Introduction
This is a topic I have been reluctant to write about because it is a quagmire of emotion and confusion, especially nowadays and sure to gather heat as this year rolls along. The topic has been so polarised into opposing camps such that there is no longer any middle ground, which is where I want to be.
"If you not totally for, or totally against vaccinations, then you are my enemy".
No matter what I say, or how careful the wording, I'm going to upset one camp or the other. My article "Why we need the vaccines", caused some consternation and the need for me to say where I stand on vaccines, so here we go!
The first thing to emphasise is I don't mind vaccines, but this is with several provisos, which I explain in this article. The most important proviso and one that concerns me greatly (they all do!) is the way they promote vaccines as the saviour from all that ails while ignoring the need for urgent action to address the reasons New Zealanders are becoming less healthy and, therefore, so vulnerable to disease.
Best used sparingly
Like antibiotics, vaccines are a wonderful health technology, but best applied sparingly and for only the most compelling of purposes. The widespread use and overuse of antibiotics in humans and for animal husbandry is causing widespread antibiotic resistance, requiring more powerful and larger doses (intravenously, for example), thus increasing the risk of serious complications. We now face the end of antibiotics as a therapy, and that will be a disaster. Any new antibiotics must be more potent than the last and in large doses, increasing the risk and severity of side effects. Routine surgery, even the most simple, may soon become life-threatening as antibiotic-resistant superbugs proliferate. The problem with vaccines is similar, but with differing consequences (weakened and confused immune systems) which I will explain in a moment.
Invest first in what really produces good health
Medical procedures, including antibiotics and vaccines can not be replacements for public health measures such as providing clean water and sanitation, reducing poverty, providing warm and dry housing, reducing stress, improving nutrition and removing toxins from our environment. Antibiotics and vaccines have had dramatic effects, improving health and longevity, but measures such as sewage reticulation, reticulating clean water, and even the invention of the refrigerator have been more beneficial for health and longevity. We must not forget this.
Do you really think they want you to be healthy?
With the increasing privatisation, politicisation, industrialisation and domination of food and healthcare by massive transnational corporations, plus the dis-powering of the general medical practitioner, the application of medical procedures are now predominantly for the generation of profit. With the collusion between politicians and industrialist, positive health outcomes are a secondary or nil consideration.
Vaccination is a trillion-dollar industry. Like all industries operating under the capitalist model, it requires ongoing and unlimited growth. For this to happen, industry must find a new disease for which they develop a new vaccine and roll it out.
Every human being has an immune system. This is our most powerful and most comprehensive defense against all disease - every disease. The role of our immune system protecting us is being ignored and for good reasons. People who are strong and healthy, regardless of age, need little in the way of highly profitable patent medicines. A sick person, from the cradle to the grave, is the best customer. A healthy person is bad for business. Lifespan is irrelevant, so long as they are around long enough to have their pockets and those of their family emptied of their last cents.
The response to this COVID-19 pandemic includes ignoring any health measures other than locking down, isolating, whipping up fear and offering patented vaccines as our only escape from the prisons that now confine humanity. The measures of lockdown, isolation, confinement and fear are damaging to our immune health, making us more vulnerable to all disease, including COVID-19. These measures are good for business, for some, when you think about it. Your local greengrocer, butcher, cafe and restaurant are struggling to survive or out of business while the huge mail-order multinationals, supermarket chains and the fast-food conglomerates are thriving. Big Pharma and Big Medicine are making trillions out of this pandemic and everything else, big and small, that threatens our health.
Too much of a good thing is unhealthy
When I was a child, the number of vaccinations we received were a handful, no more - yes, I can count the number on one hand. Today, a child may receive 50-80 different vaccine doses during their first ten years. Despite the lack of vaccines when I was a child, we were historically the most healthy generation of humans. We had fresh full cream milk in schools and health camps for any sickly children, funded by the sale of stamps. The post-war design for schools was called the "sunshine school" with large classroom windows opening wide onto courtyards and all facing North towards the sun! We had a massive investment in quality state houses. All of us had the cleanest water delivered to us in tap water, and I remember the original sewage line being dug leading to our house, replacing the cesspit. Vaccines played a role in eliminating diseases such as tuberculosis, polio and smallpox, but they were not the key players in producing the healthy generation of post-war children that became known as the "Baby-Boomers".
