To the Editor:
I write in hopes of reassuring people that the vaccine theories spouted in Sue C. Speck’s letter to the editor are largely gibberish.
1. The technique used in the new vaccines was actually many years in the making. (Source: “The Story of mRNA,” Statnews.com)
2. Clinical trials have indeed been done, and those trials continue so long-term effects can be picked up if necessary. (Source: Moderna’s website, Modernatx.com)
3. Her claim that vaccine developers will not be held financially accountable for problems? True. That’s been part of vaccination policy going back the time of Swine Flu in 1976; without it, pharmaceutical companies would have little incentive to research and develop vaccines.
4. Her claim that life insurance companies aren’t paying for vaccine-related deaths is surely premature, as the vaccine has only been out a few months.
5. The Covid vaccine does not “mess with our RNA.” It disappears once it has trained our immune system to recognize the new virus. (Source: CDC)
6. The survival rate from Covid is not 99.6 percent. It is 98.2 percent in the U.S. and 97.1 percent in Britain. However, that factors in all cases in all ages and we know young people are largely unscathed by Covid-19 infections. The death rate in patients 65-74 years old is 1,300 times that of children, and 3,200 times for patients 75-84 years old. (Source: CDC)
Ms. Speck is welcome to trust the advice of a Belgian veterinarian over the thousands and thousands of other health experts in the world. That is her choice, yet she fails to grasp that declining the vaccine remains her choice. The government will not force her to get the vaccine. As is the case with childhood vaccines, she may be denied participation in some things as a result, but again, that is her choice.
Note well, though: Nowhere does she mention any concern for how her choice might harm others.
Kathleen S. O’Brien
Sparta