"Practicing the Truth in Jesus Through Medicine"

"Once you're injected, the life-saving vaccination process has already begun. You can't unring a bell. It's just not physically possible."

"The transaction process for the mRNA vaccine is fairly quick. Basically, by the time you get out to your car, sorry, the magic has already started."

"I think it is actually a good sign that these 'How to undo your vaccine' videos are taking off. It suggests that a lot of those people who previously were saying 'vaccines are terrible and I will never do it' are, actually, doing it."

Angela Rasmussen, virologist, adjunct professor, University of Saskatchewan

A bath may help you relax after getting vaccinated but it's not going to "undo" the effects of the Covid-19 vaccine. Plus, why would you want to undo the effects? (Photo: Getty)

What does an osteopath know that a medical practitioner specializing in virology doesn't know? Well, for starters, how to "detoxx the vaxx". And Georgia-based osteopathic doctor Carrie Madej proceeded to gift her knowledge through a viral video on TikTok claiming a bath with certain 'non-harmful' ingredients will do the trick and 'detoxx the vaxx' for anyone unfortunate enough to have relented under mandates and received an anti-COVID vaccine. 

Anti-vaxxer strategists are skilled in persuading the gullible of the inherent dangers of vaccines, and in their self-assured remedies in vaccine avoidance promote the dangers of flying in the face of science to avoid inoculation, thus placing themselves and the community around them at risk. Speak with enough confidence and any number of people uncertain of how they should react to unusual circumstances will flock to hear and to breathe a sigh of relief that someone knowledgeable, a credible source, has solved your uncertainty for you.

Taking a bath of baking soda and Epsom salts is the thing to do, according to Madej's formula expressed on her website. For the simple expedient of that critical bath will provide  'radiation detox' extracting radiation actively within the vaccine. Bentonite clay to remove the 'poison' and borax the cleaning agent will 'take the nanotechnology out of you'. Simple, effectively dangerously wrong, bordering on the criminal, yet leavened with comicality.

Osteopath Madej is giving her profession a bad name. Yet her website states that she is 'practising the truth in Jesus through medicine'. What could possibly go wrong with Christ on the case? A link to a religious exemption form for the vaccine is downloadable from her website for the further convenience of the convinced. After all, she confirmed, COVID-19 injections represent a medical plot, a subterfuge to 'transhumanism'. Presumably on a flat earth.

This woman who speaks with the confidence of the self-assured ignorant is one of many who gain attention and followers because of their anti-vaccination stance.Validating the suspicion that many people hold dear, and offering alternative pathways to infection with COVID. People are uncomfortable with the impression that they are being tunnelled into a no-escape funnel with vaccination at the other end.

Misinformation running amok on social media has given viral headaches to scientists in the field of medicine and illness-avoidance. Most are supportive of vaccine mandates leading to a protected public. And they are averse to recommendations of cupping therapy as a remedial alternative to vaccination. It occurred to Dr.Rasmussen that she would speak from the pulpit of her profession to encourage people to think a little more deeply and then reject the kind of advice that those like osteopath Carrie Madej dispense.

There was a small protest in South Africa a week after a Covid-19 vaccine trial started in Johannesburg   AFP

Frustration and Agitation

"I think it's the ultimate selfishness that individuals choose not to vaccinate themselves. And I think they don't realize they are too arrogant to understand that we live in a society where we all have to make sacrifices."

"For the [hospital] staff, it's exhausting. It's challenging when you have somebody come in who is there when there was a simple route to preventing what they came in with-- a COVID infection."

"Our job is to be professional, but it's very trying for nurses and doctors and all the other health-care professionals to look at somebody who made a conscious decision not to get vaccinated."

Dr.Steven Fedder, emergency MD, Richmond, British Columbia

"It's really hard to grasp why any group of people would be protesting outside of hospitals, where we have vulnerable people coming in to seek medical care."

"I think people are getting really aggressive about the vaccine issue and I'm scared. I'm scared for my family,"

"I have little children as well and I know many other colleagues in the same sort of boat as me have faced a lot of pushback."

Dr.Amit Arya, palliative care physician, Kensington Health, Toronto

Thousands of demonstrators attended an anti-vaccine passport protest in Montreal on Aug. 28. CTV

 

As the global experience with the pandemic wears on with one wave after another and governments enact restrictions in response when all else seems to fail, including restrictions, many in the general public have taken to loudly expressing their counter-opinions of everything wrong with the decisions made by health authorities advising government action. In Canada, since some provinces brought forward plans to require vaccination 'passports' to access restaurants, movie theatres and gyms, anti-vaxxers have increased their incensed protests of impediments to their human rights.

