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Jack C. Askins, M.D.: Vaccine Status or Immune Status? 4 (1)

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by Jack C. Askins, M.D.

What is more important, vaccine status or immune status? Most people believe a vaccine is to establish immunity to a pathogen. Prior infection has resulted in immunity throughout human history. If a person is immune to a virus, clinical infection is avoided and replication and transmission of the virus is prevented. Simple question with a straightforward simple answer based upon known science. With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the answer is not quite so simple. Natural immunity has always been the gold standard to which vaccine development has been compared….. until the past 18 months. There has been a full-court press to promote the mRNA inoculations, unlike anything I have ever seen. Government and big business have taken over what has always been the responsibility of known science, researchers, and physicians.

Prior infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus results in natural immunity. At least 75 years of virology and immunology has established the fact that natural immunity is at least as good and usually better than vaccine immunity; true in the past and true now. Natural immunity is broad, robust, and durable and usually will last years to a lifetime. Conversely, the mRNA vaccines appear to wane after 5-6 months. Even the CDC and the NIH agree they do not know how long the mRNA vaccines will provide “protection”. The CDC even went so far as to redefine a vaccine as a drug that provides “protection” but not immunity in the historic and traditional meaning of the word.

I compiled bullet point facts with references on natural immunity and that provided by the “vaccines”.

Bullet point facts concerning what is known about natural immunity:

• Natural immunity recognizes the full complement of SARS-CoV-2 proteins and thus provides protection against a broad array of variants. [1-4]
• Studies have demonstrated prolonged immunity with respect to memory T and B cells, bone marrow plasma cells, spike-specific neutralizing antibodies, and IgG+ memory B cells following naturally acquired immunity. [1-4]
• People who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 typically generate T cells that target at least 15-20 different fragments of coronavirus proteins. [12]
• The current vaccines result in the creation of antibodies against one specific virus spike protein programmed by the mRNA injection. [12]
• The spike protein on the virus is prone to mutate to escape the vaccine; the other myriad proteins targeted by T cells in natural immunity patients do not appear to be involved in the rapid mutation into the variants that are reducing vaccine effectiveness. [12]
• Multiple studies have confirmed that reinfections are rare in patients with natural immunity and are less severe than first-time infections. [5,6]
• Recent Israeli study included 187,549 unvaccinated persons with natural immunity: only 0.48% were reinfected; 0.02% were hospitalized; 0.008%were hospitalized with severe disease; only one died and he was over 80 years of age. [7]
• Based upon such evidence, many scientists and clinicians have concluded natural immunity and protection against COVID following recovery from infection is long-lasting. [8, 38]
• 1359 Cleveland Clinic employees previously infected, unvaccinated: no occurrence of re-infection in a 10 month follow-up from time of infection. [20]
• There is a growing body of literature supporting the conclusion that natural immunity not only confers robust, durable, and high-level protection against COVID-19, but also better than vaccine induced immunity. [13-17,19, 39]
• 23 patients who had recovered from SARS-CoV-1 still possess CD4 and CD8 T cells 17 years after infection during the 2003 epidemic. [9]
• A paper in Nature from 2008 found that 32 people born in 1915 or earlier still retained some level of immunity against the 1918 flu strain – 90 years later. [10]
• Robust durability of natural immunity is well established. Narrowly focused vaccine immunity appears to be waning at 6 months. [11]
• Natural immunity is the gold standard for effectiveness and durability to which researchers compare during vaccine development. [11]

Bullet point facts concerning what is known about the mRNA injections:

