COVID-19 Update: Wednesday, March 17th

The Dr. Steven Hotze video, some resources and some learning sources.

Today I would like to address the Dr. Steven Hotze "PSA" that is making its way around social media. In the video Dr. Hotze makes some statements that the COVID vaccines are experimental and dangerous "gene therapy" he goes on to say that the vaccine doesn't meet the CDC's own definition of a vaccine because it doesn't prevent you from contracting or spreading the virus. He says even more but all the rest of it is based around these two points - so I want to address these two points. First, and most importantly, they are NOT true.

Here is the CDC definition of a vaccine directly from their website: Vaccine: A product that stimulates a person's immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/imz-basics.htm

While Dr. Hotze is not specific regarding which of the COVID vaccines he is referring to, all three of the current ones do indeed stimulate your immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease (COVID) thereby protecting you from that disease. Nowhere in the definition does it say that you will not contract the disease or spread it - immunity does not mean that. Immunity means you won't get sick. We have been discussing this for quite some time but just as a reminder, the vaccine's first priority is to prevent death, second - prevent illness, third - prevent contracting the disease (i.e. asymptomatic people or carriers), and finally - prevent the ability to spread it. Not all vaccines accomplish all 4 things. Polio is a great example of a vaccine that protects you from death and illness but you could possibly become asymptomatic and spread it. Because so many of us are vaccinated against Polio it doesn't matter because even if we became asymptomatic we would never get sick - thus herd immunity. So the statement that the vaccines don't meet the CDC's own definition of a vaccine is completely and utterly wrong.

His second big argument - the vaccine (again, he does not clarify which one) does not prevent you from getting or spreading the disease. This too is not correct or at best very misleading. We do not know if the vaccines will prevent you from getting or spreading the virus. That is one of the things that we didn't wait to find out before starting vaccinations, so it is something we are currently researching. You may recall we looked at Pfizer's early results which suggested that it indeed did prevent transmission. But we honestly cannot answer that question yet - we don't know and likely the answer will be different for each vaccine. And even if it is true, it is not unusual or alarming and to insinuate it is, is disingenuous at best.

UPDATED: A study just came out today saying that mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) reduce the chance of asymptomatic spread by 80%. So it looks like if you get one of those vaccines you won't be spreading it. You can find this study here: https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab229/6167855

Here is a great resource to learn more about the history of vaccines and try out some interactive activities to see how vaccines work etc. These were created pre-COVID and therefore are not COVID specific but they are easy to understand and provide excellent information. They were created by the college of physicians of Philadelphia. https://www.historyofvaccines.org/activities

FINAL THOUGHTS: Today I typed and retyped and deleted this post more times than usual in order to get the most impartial post I could muster, but admittedly I am frustrated that a year later people are spreading disinformation and I'm afraid it may have bled through. Disinformation is the intentional spreading of false information and I find that much more difficult to stomach than those who share wrong information because they just don't know any better. There is a lot of information out there and it can be hard to know what to believe, particularly when the source seems legit. I want to encourage you to have patience with people as they struggle amid all the noise. We have to continue to be patient and understanding as people work through it all and make their decisions. I hope you have a wonderful St. Patrick's day full of the luck of the Irish.