Protesters grouping and shouting vociferously outside the University Health Network particularly incensed palliative care physician Dr. Amit Arya for disrupting patients and staff to the extent where both were unable to enter the hospital. Both patients seeking urgent medical assistance at one of the gravest periods in their lives and staff under pressure to provide emotional and professional assistance to these vulnerable people, are in no condition to be confronted by irate people furious over the self-protective steps the novel coronavirus' unstoppable surges require.

The large and unruly groups of anti-vaccination protesters that assemble outside hospitals across the country reflect similar occurrences elsewhere in the world as people ventilate their frustration and grievances against both medical advisers and government agencies all of whom are consumed by the need to enact responsible response mechanisms in an effort to reduce virus infections among the population at large.That the most vulnerable in any population are those represented in worst-case-infection scenarios and are further impacted by those who are least likely to face serious consequences only adds to the frustration of medical staff.

Invariably, many of those leading or taking part in the protests, denouncing vaccines, refusing to follow distancing and mask-wearing regulations eventually contract COVID. When they appear for treatment consequently, it can be difficult for medical staff to muster sympathy as they work to restore these people to health. According to Dr.Fedder, it is past time that employers -- private and public -- mandate vaccines. In so doing, messaging people who prefer to ignore the science upholding vaccinations. Fear of unemployment, he feels, could act as a spur to convince the unconvinced.

While case numbers remain troublesome and begin to accelerate in size and hospitals scramble to service the needs of all who are hospitalized, people with other serious illnesses defer decision-making to expose themselves to the potential of contracting the virus. Hospitals and medical workers are distracted by COVID numbers requiring treatment and are unable to respond to those requiring medical care for other, serious illnesses, and needed surgeries are placed on hold.

 

Thousands of people unhappy over the B.C. vaccine pass and other COVID-19 restrictions protested outside Vancouver General Hospital and Vancouver city hall. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

With COVID sufferers occupying all available beds, there is no room to accommodate the needs of those suffering ill health aside from the coronavirus complications. People suffering from the effects of chronic impaired health conditions will often avoid appearing at hospital emergency facilities when COVID cases are spiking, and in the process their health conditions spiral out of control. 

Meanwhile, many of those same protesters who claim that government and big Pharma have concocted the SARS-CoV-2 virus threat for the purpose of control on the part of government, and for fattening the bottom line in the instance of the pharmaceutical industry, while denying the efficacy of vaccines and claiming that inoculation brings on COVID and worse, barely hesitate before clasping the pseudo-science of unproven drugs as COVID 'cures'.

"Ivermectin advocates pool effects from observational studies that are very questionable, and from randomized controlled trials that may or may not be randomized and, in general, are poorly conducted and, in some cases fraudulent."

"Ivermectin overdoses can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hallucinations, blurred vision,  tremors, abnormally rapid breathing, seizures, coma and death."

"Ivermectin advocates claim governments, politicians, 'Big pharma' and mainstream media are suppressing evidence that the drug is effective. Ivermectin is a favourite of anti-vaccine, conspiracy theorists who claim COVID could easily be controlled with cheap, off-patent drugs like ivermectin."

Dr.Donald Vinh, infectious diseases specialist, Montreal

Protesters listen to a speaker as they gather outside Toronto Police Headquarters to voice opposition to COVID-19 vaccines and other COVID-19 related restrictions on Thursday September 2, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young.

The Anti-Science Gullibility of Hardcore Anti-Vaccine Activists

Alkis Psaltis withdrew his coauthorship after Hector Carvallo did not provide him with the raw data for the study, emails show.   Screenshot  “I trusted the information provided to me by desperate medical colleagues in the hope that health care workers could be given some degree of protection against this largely unknown virus”

"This has really become a story of ideology and in group thinking. It mirrors what went on with hydroxychloroquine."

"The evidence against it just became so overwhelming that they have decided to put their energy in a new miracle drug -- and that's ivermectin and it's doing real harm."

"It highlights the power of an ideological lens to allow you to embrace information that is clearly wrong."

"It really shows the power that a conspiracy theory mindset can have on how you see the universe."

"On the one hand, we have a vaccine that one could argue is the most studied vaccine in human history ... then on the other hand you have an unproven drug that has been recommended to be avoided by entities like the FDA and people opt for the latter."

"It is really an incredible disconnect."

Timothy Caulfield, health law professor, University of Alberta

 

Anti-vaxxers appear to have been thrown a lifeline by a published study out of Argentina claiming that the use of ivermectin succeeded in 100 percent prevention of COVID-19. Experts in the field pointed out a litany of inconsistencies in the research, but doubts haven't arisen in the minds of those who have grasped ivermectin's purported efficacy as far superior to that of vaccines they distrust. That this is a medication meant specifically for use in livestock as a de-worming agent doesn't appear to trouble the self-convinced the least bit.