The poor health of children today is such that many experts predict their life expectancy will be less than the Baby-Boomers of which I am one, and I don't think we are anywhere near as healthy as we could be, so the bar is low. Is there a link between the number of vaccines and the avalanche of chronic diseases that now afflict our young people? I think there is. The experts who say vaccines are completely safe and effective are seriously misinformed, wilfully ignorant, or being deliberately misleading. Vaccines are great and they have saved countless lives but, like antibiotics, parties which have no genuine interest in your health are abusing this technology for profit and we are now paying dearly for it.
A handful of jabs - yes - 50 - no! Our immune systems can only take so much before it breaks down and becomes dysfunctional. You don't have to be a specialist vaccinologist to know this; all you need is a modicum of common-sense.
How we train our immune system to be strong
Think of athletic training theory to explain how our immune system works. The coach prepares the athlete for competition by regular exposure to carefully selected and measured stressors. These are the stresses collectively expected during competition. We start at a low level and progressively increase the intensity and duration of each stressor, such as running longer and faster, while lifting heavier weights.
A great coach concentrates on the basics, just a handful of key factors - no more - and avoids the bells and whistles that distract the over-enthusiastic and inexperienced coach. A great coach never throws everything, including the kitchen sink at his or her athletes. A great coach is careful to include periods of rest for recovery and growing stronger. The coach ensures a rich supply of nutrients via food that is fresh and varied.
Our immune system works the same. We train our immune system by exposing it to things that stress it, like low-grade infections, exposure to all kinds of bacteria, yeast, fungi and viruses. Even repeated exposure to cold primes and strengthens our immune system. So long as there are breaks in the stress with sufficient rest and nutrition, our immune system treats these stressors like an ongoing series of physical workouts. Like an athlete's muscles, it grows stronger and more durable. It builds resilience. It is preparing us for the infection that might otherwise be the killer. When the killer comes along, our immune system is ready and the chances are that we will be among the survivors. Those who are "germophobes" will be less likely to survive. The difference in health between children raised on a farm as compared to those from the city is an example of this principle of training the immune system, building responsiveness and resilience.
Does a vaccine confer immunity?
A vaccine does not really create immunity per se; what a vaccine does is it improves the ability of your body to identify and respond to a particular infectious invader, hopefully fast and well before the pathogen has time to become deeply embedded and prolific within us. A vaccine works best and its benefits last longer for a person who is in excellent health and is less effective in a person who is in poor health. The less basically robust a person, the more likely there will be complications with any vaccine. You will gather why I think it is nuts to put all of our investments and hopes into a vaccine to save us while completely ignoring the basics of good health, such as fresh, nutrient-dense food, exercise, sunshine and fresh air.
How do we prepare our immune system for battle?
Like a brilliant coach planning workouts to prepare for competition, it makes no sense to throw every vaccine all at once into an infant. All infants begin life with an immature immune system eagerly waiting to be gently exercised, to be progressively strengthened. This is like a person entering a gym for the first time; we've got to go easy on them, they are keen, but we will hurt them if we have them do too much all at once. Commonsense tells us it is stupid to bombard an immature immune system with multiple vaccine stressors without a break. The better and much safer approach is to give one vaccine, wait a few weeks and see how the child responds. If all is well, then proceed to the next vaccine, then the next. Immune systems evolved to resist one new significant pathogen at a time - not a lot all at once. It is hardly any wonder that we have a Tsunami of health issues nowadays, associated with weak and confused immune systems.
When is the best time to vaccinate?
If an athlete is unwell or sore, the sensible coach orders them to go home, rest up and eat nutritious food. The same goes for a child or adult awaiting a vaccine. If the child is in any way appearing stressed, such as a runny nose, teething or shifting from the breast to solids, this is not the time for a vaccine. Vaccinate when the child is in excellent health. Maximise your child's safety and maximise the beneficial response to the vaccine.
