Medicine and Health in era of Covid (Vaccines)
The lay of the land as of April 21, 2022 in the eyes of one physician
Thesis: 1) humans intrinsically orient toward health
2)various industries profit from human illness, and actively disrupt health-seeking behaviour by humans
3)one job of physicians is to defend patients from (2) and reorient them toward (1)
The (Ideal/Mythical) Making of a Physician
Born into family that retains traditional orientation toward health: no smoking, temperance with alcohol and other mind-altering drugs, predisposition to exercise, predisposition to avoiding prescription medications and surgeries, reasonably sound mental health, reasonable skepticism of “quick fix” approaches to life
Education prior to medical school to establish literacy, numeracy, critical thinking
Medical school: training in array of human behaviours and physiologies in health and illness; calibration of perspective to enable appreciation of “less sick” and “more healthy;” introduction to methods of diagnosis and therapy for various illnesses; introduction to health promotion/restoration
Clinical practice: refinement of above via trial/error, accumulation of corrective experience; response to emerging illnesses or threats to health
The Physician in Era of Covid
Major challenge is how to prioritize: depending on one’s point of view or due diligence:
a) covid is major threat therefore reorient one’s practice to diagnosis, treatment, prevention of covid;
or (b) medical measures against covid are major threat, therefore reorient one’s practice to diagnosis, treatment, prevention of iatrogenic illness (from lockdowns, vaccines etc.);
or c) covid and covid treatments are distractions from true Horsemen of Illness Apocalypse (poor nutrition, other self-destructive habits) - maintain the course of focusing on nutrition and healthy habits.
Covid mRNA Vaccines as a threat to health
Appears that approximately half of Canadians have not obtained “booster,” thus it would appear that we are approaching a majority consensus that vaccines have served their purpose. However, it is likely that millions more covid mRNA vaccines will be given, with thousands or tens of thousands of adverse events, before covid mRNA vaccines run their course in Canada.
As yet, there does not appear to be an effective treatment for vaccine adverse events, and so prevention of adverse events would appear desirable. How best to accomplish this is a challenge when several layers of government, including medical leadership organizations, are actively promoting covid mRNA vaccination.
Meanwhile, it is important to establish methods of diagnosis and treatment of vaccine related illness.
How to balance between these competing tasks, along with other professional tasks, is the challenge.