• The mRNA vaccines cause our cells to produce a specific Covid virus spike protein to which our immune system produces IgG and IgM humoral antibodies.
• IgA mucosal defense antibodies are not produced and durable T cell immunity is questionable following vaccination.
• Antibody Dependent Enhancement can increase the lethality of the Covid infection when non-neutralizing antibodies are produced by the vaccine and as the virus mutates to variants. [26]
• Although initial claims of Pfizer efficacy was 90-95%, that is down to 39% in the Israel study and 42% in the Mayo Clinic data. [27, 36]
• Approximately 30% of people who receive the mRNA shot may not develop adequate protection against the Covid-19 virus. [31]
• Duration of effectiveness appears to be 5-8 months.
• Necessity for boosters has been claimed by the CDC.
• Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines currently appear to reduce the severity of illness and mortality rate but not prevent replication within the body or reduce viral nasal load and transmission (infectivity). [CDC declarations, multiple news reports]
• Vaccine immunity only targets the spike-protein of the original Wuhan variant, whereas natural immunity recognizes the full complement of SARS-CoV-2 proteins and thus provides protection against a greater array of variants. [Hooman Noorchasm noorchasm.medium.com]
• Canadian study reported 9/16/2021 the “incidence of myopericarditis overall was approximately 10 cases for every 10,000 inoculations with mRNA vaccine. [22]
• This year’s Covid surge numbers are larger than last year due to emergence of variants defeating the current mRNA vaccines.
• Israel and the UK were highly vaccinated and their recent hospitalizations and deaths have been mostly in the vaccinated population.
• UK Public Health data from 9/23/2021: Current Covid-19 deaths are over 3,000% higher than this time last year. 80% of those dying had the Covid vaccine. [21]
• Mass vaccination in the midst of a pandemic has not been recommended by virologists and immunologists due to the promotion of variants as the virus works to escape the vaccine and replicate within the vaccinated host.
• A recent large Japanese study predicts the virus will mutate itself to be completely immune to the vaccine and will likely become more virulent. [24]
• None of the vaccines in current application have been systematically or adequately tested for safety or efficacy in individuals who have previously been infected and recovered from SARS-CoV-2. In fact, Covid survivors have overall been largely excluded from Phase III vaccine clinical trials. [37]
• People with natural immunity are at increased risk for vaccine injury to include thrombosis and multisystem imflammatory syndrome. [25, 28, 29, 32]
• Mandated vaccination represents baseless DISCRIMINATION against already immune but unvaccinated persons being treated as inferior to the “fully vaccinated”. [30]

REFERENCES

[1] Jennifer M. Dan, et al., Immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 assessed for up to 8 months after infection, SCIENCE (Feb. 5, 2021) (finding that memory T and B and B cells were present up to eight months after infection, noting that “durable immunity against secondary COVID-19 disease is a possibility for most individuals”).

[2] Jackson S. Turner, et al., SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans, NATURE (May 24, 2021) (study analyzing bone marrow plasma cells of recovered COVID-19 patients reported durable evidence of antibodies for at least 11 months after infection, describing “robust antigen-specific, long-lived humoral immune response in humans”); Ewen Callaway, Had COVID? You’ll probably make antibodies for a lifetime, NATURE (May 26, 2021), https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01442- 9 (“The study provides evidence that immunity triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection will be extraordinarily long-lasting” and “people who recover from mild COVID-19 have bone-marrow cells that can churn out antibodies for decades”).

[3] Tyler J. Ripperger, et al., Orthogonal SARS-Cov-2 Serological Assays Enable Surveillance of Low-Prevalence Communities and Reveal Durable Humoral Immunity, 53 IMMUNITY, Issue 5, pp. 925-933 E4 (Nov. 17, 2020) (study finding that spike and neutralizing antibodies remained detectable 5-7 months after recovering from infection).

[4] Kristen W. Cohen, et al., Longitudinal analysis shows durable and broad immune memory after SARS-CoV-2 infection with persisting antibody responses and memory B and T cells, MEDRXIV (Apr. 27, 2021), https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.19.21255739v1 (study of 254 recovered COVID patients over 8 months “found a predominant broad-based immune memory response” and “sustained IgG+ memory B cell response, which bodes well for rapid antibody response upon virus re-exposure.” “Taken together, these results suggest that broad and effective immunity may persist long-term in recovered COVID-19 patients”)

[5] Nabin K. Shrestha, et al., Necessity of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected individuals, MEDRXIV (preprint), https://www.medrxiv.org/content
10.1101/2021.06.01.21258176v3. (“not one of the 1359 previously infected subjects who remained unvaccinated had a SARS-CoV-2 infection over the duration of the study “and concluded that those with natural immunity are “unlikely to benefit from covid-19 vaccination”).

[6] Laith J. Abu-Raddad, et al., SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in a cohort of 43,000 antibody-positive individuals followed for up to 35 weeks, MEDRXIV (Feb. 8, 2021), https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.15.21249731v2 (finding that of 129 reinfections from a cohort of 43,044, only one reinfection was severe, two were moderate, and none were critical or fatal); Victoria Jane Hall, et al., SARS-CoV-2 infection rates of antibody-positive compared with antibody-negative health-care workers in England: a large, multicentre, prospective cohort study, 397 LANCET: 1459- 69 (Apr. 9, 2021), https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33844963/ (finding “a 93% lower risk of COVID-19 symptomatic infection… [which] show[s] equal or higher protection from natural infection, both for symptomatic and asymptomatic infection”); Aidan T. Hanrah, et al., Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with protection against symptomatic reinfection, 82 JOURNAL OF INFECTION, Issue 4, E29-E30 (Apr. 1, 2021), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7832116/ (Apr. 1, 2021) (examined reinfection rates in a cohort of healthcare workers and found “no symptomatic reinfections” among those examined and that protection lasted for at least 6 months).

