Over the past few days the Intensive Care Units in Utah hospitals and around the U.S. began to overflow with COVID patients. Reports began to emerge that as high as 99% of the ICU patients and deceased were not vaccinated from COVID. In addition, the LDS Church First Presidency released a new announcement a few days ago urging members to be vaccinated. This announcement has caused many vaccine-hesitant LDS church members to question their faith in the LDS church, and/or in LDS Church president Russell M. Nelson. The announcement also has spurned several interesting conspiracy theories. There has also been a variety of responses from local LDS bishops, stake presidents, and members – from supportive to unsupportive.
On August 17th between 9am and 10am mountain time please join us as we assemble a panel of physicians and experts to discuss the status of the COVID vaccine in the U.S., in Utah, and in the LDS Church. The conversation will avoid politics, will be science-based, and we will take questions from the viewing audience.
John,
I’m sorry I was unable to join the podcast live..my wife and I are presently in a remote part of NH.
I plan to listen to it when I return home.
My question for the panel (if it wasn’t already asked):
A Dr. Pierre Kory appeared before congress late last year pleading with the senate to hear his viewpoint and studies on Ivermectin. The dr seemed fairly acquainted with the whole COVID-thing but from what I’ve gathered his research was largely ignored despite his credentials. He ALSO did not want to bring politics into it.
My concern: if we already have a drug that has a long track record and has been shown to be effective against the COVID virus, shouldn’t someone be looking at this?!…instead of the billions of dollars being absorb by pharmaceutical companies to “reinvent the wheel”.
Issues such as these make it very difficult for citizens to trust their government…especially when initial doses of the vaccine were never FDA approved but put on a “fast-track” approval and the pharmaceutical companies that provided the vaccine were free from any liability..
bare in mind this is from my ignorant viewpoint and likely has huge hole cavities of logic in its conclusion.
As was discussed extensively in the podcast ivermectin’s effectiveness in treating or preventing COVID-19 has not been sufficiently demonstrated. In addition, there are risks associated with using ivermectin for non-approved uses. People are calling their poison control centers after taking ivermectin intended for use on animals. This disinformation about ivermectin is becoming dangerous.
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/why-you-should-not-use-ivermectin-treat-or-prevent-covid-19
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/texas-sees-spike-in-poison-calls-for-horse-and-cow-dewormer-ivermectin-despite-fda-warning/287-57a97ba4-ea7a-42b7-adda-e8618b35d9fd
The FDA analysis and our experience so far with widespread use of the FDA approved vaccines shows they are effective for preventing COVID-19 infection, severe illness, and death. As the doctors on the panel explained, they are seeing very few adverse effects from the vaccines–especially compared to the alternative of COVID-19, which is killing people every day.
What about the placebo effect of the vaccinated…hmmm something to think about..
The placebo effect is one of the reasons that drugs and vaccines are approved only after demonstrating effectiveness in “randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled clinical trials.” This was the case with the Covid vaccines.
The FDA gave the vaccines emergency use authorization based on multiple trials involving thousands of volunteers. Participants in the trials did not know whether they were receiving the vaccine or a placebo. Thus, their reactions cannot be attributed to the placebo effect.
Jonathan, your comment suggests some ignorance about how clinical trials work? Or perhaps you are attempting to be clever or facetious? A potential placebo effect is accounted for in stage III trials by having a sizeable (ie – tens of thousands) number of people randomly assigned to a control group. They do not receive a shot of the actual vaccine. If there is a placebo effect, the vaccine would not improve infection/disease outcomes at a level that is statistically significant. After thorough review of the data, the FDA determined that individuals who received the vaccine in clinical trials were protected above and beyond those who were in the control group.
There are two cults at work here. One the church and the other q-anon et al. For some it is easier to follow the latter as they are louder, prouder and require less money.
Thank you John for being a real voice for truth regardless of the personal costs. So many leaders both political and religious are unwilling to speak truth for fear of losing followers, votes, financial support or just popularity. Every move so far from the leaders of the LDS church seems to be cautious and calculated as to not offend those in the church that are anti reality. People are dying because of a lack of real leadership in the church. Crazy world when John Dehlin does what the President Nelson is unwilling to do.
I was really tracking with this discussion, until you tried to downplay the profit of the pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer made over 3.5 billion dollars on the vaccine in the first three months, alone, of this year (2021). They have updated their projected earnings from around 23 billion to over 30 billion as talks of boosters have begun to abound.
I am not trying to say that the vaccines aren’t needed, nor that any doctors are shills for the pharmaceutical industry. However, we should not turn a blind eye to the profiteering that is going on in the midst of this pandemic. The fact is that these companies are making obscene profits off of a worldwide health emergency. There is a direct pipeline of citizen tax dollars being pumped into their coffers, and I think it’s worth questioning if the price is perhaps exorbitant.
I hear you have lost donors because of the two podcasts you did on COVID. As for me, I will become a donor because of them.
Thank you so much for this very expert information. It has given me the understanding that I need to make the best decisions possible for my family to keep us and others safe. It also has given me information to give to others when we discuss COVID and reasons that vaccines and masks are so essential. This was to date the very best information I have found. Bravo!
This discussion was full of good information. Since I don’t do social media I was not familiar with some of these arguments against getting the vaccine or some of the alternative treatments people have been suggesting. Very informative. I had my second shot at the end of March and plan on getting the booster in December.
As for the accusations that you assembled a biased panel I can only shake my head. I mean I’ve heard that certain groups of people in Jamaica have been cured of covid using certain voodoo spells and chants. Should a Jamaican witch doctor have been included in this discussion? I have to believe that people who make those types of complaints simply don’t understand how the scientific method works. It’s sad.
John thanks for doing this show. Everyone needs to get vaccinated and wear a max. Stop being selfish people.
Mask. Stupid autocorrect.
I just want to comment on VAERS and the report I made. Yes, anyone can report to VAERS which I think is a good thing overall. Probably many people don’t in spite of the fact that the information about where to report was given out along with the vaccine doses in this case, it is not for most vaccinations so I think that might actually increase the reports happening for covid vaccine reactions.
I had a fairly strong reaction to the 2nd dose, it started 15 min. after receiving it but did not escalate beyond an achy arm an a headache until the middle of the night some hours later. However, I felt and still feel that I was and am better off getting the vaccine than not. I did not worry too much about the initial spread, my son had COVID and I did not seem to get it from him and tested negative at the time he was sick. BUT, as the delta variant started to spread I felt the risk increased (certainly of infection) and chose to go ahead with the vaccination.
I really do understand vaccine hesitancy, I’m not a fan in general. I know there is at least a small amount of risk with all of them, although in some cases it is so small as to be negligible (the measles vaccine for instance). But what I think needs to be understood here is that many illnesses that vaccines are offered for are not really very prevalent in our society at this time so the risk in skipping the vaccine is also generally minimal. That is not the case with COVID, it is everywhere and rampant and it is not likely at all that you will avoid exposure or eventual infection.
In honor of the “steel man”:
I find it very confusing to say that getting the virus is akin to getting the vaccine, so any side effects from the vaccine would likely happen anyway and be worse if you get the virus. But at the same time natural immunity somehow does not provide sufficient protection, only vaccination does? So will unvaccinated people who recovered from covid just keep getting it over and over again? I’m confused because I didn’t think that was happening, I thought getting covid more than once was rare.