But the reverse could be asked of other races like why are whites ‘more’ prone to be afflicted by motor neuron ailments than blacks.
Miller December 30, 2020 9:35 AM
Just came back from walking in the Warrens area. Had to cross the multiple lanes several times. We old ladies negotiating Warrens have learned to trust the engineers…but I must admit that in this case I used my eyes to verify. Lol!
@Simple Simon
This is one for the top drawer. What humor!!!
@whiteHill December 30, 2020 9:51 AM
Love ya!
But not taking medical advice from you neider!
And a happy new year to you.
(Quote):
Faith and science are not mutually exclusive. Some of the greatest scientists the world has seen were also theologians. (Unquote).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Some of the greatest scientists have also been killed by rabid theologians for their refusal to accept things written by the same theologians.
Remember Giordano Bruno (who was burnt to death for his ‘scientific’ beliefs) or the persecution of Galileo?
Dr. GP is one of those de facto doctors of that brand of dangerous theology and who refuses to accept the ‘validity’ of any other form of religion other than his so-called Judeo-Christian-fundamentalism which applies a rigid interpretation to his well-known book of plagiarized stories like the Six day Creation and the Adam & Eve cloning despite the massive scientific evidence to the contrary.
Is Dr. GP prepared to accept the teachings in Islam about medicine or the holistic benefits’ of the earlier Hindu-based Ayurvedic medicine?
If so, he might be able to find the answer to the question as to whether the world is made up of simply black and white.
“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
The mind is everything. What you think you become.
You only lose what you cling to.
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
It is better to travel well than to arrive.”
@ whiteHill December 30, 2020 9:51 AM “…it does not present you as intelligent and knowledgeable as you want to project…”
Where have I ever projected that I am intelligent or knowledgeable?
You know that my other name is Simple Simon, right?
@ Cuhdear BajanDecember 30, 2020 12:10 PM
But Dr. whiteHill has more than medical advice in store for you.
He has also a ‘Prescription of iron for your permanent anaemic condition.
And like a long-awaited New Year’s present, it is all gift-wrapped in rubber like Dr. Beckles needle.
@David December 30, 2020 8:53 AM “Do we know the long term effects of most vaccines?”
Yes we do.
me and my cohort were immunised against polio in 1961/60. More that 60 years later, we still here. We still good.
@Donna December 30, 2020 10:14 AM “Anybody who thinks we should trust the authorities blindly should research the recent preventable tragedies of the Boeing 737 max.”
I lost my trust in Boeing engineers when I read somewhere that one–just one–of their engineers, an ENGINEER kept a horse in a field as his ahh! “domestic partner”
Crazy.
But “yes” i still had to fly regularly for my job
I didn’t make me lose trust in all engineers.
Local Talk Radio
Madicine
Black people like Hal do love to tell us boring anecdotes stereotyping others as though he has superiority in knowledge wisdom and understanding in overstanding the human race, so to keep in the Barbajan spirit of telling you boring old anecdotes, I remember in 1984 when Jesse Jackson was running for President of the United States of America and I said to an American Doctor visiting London Town that I would like him to win and he replied that “Black people can never become President as they are too lazy”. I told him he obviously had never heard the Kyoto Jazz Sextet House Music Remixes* and stunned him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajmcr9QN-sc
(*) I didn’t really say that, but I wish I had said that zinger on reflection though
@Pachamama December 30, 2020 10:28 AM
I don’t need to add a word. Couldn’t have said it as well as you have.
sorry for disambiguation and clarification the American Doctor’s race was American Indian not West Indian or Native American but Asian
African Power (Trinidadiandeep Remix)
I will note, not for the first time that there was no lotta long talk when Viagra and Cialis were put on the market.
I don’t know how it was in the great white north, but please note that even though no Bajan man anywhere has ever admitted to experiencing erectile dysfunction, our local pharmacists could not keep up with the demand for these substances developed by BIG PHARMA.
I dun.
Before miller, white hill, Baje, Hal and GP et. al cuss me.
But I bet that even if Viagra and Cialis was causing fellas heads to permanently spin ’round so that the eyes were at the back the fellas wouldda still tek um.
