Death to the Heroes

Born shortly after WWII, I am a ‘boomer’. A product of the post war baby boom when thousands of men returned home and thousands more women left the workforce to make room for the returning veterans - and return to a more ‘normal’ family life.  

It was a different time, with women being raised and educated in a way that supported the popular culture of the day. Then, being called a ‘housewife’ was a declaration of success wherein the breadwinner was able to afford supporting a home, a wife, and several children in a manner to which society approved.

It was the beginning of an era fueled by an economic boom like nothing before - and treating Black, Hispanic, and Gay populations with ignorance and segregation – even distain.

Thankfully times are changing.

Those days also gave rise to great innovations in medical care, and it was to be the spark that made the boomer era even more formidable.

One of the key contributors to the raise of global life expectancy over the last 250 years was the development of vaccinations. 

As seen in the table to the right, Oceana (Australia) and Europe were the first to experience a systemic increase in life expectancy. 

Life expectancy in Europe and the Americas started their increase in the mid 1800s - 80 years before underdeveloped areas. I believe it's not a coincidence that, in 1815, Sweden was the first nation to introduce compulsory Smallpox vaccinations to Europe. In 1853 this mandate spread to England and their colonel empire (Oceania & the Americas).

Only tuberculosis (TB) was a greater killer than smallpox in the 18^th & 19^th century. It was estimated that TB killed ¼ of the population of Europe in the 1800s. While an effective treatment (streptomycin) and a suitable vaccine (BCG) were developed, the biggest impact on TB was improved hygiene and the waring of masks in hospitals. But I digress. This post is not about TB.

Over the course of time in the 19^th and 20^th centuries many diseases were all but eradicated by vaccine. From polio to diphtheria and measles, vaccines – back in my day – were a no-brainer. Parents eagerly sought to get their children vaccinated as soon as their doctor would permit. Childhood deaths from many of these horrific diseases were all but eradicated. When I was born, children could be expected to live until age 55 - maybe 60. Today I’m expected to live to nearly 80. Likely longer.

I’m not proposing that vaccinations, in and of themselves, are the primary cause of increased life span. But they do mark milestones in the improvements in medical care and disease prevention. 

Some early vaccines were anything but safe and effective however. If they had 50% efficiency, they were considered good enough. Historically, vaccines were designed using a weakened form of the disease it was meant to combat. Some of the first cases of ‘inoculation’ were seen in ancient China where smallpox scabs from an infected person were scrapped off and pulverized to a powder. The powder was then inhaled by a healthy person to build immunity. It ‘appeared’ to work about half the time. You can imagine what happened to the other half.

Later in Europe, another practice used the blood of a person that survived the disease to create a serum for injecting into a healthy individual. It was also used as a treatment for the infected as well. This practice proved to have some of most effective outcomes. But it was a ‘hit-and-miss’ method that required many trial runs and often years of measurements to prove what dosage was going to prevent disease as opposed to causing it.  

Then, to reduce the hit & miss outcomes, laboratories began growing the virus or pathogen in the lab. There they could manage the strength of the disease strain and test on animals before moving to humans. But the process to bring a vaccine to market was still measured in years.

By the mid 20th century vaccines were the norm. Then in 1987 a grad student at the Salk Institute named Robert Malone mixed strands of messenger RNA (aka mRNA - a genetic element like DNA found in all humans) with droplets of fat. The reaction saw human cells creating proteins based on the mRNA / fat mixture. And customized proteins are the holy grail of human immune response.

The issues, however, were many. At the time mRNA was not easy to extract. At least not in any quantity. It was the early days of medical DNA/RNA research, and it was painstakingly slow and expensive. I’m not going to go over all the technicalities and gymnastics involved. But if you are intrigued by the genetics research behind the mRNA vaccines, please read The Tangled History of mRNA Vaccines published in Nature magazine.

From my perspective the BIG difference with the mRNA approach is that they are not ‘infecting’ the recipient with the virus that causes the disease. They are imitating the ‘protein’ the virus produces to create a ‘package’ of immune information that is delivered to your cells using mRNA. There, it is replicated using your natural immune response to create protein anti-bodies to the virus.

When Covid19 hit, the mRNA research spanned nearly 40 years of study and refinement. The anti-vaxers often suggest these vaccines ‘popped up’ on the spur of the moment and can’t be trusted as a result. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, we were just lucky that the maturity of the science and the onset of Covid19 occurred at the same time. 

The speed at which the mRNA vaccines were brought to market are a testament to the scientists, their long struggle and the U.S. Government’s focus on a solution. These vaccines effectiveness, now demonstrated with hundreds of millions of doses administered - and precipitous drops in fatalities among the vaccinated - make it one of the miracles of modern medicine and science.

Today – in step with the erosion of integrity in politics – there is an erosion in the integrity of people. Now, vaccination is more a political football than an obvious course of action. As I write this over 25% of Americans are refusing to get vaccinated due to ‘personal liberty’ objections. 

And for those that claim mandatory vaccination is illegal - it is not. As a matter of fact, compulsory vaccination laws were upheld in the 1905 landmark case Jacobson v. Massachusetts by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court ruled that laws could require vaccination to protect the public from dangerous communicable diseases.

More surprising to me is that those individuals charged with the public trust are some of the most adamant objectors. Those that are sworn to serve, protect and do no harm, are doing anything but.

From police to hospital staff and EMTs, not being vaccinated is a clear and present danger to themselves and others. Sworn to protect and heal, you would think these people, of all people, would know that this decision is not about THEM. They will contract and spread this virus to anyone and everyone in the name of personal liberty?  Really?

Well, I say MY personal liberty is more important than theirs. I have a RIGHT to be safe – they do not have a RIGHT to endanger me, my family or loved ones. When your personal liberty endangers me & mine – it’s personal all right. Very personal.

Many of those I once regarded as heroes are now the spawn of zombie-like Trumpism. It’s like you are dead inside. America needs you to WAKE UP!

JB