‘WHY?: Part 2’
CAERS SUBSTACK ARTICLE #44
Transparency is a critical ethical principle. It demands, for example, that those who have been granted privileges to make decisions that affect the lives of others freely share the rationale for the decisions they make. Without that, those who are adversely affected by such decisions will have little recourse to correct actions before harm is done. In that vein, here are just a few more of my, as yet, unanswered questions.
Why were the authorities so completely convinced that they could develop a vaccine when we don’t have vaccines against most infectious diseases and no successful vaccine had ever been developed for any coronavirus, including SARS CoV-1?
Why were authorities convinced that a vaccine could be developed quickly enough when they knew that development of a new vaccine, even utilizing the usual technology, typically takes many years if not decades?
Why did our country’s officials not acknowledge the challenge of immunizing potentially over thirty million Canadian adults quickly enough to prevent the virus from mutating when we have known for decades that coronaviruses mutate very quickly?
Why did medical experts not suggest that while we were waiting for a successful vaccine, we could repurpose some of the 10 000 drugs on the market worldwide (well-studied, readily available and often inexpensive) to minimize morbidity and mortality?
Why did authorities not react enthusiastically by funding worldwide studies when some experts claimed success using repurposed drugs for what was supposed to be a very lethal virus?
Why were experts with differing opinions not invited to dialogue publicly about their conflicting findings and opinions when so much was not known about this ‘novel’ coronavirus?
Why were so many people confident that the vaccines would be safe and effective when they were using a technology that had never been used successfully before (i.e., still experimental)?
Why did authorities not explain in detail the mechanism of action of these experimental COVID ‘vaccines’ and emphasize that this was completely different from all other vaccines because it involved utilizing genetic material?
Why did the authorities not institute Active Surveillance of the experimental COVID vaccines, both for efficacy and safety, when so little was known about them and doing so would have been so easy and yielded so much useful data?
Why was testing for the presence of immunity (naturally or via vaccine), something usually done routinely in the practice of medicine, not done?
Why did the government agree to accept liability for experimental vaccines from which pharmaceutical companies would make billions of dollars?
Why wasn’t an independent body established to monitor the safety and efficacy of the vaccines in order to avoid governmental conflict of interest when it came to identification of, and compensation for, vaccine injury?
Why would the government mandate a vaccine when the long-term, and even short-term, efficacy and safety are both unknown?
Why would the authorities suggest that children, who have proven to only get minimally sick from COVID, take the risk of an experimental vaccine for the protection of adults?
Why would the authorities even suggest, let alone mandate, an experimental vaccine using genetic material for pregnant women when we never do this in medicine?
Well, do you think these are good questions, ones that deserve to be taken seriously? If you are like me and haven’t heard any adequate explanations either, does that bother you? Perhaps, like me, you now want to quiz family and friends, or even experts, to see if they have good answers?
It can be scary asking questions, especially of experts and authorities, because we risk looking stupid or foolish. But few great things have ever been accomplished without some risk, including the risk of embarrassment.
During this season of thanks and goodwill toward all, I am reminded of the famous poem, Desiderata, attributed to Max Ehrmann, which states: ‘You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here’. To that I would add, ‘you have the right to ask questions about issues that affect your life and the lives of those you love’.
See you in the New Year and Happy Holidays!
J. Barry Engelhardt MD (retired) MHSc (bioethics)
CAERS Health Intake Facilitator
Happy Holidays, Barry! Merry Christmas!