[7] Yair Goldberg, et al., Protection of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection is similar to that of BNT162b2. vaccine protection: A three-month nationwide experience from Israel, MEDRXIV (pre-print), https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.20.21255670v1

[8] Chris Baranjuk, How long does covid-19 immunity last? 373 BMJ (2021)

[9] Nina Le Bert, SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity in cases of COVID-19 and SARS, and uninfected control, NATURE (Aug. 2020).

[10] Xiaocong Yu, et al., Neutralizing antibodies derived form the B cells of 1918 influenze pandemic survivors, NATURE (2008)
[11] Heidi Ledford, Six months of COVID vaccines: what 1.7 billion doses hove taught scientists, 594 NATURE 164 (June 10, 2021), https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01505-x (study notes that “Six months is not much time to collect data on how durable vaccine responses will be…. In the meantime some researchers are looking to natural immunity as a guide.”

[12] Tarke, A. et al. Cell Rep. Med. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2021.100204 (2021).

[13] Sivan Gazit, Roei Shlezinger, Galit Perez et al. Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity: reinfections versus breakthrough infections
medRxiv 2021.08.24.21262415; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415

[14] Hall VJ, Foulkes S, Charlett A et al. SARS-CoV-2 infection rates of antibody-positive compared with antibody-negative health-care workers in England: large, multicentre, prospective cohort study (SIREN). Lancet. 2021

[15]Harvey RA, Rassen JA, Kabelac CA, et al. Association of SARS-CoV-2 Seropositive Antibody Test With Risk of Future Infection. JAMA Intern Med.

[16] Turner, J.S., Kim, W., Kalaidina, E. et al. SARS-CoV-2 infection induces long-lived bone marrow plasma cells in humans. Nature 2021

[17] Wang, Z., Yang, X., Zhong, J. et al. Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 generates T-cell memory in the absence of a detectable viral infection. Nat Commun 12, 1724 (2021).

[18] CDC.gov/mmWave/volumes/70/wr/mm7021e3.htm

[19] BMJ 2021; 374 doi: VACCINATING PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD COVID-19: WHY DOESN’T NATURAL IMMUNITY COUNT IN THE U.S.? BMJ 2021;374:n2101

[20] Nabin K. Shrestha, et al. NECESSITY OF COVID-19 VACCINATION IN PREVIOUSLY INFECTED INDIVIDUALS. MedRxiv June 19,2021. CLEVELAND CLINIC STUDY OF 1359 UNVAXXED AND PREVIOUSLY INFECTED EMPLOYEES REVEALING NO RE-INFECTION DURING 10 MOS FROM TIME OF INFECTION.

[21] theexpose.uk. Sept. 23, 2021. British publication reporting on data from British and Scotland Public Health

[22] Kafil, Lamacie, Chenier, et al. mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination and Development of CMR-confirmed Myopericarditis. MedRxiv September 16, 2021

[23] Gazit, Shlezinger, Perez, et al. COMPARING SARS-CoV-2 NATURAL IMMUNITY TO VACCINE-INDUCED IMMUNITY: REINFECTIONS VERSUS BREAKTHROUGH INFECTIONS August 24, 2021

[24] The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is poised to acquire complete resistance to wild-type spike vaccines.
BioRxiv. August 23,2021. Very detailed Japanese study showing how the Covid virus is mutating toward complete resistance to current mRNA vaccines.

[25] Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome after SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Vaccination
Mark B. Salzman, Cheng-Wei Huang, Christopher M. O’Brien, Rhina D. Castill
Emerging Infectious Diseases • http://www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 27, No. 7, July 2021

[26] ANTIBODY-DEPENDENT ENHANNCEMENT SCIENCE 18 DEC. 2020. Good review of ADE, mechanism and history of its occurrence in other infections (Dengue fever, HIV, Ebola).

[27] COMPARISON OF TWO HIGHLY-EFFECTIVE mRNA VACCINES FOR COVID-19 DURING PERIODS OF ALPHA AND DELTA VARIANT PREVALENCE. medRxiv. August, 08, 2021
This is the Mayo Clinic study revealing the Pfizer vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant at 42%.

