tjwebbmd.com

As a Physician, one of the most difficult dichotomies to hold in tension is the contrast between the heroic sacrifices you have seen your colleagues make on behalf of their patients every single day, and the very real harm and humiliation so many people have experienced at the hands of doctors.

It means that even if you’ve spent every day of your professional life listening with empathy, maintaining high standards of truth and kindness, and fighting for equitable care for your patients, the trust of a patient still isn’t something you are 𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙙 to.

Trust has been broken by other doctors, by systems we have been complicit in or too complacent with, and unless we are flawless (I’m certainly not), even by ourselves.

We have to 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 trust. With every single patient, every single time.

𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 & 𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬

𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐜?
(𝐴: 𝑁𝑜)

Those whom I interact with regularly who are undecided or hesitant about vaccines are typically patients and parents with sincere, legitimate questions, who deserve the time it takes to hear their concerns, answer their questions completely, and offer reassurance. But unfortunately, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙤 people out there who are promoting anti-vaccine propaganda and deliberately creating false information. One common strategy to increase unease or paranoia about vaccinating our children is to simply list the scientific sounding ingredients and then ask, “𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴?” Usually this approach will ignore benign sounding ingredients like “sucrose” or “gelatin”, and focus in on lengthy or scientific-sounding ingredients like “nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide” or “cetyltrimethylammonium bromide,” which register emotionally as more intimidating, less safe, and less natural. Of course we know that logically a chemical with a long name would not necessarily be any more or less dangerous than one with a short name; “ricin” has a short name, and it’s the 5th most dangerous chemical in the world (that is 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 an example; there is 𝗡𝗢 ricin in your vaccines. 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘢 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴). But fear mongering is not always logical.

They might also home in on a naturally occurring and well known chemical that most people think about in conjunction with another of its uses, counting on that association alone to create fear. A good example is 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗵𝘆𝗱𝗲, which most of us think of in the context of embalming, but is also used in applications from color photography to deodorants; and of course, as an anti-bacterial and anti-fungal in certain vaccines. Some vaccines contain about .005 to .01 mg per dose; a 2 month old baby produces up to 200 times more than that every single day as a part of their normal metabolism (for adults, it’s more like 3,000 times more). Yet because our culture so strongly associates formaldehyde with death, merely invoking it’s name is enough to create unease.

Most of the ingredients in vaccines are there to keep the attenuated or killed virus pieces from decaying long before they are injected. Others are there to prevent the growth of bacteria or fungi in the vaccine vials themselves. Still others are used to stimulate the body’s immune cells around the injection site to make them more likely to produce an adequate response that leads to long-term immunity. 𝗔𝗹𝗹 chemicals we encounter in our lives are toxic under certain circumstances or in high enough doses (image 3); 𝙣𝙤𝙣𝙚 of the ingredients in vaccines are toxic at the doses or in the manner given. I think people often forget that the scientists who design the vaccines, and the doctors and nurses that counsel patients about them and inject them, are human beings who also vaccinate ourselves and our children; we want vaccines to be safe for 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛𝙞𝙨𝙝 reasons, too, not just altruistic ones.

That all applies to traditional vaccines; the new mRNA vaccines are made differently, and so they don’t need a lot of the same additional chemicals to ensure they work. In fact, what’s shocking about them is just how few ingredients they actually have. In addition to the messenger RNA molecules themselves, the Pfizer vaccine has just 4 synthetic fats (lipid nanoparticles) meant to deliver the mRNA into the cells that will build the COVID-19 spike protein, 4 salts to make sure the vaccine is at the same acidity and osmolality as the tissue it is being injected into so it can get absorbed (and hurt less), and 1 sugar, sucrose, to protect the vaccine during cold storage.

Salt, fat, sugar. And that’s it.

Some of the substances can still cause a reaction; the leading theory right now is that the few anaphylactic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine were likely due to polyethylene glycol, a common chemical we give in huge doses for constipation, but which can cause an extremely rare, but serious, allergic reaction. This chemical is used to create the lipid nanoparticles through some Tony Stark level methods I can’t hope to understand. The lipid nanoparticles (very small fat molecules that can protect the mRNA) themselves are indeed new technology; which in science terms means about 30 years old (Image 4). Over that time period their safety has been studied extensively and found to be safe, non-toxic, and biocompatible/biodegradable. And because the world is crazy, 𝙣𝙤, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙮 𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙨 (Image 5)(but how cool would that be?!).

I can’t claim to be familiar with every anti-vaccine meme and article out there, but I haven’t seen as much about ‘toxic ingredients’ with the COVID-19 vaccine, and I think that’s because even compared to the safe ingredients of traditional vaccines the ingredients of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, marvels of modern science, still manage to 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 very unimpressive, and thus feel less intimidating.

𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭: "𝐈𝐟 𝐈 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐬?"

𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 & 𝐀𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬:
𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐐&𝐀 𝐎𝐧 𝐓𝐉𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐛𝐌𝐃.𝐜𝐨𝐦 (updated regularly): https://tjwebbmd.com/2020/12/24/covid-19-vaccine-questions-and-answers

𝟭. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤? https://tinyurl.com/ycetonku
𝟮. 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲? (𝑨: 𝒀𝒆𝒔!) & 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲? (𝑨: 𝑵𝒐!) https://tinyurl.com/yabolsbf

𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬:
𝐍𝐨 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐢𝐞 𝐘𝐞𝐭 or "𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥" https://tinyurl.com/y7xlc4ko

"𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝟗𝟓% 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬... 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐌𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐝𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲." https://tinyurl.com/y7ylla8k

𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐍𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬
𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞: Herd immunity and vaccines: Vaccines 101 – https://tinyurl.com/y27txvro