We did not hear any long talk then about doctors not being scientists, and Bajan doctors not doing any original research. Although a Bajan doctor a friend of a friend of mine was indeed one of the fellas working on the development of Viagr.
According to the British Press, Peter Dunn and Albert Wood are named as the inventors of the process by which Viagra was created. Their names appeared on an application by Pfizer to patent (WOWO9849166A1) the manufacturing process of Sildenafil Citrate, better known as Viagra.
Peter Dunn and Albert Wood are both employees of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals at the Pfizer run research laboratories in Kent and thus are not allowed to discuss their status or non-status as inventors. In a statement, Albert Wood said: “I can’t say anything, you’ll have to talk to the press office…”
On the invention of Viagra, a Pfizer Pharmaceuticals spokesperson said:
“Life might seem cruel, but they are paid to work for the company and the company owns their inventions. Literally, hundreds of people at Pfizer have been involved in developing the drug. You can’t really point to two individuals and say they spawned Viagra.”
More of a Team Effort
Anyhow, to the best of our knowledge, this is how the story goes. In 1991, inventors Andrew Bell, Dr. David Brown and Dr. Nicholas Terrett discovered that chemical compounds belonging to the pyrazolopyrimidine class were useful in treating heart problems such as angina. Some experts consider Terrett as the father of Viagra as he was named in the 1991 British patent for Sildenafil (trade name Viagra) as a possible heart medicine.
It was in 1994, though, that Terrett and his colleague Peter Ellis discovered during the trial studies of Sildenafil as a potential heart medication that it also increased blood flow to the penis, allowing men to reverse erectile dysfunctions. The drug acts by enhancing the smooth muscle relaxant effects of nitric oxide, a chemical that is normally released in response to sexual stimulation. The smooth muscle relaxation allows increased blood flow into the penis, leading to an erection when combined with something arousing.
While Terrett is not allowed to discuss whether he considers himself the real inventor of Viagra as he is still a Pfizer employee, he did once state: “There were three patents put forward for Viagra. Basically, me and my team discovered how useful the drug might be… they (Wood and Dunn) created a way of mass producing it only.”
Pfizer claims that hundreds of inventors were involved with the creation of Viagra and that there was not enough room on the patent application to name them all. Thus, only the department heads were listed. Dr. Simon Campbell, who until recently was the Senior Vice President Of Medicinal Discovery at Pfizer and oversaw Viagra’s development, is considered by the American press to be the inventor of Viagra. However, Campbell would rather be remembered as the father of Amlodipine, a cardiovascular drug.
Steps In Making Viagra
Dunn and Wood worked on the crucial nine-step process to synthesize a Sildenafil (Viagra) compound into a pill. It was approved by the FDA on March 27, 1998, as the first pill to treat impotence. Here is a quick summary of the steps:
Methylation of 3-propyl pyrazole-5-carboxylic acid ethyl ester with hot dimethyl sulfate
Hydrolysis with aqueous NaOH to free acid
Nitration with oleum/fuming nitric acid
Carboxamide formation with refluxing thionyl chloride/NH4OH
Reduction of nitro group to amino
Acylation with 2-methoxybenzoyl chloride
Cyclization
Sulfonation to the chlorosulfonyl derivative
Condensation with 1-methylpiperazine
Empirical formula = C22H30N6O4S
molecular weight = 474.5
solubility = 3.5 mg/mL in water……(Quote)
Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK. It is a non mRNA developed vaccine. If I were forced to take a COVID-19 vaccine, then I would take this, or any other non mRNA vaccine developed in the Western hemisphere.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/12/30/united-kingdom-astrazeneca-coronavirus-vaccine/
Song for unity
@ Cuhdear BajanDecember 30, 2020 1:15 PM
Ms Silly Woe-to-man, please don’t be too ‘hard’ on the miller.
He, the once lion of a man, has only one rather ‘lame’ foot to stand on these days.
For ‘old’ men need Viagra and Cialis with the passage of time just like how women need silicone implants and KYJ.
Just a word of ‘wisdom’ from your old but friendly neighbourhood chemist.