[28] A LETTER OF WARNING TO THE PENNSBURY SCHOOL BOARD IN PENNSYLVANIA: MANDATING VACCINATION OF COVID-RECOVERED AND ALREADY IMMUNE PERSONS IS HAZARDOUS. Hooman Noorchasm noorchasm.medium.com

[29] Krammer, et al, ROBUST SPIKE ANTIBODY RESPONSES AND INCREASED REACTOGENICITY IN SEROPOSITIVE INDIVIDUALS AFTER A SINGLE DOSE OF SARS-COV-2 mRNA VACCINE,
medRx (Feb 1, 2021)

[30] WHY I BELIEVE SCOTUS SHOULD ADJUDICATE ZYWICKI VS. GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY: ITS NOT ABOUT INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY, ITS ABOUT BASELESS DISCRIMINATION AND EXECUTIVE OVERREACH! Hooman Noorchasm noorchasm.medium.com

[31] A SEVERE ERROR IN FEDERAL PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY: ANTIBODY TESTING IS CRITICAL FOR DETERMINATION OF COVID-19 VACCINE NECESSITY AND EFFICACY IN EVERY AMERICAN.
Hooman Noorchasm noorchasm.medium.com

[32] Fabio Angell, SARS-CoV-2 VACCINES: LIGHTS AND SHADOWS, 88 European J. Of Internal Medicine 1-8 (2021)

[33] James f. Childress, et al., Public Health Ethics: Mapping the Terrain, 30(2) J. Law & Med. Ethics 170 (2002).

[34] N. Kojima, NK Shrestha, JD Klausner. A Systematic Review of the Protective Effect of Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Repeat Infection. medRxiv 8/27/21 Dept of Medicine, UCLA.
Findings: Weighted average risk reduction against reinfection was 90.4% and observed for up to 10 months.

[35] N. Kojima, A Roshani, M Brubeck, A Baca, JD Klausner. Incidence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 Infection Among Previously Infected or Vaccinated Employees. Dept of Medicine, UCLA.
Findings: No difference in the infection incidence between vaccinated individuals and individuals with previous infection.

[36] newsnetwork.MayoClinic.org

[37] VACCINE INFORMATION FACT SHEET FOR RECIPIENTS AND CAREGIVERS ABOUT COMIRNATY (COVID-19 VACCINE, mRNA) AND PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE TO PREVENT CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID-19). 9/22/2021 fda.gov55

[38] LASTING IMMUNITY FOUND AFTER RECOVERY FROM COVID-19. NIH January 26, 2021

[39] REINFECTION RATES AMONG PATIENTS WHO PREVIOUSLY TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVD-19: A RETROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY. Sheehan, Reddy, Rothberg CLINICAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES 3/15/2021
Six months after infection, protection against symptomatic disease exceeded 90%.

“Dr. Jack Askins is a cardiologist in Wichita Falls, TX. This is the first article in a series of four he has authored that we intend to publish here. His reasoned scientific voice needs to be heard during these times as the COVID-19 Vaccines have become politicized through government mandates. We are encouraged by his boldness and expertise that he brings to the subject.” 

Jack C. Askins, M.D.: SOMETHING ISN’T RIGHT 4.5 (2)

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by Jack C. Askins, M.D.

Something isn’t right in this entire vaccinated vs unvaccinated argument and division taking place in our country. On one side, the proponents of vaccination are labeling the unvaccinated as the cause of the current surge in the Covid case numbers (“a pandemic of the unvaccinated”). Overflowing hospitals and Covid deaths are all the fault of the unvaccinated, so the story goes. President Biden says his “patience is wearing thin”. Vaccines will be mandated and private businesses and government will be the enforcers. Life will be difficult for the unvaccinated. Some have said the unvaxxed should not be treated in hospitals if they become ill.

On the other side, the unvaccinated state vaccines and mandates are about freedom to choose and liberty; “my body, my choice”. They point to an overall Covid survival rate of 99% and cite data regarding complications and side effects from the vaccines. They call attention to how the CDC recently re-defined a vaccine from providing “immunity” to providing “protection”.
They also have concerns about the unique mRNA mechanism of action and how the approval process was incomplete and abbreviated. “If the vaccines work, why aren’t they working?”

