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Christopher Polen's avatar

Excellent article. I am an intensivist. I haven't seen ANY cases of vaccine related myocarditis but don't doubt that it exists. I just haven't seen any. My experience was that the initial vaccine worked extremely well, but then became less effective with time, virus mutation, etc...

I have been shocked, however, with how the public has lost its trust/respect for the healthcare industry. Family, friends, neighbors, etc..... many are convinced the vaccine NEVER worked and the mandates were just a scam / power-play. Unfortunately, I think there is some truth to that. If something like this happens again (and I think it is inevitable), society is in real trouble.

I am a new member and enjoy your stuff. Thanks.

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catsanddogs1972's avatar

Pandemics are political events. I suggest that everyone who is having a strong emotional reaction to this post read Nicholas Christakis’ “Apollo’s Arrow” or John Barry’s “The Great Influenza” --both helped me contextualíze the erroneous messaging from public health agencies (school closures, for example) and the extreme resistance to vaccination/treatments we observed from a large swath of the public.

Here’s the thing...when trust in American public institutions (medicine included) is at an all time low and the messaging from the institutions seems glib and fails to acknowledge nuance or uncertainty, people will go elsewhere--like Joe Rogan--for information/validation/ advice.

The messaging and policy on vaccinations sucked. I consider the day I received my second dose of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine to be one of the best days of my life. I am happily boosted....but I would have appreciated more honest information with regard to the risks when vacccinating my 11year old son. And I say all this as an Intensivist who provided care in four different states during the COVID surges who is married to an Emergency Physician.

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