PORTLAND, Maine — Of Maine people eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, 65% have had a final dose of it. While that number is encouraging, it also means that there's a large population of people who haven't been vaccinated—and don't want to be.
I spoke with Dr. Reagan Anderson, who is the author of the book, "Universal Death Care: A Solution for Healthcare in the Age of Entitlement." He says those who worry about side effects or how quickly the vaccines were created should take a closer look at the science. Here's what he had to say:
Why are there objections to vaccines in the first place? This all started two decades ago when scientists from Europe completely manufactured false data to show that vaccines were not safe. It has been proved multiple times over, and these people have subsequently lost their doctorate degrees, and have been sanctioned, had criminal proceedings against them, and we know (because we track vaccines after they have been released) that the data that they made up was completely false. Unfortunately, some people are attracted to conspiracy theories instead of relying on science—and that is that the vaccines that we have today are enormously safe. When you look at the facts, the answer concerning the COVID vaccine’s safety is clear.
The facts:
1. Vaccines have helped millions and millions of people. The amount of people that vaccines help is enormous, and in fact, vaccines have saved more lives than all other medical interventions combined. Pharmaceutical companies are not going to rush a vaccine that can potentially harm people, risk their companies going out of business, and face class-action lawsuits.
2. Proper phases have been conducted to ensure public health. All of the proper phases to vaccine development have been carried out to ensure public health. Each phase has been designed in a step-wise manner to make sure the vaccine is safe: they are tested on a very small group of people first to see if the dose is right and if it’s safe. Then they go to a bigger group of people, then an even larger group—finally, they determine how effective the vaccine is. Trials will continue to go on for years so that we can have better and better versions of it. Right now the versions that we currently have of the vaccines are over 90% effective. This means that if you get COVID, your body takes care of the virus before you even know what’s happening—it’s a nonevent and you go on with life as normal.
3. COVID vaccine has mild side effects. The side-effects that some people experience will be minuscule (soreness at the injection site, feeling run-down for a day or two, etc.) compared to what can happen to you if you develop COVID and have more of the extreme symptoms that can require hospitalization. As with all vaccines, there is a reporting system in place to ensure that if there are any problems associated with the vaccine, they will be tracked over time so that we can see if they are associated with the vaccine or not.
4. World effort benefit. The greatest benefit to the development of the COVID-19 vaccine is that the whole world is behind it. The top minds of every scientist who is in the arena in every country raced to help every human on this planet. It is a pivotal point in American history where borders and cultural divides don’t matter—experts have been laser-focused on this vaccine and so it will be the safest and most effective vaccine we have ever had.
5. We can trust science. Do we want to trust the science that is continually testing each and every assumption and theory, that continually tracks vaccines—vaccines for which has had a record of saving more lives than any other medical intervention combined? Or, do we want to shrug our shoulders and react and behave in fear and listen to conspiracy theories that cannot be supported or proven? Anti-vaxxers don’t look at the data or the science because they would rather create fear in people instead of looking at the truth.
6. Leave politics out. Politics should have nothing to do with the vaccine and should not have a place at the discussion table, as no one on the right or the left has the expertise to speak to it as the scientists and doctors do. Science is science, and it relies on a process that has been carried out for millennia and has been refined over time. And the science quite simply states:
- Vaccines work
- Social distancing works
- Masks work
This is NOT a political issue. We are not Republicans or Democrats. We are Americans. We are intelligent. We are resilient. We believe in science. We need 80% of our population to be vaccinated in order for us to get a handle on this life-threatening virus and resume our normal lives again.
Anderson has been a principal investigator in other pharmaceutical trials to bring drugs to market, so he is very familiar with the process of getting the COVID vaccine out into the world.
He was a combat doctor in Iraq and has since run a medical clinic in the U.S.