Never time or lump together medical procedures, including vaccinations, for the convenience of busy parents, busy clinics, or to save a few dollars.
Which vaccines?
Concentrate on the basics when deciding which vaccine to have and which to not.
Do not throw in the kitchen sink. What I mean by this is to give your child only the vaccines for diseases which there is a real and present risk of contracting and for which the potential consequences are not worth risking. If a vaccine for HPV is recommended for your pre-adolescent daughter, why give it unless she is already sexually active and has multiple partners! If your child lives in a home with clean water and an effective sewage system and there are no injecting drugs users in the house, why have a hepatitis vaccine just yet, if ever? Your child can probably safely delay some vaccines for at least a few more years, all the while giving organs like the brain, and also their immune system time to mature a little more.
What about having the COVID-19 vaccine?
My oldest son, Kelvin, is now into what is longer than 10 months of almost continuous lockdown in his bedroom apartment in London. He is coping very well, working full time from home and in excellent health. I don't think I would have coped. He has had the first of two COVID-19 vaccines. When you think of it, his chances of dying from COVID if he gets it is something like 0.002%, so why did he get it? He got the vaccine because he is an essential worker and, if he is to travel, he realises he will have to display his vaccine passport (yes, this is what we face for as our immediate future!), so he thought, "what the hell - I might as well get it over with!". I would have waited longer to get a better idea of the safety profile of these vaccines, but I am comfortable with his decision because he has a robust immune system. It is coming: we may all be forced to have one of these vaccines, like it or not. I'm very unhappy about the prospect, as I am with the idea of a vaccine passport. We are giving away our freedoms, our privacy, our freedom to exercise free will. We are being required - compelled - to sacrifice ourselves for the Greater Good, whatever that is (Is this really for the benefit of a few elites and a few massive multinationals?). But this is another, although closely related rabbit hole I'll avoid for now!
Concluding remarks
In conclusion, I am partially in favour of vaccinations. I am adamant that vaccines are not a good thing when we bombard humanity with more and more for everything while neglecting to improve the basics of what really produces health and longevity. Since I was a child, New Zealand has gone backwards on investing in the foundations of what produces good health. Drugs do not make people healthy. If we were a truly healthy people, we would have nothing to worry about with COVID-19. There are far worse diseases that we should attend to. It pains me that this team of five million has wasted 50 billion dollars last year on its Pandemic Response, while another billion and more ongoing is being spent this year on a vaccination programme to rescue us from our self-imposed isolation. What I could have done with that $50 billion! Think of what we could have done with this money to address the housing crisis, poverty, obesity, mental health issues, cleaning up our water and so on!
If our Government was genuinely interested in you and me, it would have taken taxes off fresh foods while bumping up the taxes on junk food, especially sugary ones. But it will never do these because of the influence of big business, especially Big Food in this case, and remember, Big Pharma and Big Medicine rely on you being unhealthy from the cradle to the grave. Instead, when the lockdown happened last March, nutritionists and all natural health practitioners closed their doors by order of the Government. Other than supermarkets and liquor stores, most small to medium-sized businesses, including your butcher and greengrocer, were closed. On the day natural health practitioners returned to work, to rescue their struggling businesses, Medsafe banned the use of Artemisia, a herb that has antiviral properties. How cynical was that move? We are now more dependent than ever on the drugs industry, and small businesses of all kinds are now an endangered species. Bring on Amazon! We are more obese and mental health has taken a nose-dive. We are producing a generation of physically unfit germophobes who are more comfortable in a basement than in a field of flowers.
What happens when the next virus comes along - even a bad influenza? More lockdowns? More losses of freedoms? More spending on patent medicines? More concentrating of wealth and power into the hands of a few? Less spending on the things that really improve health?
We need a Great Reset to bring us back to investing in the basics of what really produces healthy people in a healthy society. We need to reject the prevailing paradigm of what is healthy and what produces good heath. It is just not working for me, or my grandchildren. It does not press my buttons. How about yours?