For the sake of national unity and promoting confidence in this new technology of the mRNA shots, this should have already been sorted out by the vaccine developers and researchers. Apparently, animal studies were not done and the phase 3 trials were prematurely “completed” last December and the control group offered the mRNA shot. Completion of phase 3 trials was originally scheduled for 2023. The politicians in charge, the CDC, and the NIH have hardened their recommendations into mandates, threats, and penalties which includes loss of employment and financial destruction. Federal regulatory agencies will be turned loose on the unvaxxed.

But all of this confusion and division and rancor and hate could be mostly avoided by truthfully answering one question. One question backed up by 75 years of immunology and virology science and research. The same immunology and virology we all studied in college and medical school and have called upon to diagnose and treat patients in our practices. The same immunology and virology being ignored by the politicians and the armchair doctors at the CDC.

The one important question is “What is more important, vaccine status or immune status?” It is a very simple and obvious question but the fact it is not being asked or explained goes to the issue of honesty and transparency. If a vaccine provides immunity, then the targeted virus will not infect or replicate within a person and thus not be spread to others.

The CDC has admitted the mRNA vaccines do not provide immunity but rather “protection” against serious infection and death. Dr. Fauci has recently stated that in Covid infected patients, nasal viral loads available for transmission to others are similar between the unvaccinated with no prior infection and the vaccinated. Based on this, one could argue the mRNA shots are a “therapy” and not a “vaccine”. This “therapy” may not be all that effective – Israel hospitals have been filled up with sick vaccinated patients and 2/3 of recent Covid deaths in the UK have been in the vaccinated. In both countries, most of the population have been vaccinated and that did not stop the Delta variant surge. Pfizer “effectiveness” is calculated to be down to 39% in the Israeli data and 42% in a Mayo Clinic study.

But here is the salient point about vaccine status vs. immune status: the issue of natural immunity. Natural immunity occurs following an infection with a viral pathogen. Prior to the politics of 2020 and 2021, natural immunity was widely recognized as the most robust and broad immunity one could have. Natural immunity produces mucosal IgA antibodies (stops the infection at the mucosal barrier – nose, mouth, eyes). If the pathogen makes it past the mucosal barrier, internal B cells produce humoral antibodies (IgG and IgM) and cellular immunity is initiated with CD4 and CD8 T cells. The CD4 cells coordinate an immune response and the CD8 T cells are the “killer” cells and attack and destroy cells in our body which have been infected with the virus. Your own cells are destroyed to prevent the virus from using them to make more copies of itself.

And here is the really interesting and important part: after a period of time the B and T cells can transition into a “sentry” mode lasting years to perhaps a lifetime and re-activate if challenged by the virus. Statements that natural immunity is only of a few months duration are ignorant, biased nonsense.

The mRNA shots turn a person’s cells into viral spike protein factories that provoke the immune system to produce humoral antibodies to the specific spike protein encoded by the mRNA. There are no mucosal barrier IgM antibodies produced and the data on CD4 and CD8 T cells is murky at best. One would think all this would have been studied and known in detail prior to unleashing the mRNA injections on an uninformed world. Consequently, we are now having surging Delta variant infections, the appearance of the Mu variant, recommendations for 3rd and 4th and beyond boosters, and thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries attributed to the mRNA shots in our CDC VAERS data and the European monitoring data.

Now that we know all of this, why are we now dividing the country and creating social and financial chaos with vaccine mandates? The “unvaccinated” are not a monolithic group but rather comprised of those who were previously infected and now have natural immunity and those who are infection-naive (no prior SARS Cov 2 infection). Efforts at vaccine encouragement (not mandates) should be directed at the infection-naive who are at risk and have co-morbidities. There now is evidence the mRNA shot, when given to Covid survivors with natural immunity, places them at a several times higher risk for vaccine injury and death. Arterial and venous thrombosis and cytokine storms have been observed. To not recognize those with natural immunity and proceed with discrimination and penalties against them does not acknowledge the science and is illogical, unethical, and immoral.

Hospitals are making the argument that taking the mRNA shot is necessary to prevent over-burdening hospitals with Covid patients. The Israel and UK data mentioned above argue against that and those countries may be a prequel to what is beginning to happen in the U.S. However, educating and encouraging at-risk individuals within the community to take the Pfizer or Moderna shots may lessen the severity of illness presenting to the hospital.