Cuhdear Bajan
Are you a cut woman witch who uses a screwdriver for abortions
African Power / Mission
For you completists out deh here are a couple of original jazz versions for you to add to your record box
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDY2mLCShm8
Keep Movin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4EoHL2g36o
Before Viagra and Cialis
There was sea moss and the Birdie
with Bois Bande
Some of you on this blog should chew on this:
https://brandnewtube.com/watch/ask-the-experts-covid-19-vaccine-now-banned-on-youtube-and-facebook_qIsNohSIeSgfz2J.html
On my last visit to Barbados a friend took me too see the variety of ‘medicines’ available to aspiring studs.
I cannot remember the many names but one stuck in my mind…. ‘bedroom bully’.
One thing I like about Bajan males is we focus on the more practical. We do not search for the ‘Fountain of Youth’s we search for perfect aphrodisiac…
Guinness, milk and egg
Looking for the calypso with the lyrics like this..
And if he drinking guinness for days and days
And no time at all the dead cannot raise
I am in agreement with the Author of this article. It gels with my way of thinking.
TRUST NO ONE. These are not normal times, I agree with him.
This rushed so called vaccine does not conform with what is normally done with a new medicine. By the time we see side effects it will be too late for any of us. This is just like Tobacco of years gone by when we were told that we have nothing to fear from Cigarettes, it is good for us
Now we know better.
But it is too late for many.
@ Cud dear, you women seem to be only focusing on us old men buying or having to use Viagra or Cialis. let me warn you, a while back I saw the figures $$ on young boys spend on these pills, I was amazed, I was reminded that at their age, I only spend a few $$ on a vial of China brush it lasted me for a while,
It is ironic how little to next to nothing we bring to human advancement through science and technology, yet have the audacity to question scientific break-through in which we play no part. We can’t even make a basic medication as a panadol muchless. If we are so bright and know so much, why don’t we just go ahead and develop our vaccine.
Presently we are doing more damage to our health by the food we consume and our promiscuous sexual lifestyle than a covid vaccine will ever do. Then again, we like to major in the minor. Go figure.
The death of Dr. Susan Moore.
A tragedy emblematic of racism within the fabric of American society.
Medical racism which georgie porgy has never showed any interest in
For she has never been a member of his select.
shown
Funny, but to each his own. Trust all professional but suspect all as self serving who can make mistakes. The 787Max crashed, lawyers give bad advice, surgeons make mistakes, a professional built the Eagle Hall Market, some economist destroys countries, accountants as professional very often manage others money but never their own, financial advisors sink billion dollar companies and so too did space shuttles crash despite professionals on the job.
Many persons in the UK have fought for compensation after it was found the UK government lied and hid health concerns about the drug primados #PrimadosScandal in the 60s and 70s.
I have a friend who is a victim and like so many children who mums took the drug ended up with cancer of liver and kidneys. British Government only accepted liability in July 2020.
Vaccination against pathogens is necessary, but in the most transparent and accountable manner for public confidence not to be under threat. Who wish to be guinea pigs must and take the various vaccines, must not be condemned but shown appreciation and encouraged.
https://news.sky.com/story/primodos-scandal-relief-for-campaigners-as-review-demands-compensation-for-victims-of-hormone-pregnancy-test-12023127
https://youtu.be/rKoZGxMAnc4
@ Kammie
Go back to the early discussion on BU about CoVid when scientists were saying that black people were more likely to be victims because of so-called underlying conditions.
I said then that it was racism, that doctors were making choices, who to allow to live and who to die; now they are doing it with the vaccines. Scienntists and doctors are not Gods. Question their every bit of advice.
Seems like Forty Acres is unaware of the many Bajans working in research and development in larger countries that can more easily afford to fund it.
These Bajans were spawned and raised by us. We contribute human resources to science. Indeed a Bajan is a member of the team that developed one of these very vaccines we are discussing.
Besides which, I do not understand how not being able to develop one’s own vaccine should prevent a person from asking questions about a vaccine he is being asked to inject into his body.
That’s plain stupid.
It seems that some of us will go to any lengths, no matter how ludicrous, in order to “throw shade” at Bajans.
What extraordinary failings do Bajan have to be so bashed?
Indeed, we bash ourselves just as severely as the white racists!
Is it our opinion that the white racists are right?
