GUEST POST-CLAUDE THOMAS

Concerns About A New Vaccine For Covid-19

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Dr. Claudewell S. ThomasPsychiatrist

Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired. He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more

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Pfizer announced 90% effectiveness in raising protective antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in controlled trials. They have also refused funding that might lead to political claims. Some of the companies involved in Operation Warpspeed are also reporting similar 90%+ successes. Aside from distribution problems (worldwide as well as domestic), decision temperature; temperature maintenance in storage and transport - 470 degrees adding thereto, I have a sense that victory proclamations are premature.

Perhaps it is due to too much familiarity with Bergman's Seventh Seal but death is a formidable foe. All of the responsible experts choose masking and social distancing with avoidance of indoor small group intimacy over vaccination as the best way to slow infection and death. I do not pretend to be a virologist but I have seen pandemics of flu, meningococcemia, dengue, AIDS, and chickenpox. These were relatively benign when compared with Covid-19. The current vaccines target the spiky head of the virus, the usual agent of entry, and precipitant of the deadly inflammatory response which turns the body against itself. But what if the initial response is organ-specific and differs as the infective focus goes from organ to organ? Thus immunity may diminish or be lost as infection moves from organ to organ. In such a scenario, immunity may last only days or weeks, and the possibility of reinfection and/or worsening of an existing condition rises.

In the final analysis, I guess I believe in good and evil (thank you Mrs. Cummings and Mrs. F. Collins Thomas) and in this chess game between mankind and a microscopic fast-moving and infinitely rapidly reproducing nominally living particle for control of terra firma, we are not going to win control with a simple gambit. Climate change and authoritarian leadership around the world favor the virus with its new mutation, coinfective agent, and animal vector.