In addition, perhaps hospital administrators and medical staffs could provide bold leadership rather than dutifully following the same CDC “guidance”. There are published studies and protocols from experienced academic and frontline physicians who have demonstrated 85% decrease in hospitalizations and death utilizing re-purposed medications per protocol (see Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance; America’s Frontline Doctors). What if it were only a 25-30% decrease in hospitalizations? Would that not be worthwhile (what do we have to lose)? Why not do an informal observational study with these protocols, including informed consent, on perhaps 25% of Covid patients presenting to the hospital? Expand the percentage if the results are favorable. Following CDC “guidance”, hospitals have been on defense for the past 21 months. How has that been working out? Why not go on offense and try a different therapeutic approach which appears to benefit patients? What do we have to lose?

Reasons given for not trying these protocols have included the drugs are not FDA approved for Covid purposes and there is no CDC approval. Drugs are frequently given “off label” if in the best interest of the patient. As far as CDC protocol “approval”, the CDC provides “guidance” but does not have regulatory power to deny physicians acting in the best interest of a sick patient (“right to try”). In regards to “first do no harm”, the antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs
re-purposed in these protocols have been given millions of times around the world with virtually no significant complications (“what do we have to lose?”).

Hospitals around the country are also mandating mRNA shots for all their employees and staff.
The uninformed and misinformed might assume that is for the protection of the patients. However, there is no evidence health care workers have been a significant source for Covid spread within a hospital. The CEO at a local hospital recently stated there has been no confirmed case of staff infecting a patient during this pandemic. Temperature assessment and early self-quarantine seems to have been effective.

Also, a high percentage of health care workers are Covid-recovered and have natural immunity. A study by the Cleveland Clinic this year revealed that in approximately 1350 health care workers within the Cleveland Clinic system who had prior infection and no vaccination, there was not a single incidence of SARS-CoV-2 re-infection in a 10 month follow-up. The CDC recently analyzed blood from blood banks and calculated that 83% of the country have antibodies to the Covid virus from either the mRNA shots or from natural immunity. Those with only natural immunity comprised approximately 25% of the total in this study. What happened to the concept of herd immunity?

Mandating mRNA injections in hospital employees and staff will obviously not reduce the number of sick patients presenting to a hospital for diagnosis and treatment. Some within the hospital think it is a symbolic and manipulative gesture aimed at the community and will influence the unvaxxed to obtain the mRNA shot. However, polls have suggested this will be counter-productive as both vaxxed and unvaxxed people in communities realize this mandate will not reduce the surge of Covid patients presenting to a hospital. It will, however, reduce the availability of staff to care for them.

The past 21 months have been a difficult and destructive assault on most of our society but politicians have exploited it for their political benefit. To not recognize that is naive. Most would agree this virus and the global response to it is very fluid and dynamic. What was thought to be true 6 months ago is not true now, and 6 months (or 3 or 1) months from now, it will probably evolve into something else. In the midst of all this dynamic change, at a very fundamental level it does not seem ethical or moral to mandate this drug be injected into our bodies. That precedent and the effects of the drug will be forever; the virus probably will not.

Jack C. Askins, M.D.

Note:
1. This paper is not written as an anti-vaccine statement and should not be taken as such. High-risk people who have not been previously infected with the Covid virus should be encouraged (not mandated) to take the mRNA shot as it may reduce the severity of an infection and help avoid death, if infected. Mandates and not recognizing the immune status of those previously infected are issues contributing to the mistrust and division within our country. A very large portion of this nation feels like they have been enrolled into a vast experiment involving masks, vaccines, and mandates without their informed consent. Medical science is strongest and innovation occurs when diversity of opinion and criticism are encouraged. That is why Morbidity & Mortality conferences and peer review of journal articles are the historical norm within the practice of medicine. Critical analysis and alternative thought and opinion are now being persecuted and silenced. No matter how one feels about vaccines and mandates and alternative treatments, the silencing and persecution of critical thought and opinion will strangle medical innovation and further divide our country.

2. This was written in a simplistic and conversational style as one would have when speaking with a patient or a poorly informed physician colleague. Considerable technical detail was excluded and references were not formally listed as this obviously is not intended for submission to a journal. The Israel and UK data are easily found with an on-line search and the original papers and articles are available. The same is true of the Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic studies and statements by Dr. Fauci and Rochelle Walensky and the CDC.

Jack C. Askins, M.D.

“Dr. Jack Askins is a cardiologist in Wichita Falls, TX. This is the first article in a series of four he has authored that we intend to publish here. His reasoned scientific voice needs to be heard during these times as the COVID-19 Vaccines have become politicized through government mandates. We are encouraged by his boldness and expertise that he brings to the subject.”