Sign me up for the vaccine as soon as it becomes available to me
Too long away from my family. Life is too short and taking a vaccine is MY choice.
A fool in a vehicle can at any moment frig up my life and leave me in a worse state than the side effects of the vaccine – this I have not control of
I have been involved in the drug development process at a number of different companies. I have seen the process from the inside and have confidence in how the drugs I worked on were developed.
One of the most disappointing drug I worked on was a cardiovascular drugs for Boots. With excellent short-term results, it was approved. In a long-term study patients were found to have an increased risk of death. The drug was withdrawn from the market.
Even with my experience, I still find myself wavering on the COVID vaccine. I believe that with such large trials and with the accompanying publicity, the i’s would be dotted and the t’s would be crossed. It is true that there are no long-term studies but given how these vaccine are being developed, I do not know if long-terms studies are required.
I can convince myself that is everything is “kosher”. I have comorbidities that should make me rush and accept one of the vaccines, but yet I hesitate. I ‘trust’ the drug development process, but how do I put the Tuskegee experiment, HIV trials by the French or corrupt investigators out of my mind?
In all likelihood, I will take the vaccine when my turn comes. However, the decision to do so is not as simple as some would suggest.
@TheOGazerts
It seems at worst there is a choice of having the virus take more of us now or the vaccine somewhere further down the road of life.
I have a relative 101 years old and her daughter (carer) scheduled to have their first shot on 18th. January and are eagerly looking forward to it – better than planning a funeral sooner rather than later..
With the rate with which the virus is mutating and spreading I won’t hesitate.
@Donna
I hear howls of disappointments about not being able to see family, etc. and blame the government guidelines. I’d let them follow their own judgement but would ask they do the funeral arrangements before they travel.
Remembering that stealing an apple was enough of a crime to ship the offenders to Australia on convict ships, a solution to offenders of the COVID restrictions the government could come up with a modern equivalent — Ship them all off to Mars, the moon may be for lesser offences.
@Theo
I thought you were a high school Maths teacher? Apologies. It appears that you are a statistician. Can I ask you a question or two?
You said ” It is true that there are no long-term studies but given how these vaccine are being developed, I do not know if long-terms studies are required”
What about the vaccine development makes you comfortable with a lack of long term studies?
Are you comfortable with how quickly the vacs have been developed, trialed and brought to market?
Thank you, TheO!
“You are getting six months . . . so all the others from out of the country will understand that I cannot condone this kind of behaviour. Wunna can’t slip out and do as wunna like . . . . That will be a lesson for all the others . . . . [You] can’t do it”.
Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes as he sentenced Jamaican visitor Dean George Scott to six months in prison for leaving his quarantine centre to purchase “Fanta and other stuff” at a shop.
Let’s see what happens to the English couple who got arrested at the airport.
https://stluciatimes.com/jamaican-jailed-for-six-months-for-covid-19-violation-in-barbados/
Two quick comments:
You said ” It is true that there are no long-term studies but given how these vaccine are being developed, I do not know if long-terms studies are required”
“What about the vaccine development makes you comfortable with a lack of long term studies?”
My studies were mainly in chronic illnesses hypertension and diabetes. With these types of disease one can conduct long-term studies. I do not know or believe that long-terms studies can “be done” in the same way for vaccines as vaccines are usually a limited number of injections over a limited time.
However, the FDA, monitors (collects and and examines) adverse events reports for vaccines with the hope of catching safety signals. One can think of this monitoring as one big ‘long-term’ study where data are collected and monitored with the intention of gleaning information from the large number of reports (millions, over time).
“Are you comfortable with how quickly the vacs have been developed, trialed and brought to market?”
Since you asked me. To me it is not statistical/scientific or anything like that.
We are faced with an immediate problem and we need quick answers. Even with the pace of vaccine development, the number of infections is still staggering. It is a question of doing something quickly or doing nothing.
I know I was not much help, but I try to avoid overthinking this COVID-19 mess.
@ Theo
Cheers for you views. I wasn’t expecting a scientific response as such, but your personal take given your position and vantage point.
And yes I agree that an “exit route” out of the pandemic in near impossible without some sort of pharmaceutical intervention i.e vaccine.