The drug does have a human use that does not shine a golden light of salvation from infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus -- it can be recommended for delousing purposes. Which doesn't detract from its lustre among the convinced. "If you take it, you will not get sick", testified an ivermectin-boosting physician to the U.S. Senate, backgrounding his conviction in its properties as a "wonder drug" citing the Argentina trial which saw publication in the Journal of Biomedical Research and Clinical Investigation which charges for publication unlike reputable medical journals.

Dr.Caulfield from University of California specializing in health law finds it fascinating to witness people looking to acquire the dewormer for cattle and horses for their own personal use. Requests for ivermectin, the parasitic dewormer which has never been proven as a COVID treatment, overwhelmed an Alberta animal feed store. Lance Olson of the Lone Star Track and Feed first began receiving calls relating to the product last November.

"We started to address it to our staff just to make sure we were handling these calls the corr3ect way, because we did notice an uptick in calls."

"I'd say at the peak we were doing five or six calls a week. It's slowed down slightly since, but there was an uptick at the beginning of July that forced us to pull it off of our shelves."

Lance Olson, Lone Star Track and Feed Calgary, Alberta

He is unable to sell the product to people without a premises identification number, a requirement by law to be enabled to purchase products with an active ingredient. "It's law now. We cannot sell it to you or else we get fined."

 

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning against the use of ivermectin despite that it is available in a tablet form for human use in the treatment of parasitic worms; available also in topical application form for head lice and skin conditions such as rosacea. "Never use medication intended for animals on yourself. Ivermectin preparations for animals are very different from those approved for humans", cautioned the FDA.

 

An advisory was circulated by Health Canada "concerning reports of the use of veterinary ivermectin" in the prevention or treatment of COVID-19. As Professor Caulfield pointed out -- a disconnect exists between people who refuse to be vaccinated, but yet are eager to ingest a medicine meant strictly for use in animal stock. 

 

In the United States prescriptions for ivermectin have increased substantially. The result has been that poison control centers from Alabama to Mississippi keep receiving calls from people suffering side effects and acquiring conditions related to overdosing. One individual who drank an injection of ivermectin for cattle -- according to the Centers for Disease Control -- ended up in hospital suffering from confusion, drowsiness, hallucinations, abnormal breathing and tremors.

"A near-perfect COVID prophylactic. If ivermectin, a drug out of patent, is safe and effective for treating and, more importantly, preventing COVID, then there shouldn’t be vaccines that we’re administering."

Bret Weinstein, biologist, Evergreen State College

Tablets of Ivermectin    Soumyabrata Roy / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Anti-Vaccination Wretchedness

"To say this has upset our family is an understatement. Nevaeh loved social media, interviews and talking about her lemonade stand. She was so proud when someone stopped her and told her how her journey through treatment with cancer inspired them or helped them in their own battle with the disease."
"[For someone to] steal her image and use it in such a cruel way is heartbreaking to say the least. I don't know  how some people can be so heartless as to do something like this."
"I always feared it [her daughter's photograph] would be used for GoFundMe or something like that. So this really took me off guard."
"Children who go into treatment [for cancer or any other serious illness] are easy targets for people with their own agendas. And this happens far more often that people realize."
Holly Denine, St. John's, Newfoundland

Nevaeh Denine wanted to start a lemonade stand to help other families struggling with pediatric cancer.  CBC

Diagnosed with neuroblastoma at a very young age, Nevaeh Denine was a familiar figure to people living in Newfoundland and Labrador for her determination and her willingness to share with the public her struggles in undergoing cancer treatment. She began a lemonade stand for the express purpose of using it to raise funds in support of children with cancer. Newspapers across Canada picked up the story of the courageous little girl and her concern for others despite a life filled with health turmoil and invasive treatment.

Nevaeh lived with her cancer and the treatments from age three to nine years of age. Treatment had given her a respite, but at age six the cancer returned. She died of its effects on August 6, 2018, devastating her family and bringing sorrow to the people around her. She was a lively, happy little girl who nourished her consideration for the welfare of others by thinking of other pediatric cancer patients, children like herself, and attempting to do something that would benefit them and give them practical support.

A year following her death, her mother was made aware of Nevaeh's image appearing on a site devoted to an anti-vaccination mission. The image of her child was being used to promote the idea that the little girl's life was lost as a result of having been vaccinated. This, when in actual fact children like Nevaeh whose immune systems have been compromised are in deadly danger for contracting disease when others around them fail to be vaccinated.

Nevaeh with her grandfather, John Denine, Facebook

Celebrity figures have mounted their campaigns casting doubt and aspersion in the minds of the easily-led which has resulted in an anti-vaccination movement that has impacted on the number of children being vaccinated against diseases once thought to have been eradicated as a result of inoculations against their onset; decreased to the point where the diseases have once again become socially communicable, and vulnerable children like Nevaeh are often the victims of this ignorance.

People of the political and social stature of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an avid environmentalist, influencer, scion of a famous American family, have become notorious anti-vaccination activists. Film stars with no more knowledge of medical science than the average person have taken it upon themselves to initiate their own uninformed and dangerous campaigns against vaccinations, warning parents that the ingredients in the vaccinating fluids are dangerous and the cause of autism, a claim that has been soundly disproved by science.

Religious authorities have gone out of their way to study the matter and to issue clearance for their religion's faithful to have their children inoculated against any number of potentially dangerous childhood diseases, which adults themselves are not immune to. In undeveloped countries of the world, World Health Organization campaigns are underway to vaccinate as many children as possible to achieve the 'herd effect' of maximizing inoculations to defend the population against infection.

And in wealthy developed countries of the world, Europe, the United States and Canada, there has been a renaissance of diseases like measles which can in worst-case scenarios lead to blindness and sometimes death, because of parental confusion and uncertainty brought about by these anti-vaccination campaigns.

That young Nevaeh, who before her death had managed to raise thousands of dollars for sick children could have been exploited in this way through her photograph being used, to give credence and to support the anti-vaccination movement is beyond despicable. Nevaeh's mother has asked her friends to assist her in searching to identify anyone using her daughter's image in this way and should anyone come across the image, to refuse to share it.

Lori-Lydia Loveless‏ @lorilydialove

My heart is so heavy today. Rest Easy, beautiful angel. Nevaeh, you were such an inspirational person in my life. You will never be forgotten Thinking about Holly and the family at this time. Love to you all. You’re a champion and we heard you Roar #roarfornevaeh

Vexing Anti-Vaxxers

"He had heard about the current [measles] outbreak and had spoken to a number of reliable sources and he had come in to further that discussion."
"When people are in a small community, when they're being exposed to an echo chamber and they're being bombarded by fear-based propaganda, then it's easy to understand why they would choose something that is not in the best interests of their children."
Dr. Eric Cadesky, family physician, president, Doctors of British Columbia

"From an ethical and legal perspective, if they are a competent teenager, then they are the ones you should be having the conversation with."
"The teen's consent is both necessary and sufficient."
"I would say there is an obligation to revisit this topic [of vaccinations] with a patient who has become competent."
"I think it's entirely possible a 13-, 14- or 15-year-old would be competent on their own to consent [to the inoculation shots against disease]."
Timothy Caulfield, professor of health law and policy, University of Alberta

"[Adolescents] all have to rebel in one way or another, and it would be pretty cool if they chose to rebel by getting immunized."
"I guess the question that's being asked is, should we put the idea into their heads?"
"A sad story about a child who appeared to be normal and now they have some horrible problem, that is way more convincing than reading about medical evidence."
Dr. Joan Robinson, pediatric infectious disease specialist, University of Alberta

luriiSokolov / iStock / Thinkstock

The issue of vaccination-unconvinced parents withholding inoculations to protect their children from a whole host of infectious diseases becomes more heated with each new incident where someone has been diagnosed with measles or mumps or whooping cough or even polio, and health authorities send out notices to those who may have been in close proximity to warn them they may need a check-up, brings to the fore an issue currently plaguing modern society.

Where celebrities, alternate health providers and social media contacts go to the other extreme, warning parents that inoculations themselves are the cause of disease and infection. Dr. Cadesky described a 12-year-old boy surreptitiously enquiring of him whether he might get the shots his parents had refused to allow for him as a baby, as anti-vaxx propagandists. Minors below the age of 18 deemed able to make a decision to be immunized beyond a parents' knowledge or consent do so lawfully in British Columbia.



Professor Caulfield posited a scenario during an interview: "As a thought experiment, you could imagine a teen saying, 'You knew I wasn't vaccinated. You knew I was competent to make that decision. How come you didn't tell me about it?" Medical groups have advised doctors how to work with vaccine-hesitant parents representing a swelling segment of the population recently identified by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten threats to public health on a global scale.

"I grew up understanding my mother's beliefs that vaccines are dangerous", testified Ethan Lindenberger before a U.S. Senate hearing struck to examine the upsurge in measles. Approaching his mother with an article in hand from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that confirmed vaccines are not the cause of autism, his mother responded "That's what they want you to think". Lindenberger has become something of a standard-bearer of young people questioning their anti-vaxxing parents' decision making.

Ethan Lindenberger of Norwalk, Ohio, told senators "the information in defense of vaccines outweighed the concerns heavily."   Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

In most Canadian provinces mature minors are permitted to make such decisions in respect to their own care as long as they are able to appreciate the "reasonably foreseeable consequences" of a decision they approach. A minor may be held competent to make decisions with respect to vaccines, but needless to say, not with regard to more 'serious' medical applications, say, for example, surgical procedures.