Reflections on Dr. E’s Pick-du-Valentine Day!

“I love Paris on Valentine’s Day…Amidst COVID-19” was my pick for 2021’s Valentine day. Those who missed my Facebook’s post may like to ask, “why and what was that all about?”

It all began before the morning break on Valentine’s Day and as I was still stretching out on my bed. I read the following BBC news article entitled “France says just one jab needed for previously infected“, on my phone. Upon reading, it occurred to me that it would be an awesome Valentine’s gift for my inquisitive readers. If interested, you may read the article by typing and following this link:  www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56048444

Absurdity of Vaccinating COVID Survivors: That article reignited my fundamental concerns over the absurdity of vaccinating past COVID-19 patients during our race to put an end to this agonizing pandemic. The issue that has been bothering me since the COVID vaxx sprung as a rare commodity was related to the wisdom of vaccinating past COVID-patients against SARS-CoV-2 infections. Vaccinating people who have contracted and recovered from COVID is like training a teenager to drive in empty parking lot despite the fact that he has already driven his dad’s car on the highways and downtown Chicago. What our health professionals tend to neglect is that an immune system that has already been challenged by the real COVID knows this rascal inside and out. Our current vaccines only train our immune system to defend us against the spike protein of COVID, whereas a person who has already wrestled with COVID-19, can strike against the surface spikes of this rascal alongside every other part of it! Which one would you prefer: learning how to defend yourself against the incisors of a rabid wolf, or against its incisors, jaws, gnaws, paws, and claws? When so many people are at risk of dying, wouldn’t it be more sensible to vaxx people, and in particular the COVID-19 survivors only once for now, to allow more vaccines to become available for everyone in the near future? Most of us with only one vaxx jab and an add on sensible social distancing for a month or so, can help many more people to survive while we’re waiting to receive our next jabs. In time, we will have a lot more vaccines, and it would be wonderful if we don’t lose any of our loved ones in the interim.

Some say that I’m a medical philosopher who has more questions than answers on these matters! But trust me…those who make a living out of vaccines and the science of vaccinology do not have many, if any, answers either. When we ask them how long it will take for our body to forget the memory of its first COVID vaxx, they say it’s a new bug, we need more data, and this or that…and they are all…correct! When we ask them how long it will take for the antibodies produced by the immune systems of the COVID survivors to taper off, again they say it’s a new virus, we need more data, and this or that…and they are all…correct! When we ask them why three weeks for the second jab of this vaxx and four…for the other…they say, with astounding certainty, that this is so because the companies that made them, claimed that it is so! Frankly, I don’t want to doubt the predictions of our hardworking vaccinologists. If they say three or four weeks for this and that, they must have based their judgements on certain reproducible and transparent studies. What I believe we might have forgotten to bear in mind is to substitute the practical for the ideal! Our immune system’s memory of the first vaxx or the first encounter with the SARS-CoV-2 does not taper off in an all-or-none and instantaneous fashion…rather it fades away gradually over time. I do strongly believe that with the exception of those who are at high risk of dying from COVID-19 due to their multiple comorbidities, most of us can afford a month or more delay in receiving our second booster jabs. All we need to do is to keep our guard just a notch higher for just a little while longer. More importantly, we often tend to forget that vaccination does not make us immune to COVID-19, it only reduces the severity of the disease and our odds of dying from it. I have a lot more to share on these matters, but I don’t want to drag you any further…at least, not for today…maybe we can revisit these concepts sometime later!

Back to where we began…on Valentine’s Day morning!  After I read that article, I was elated to see that the public health department in France, in its quest to minimize COVID’s famine, has proposed something along the lines of my thoughts. I don’t know about you, but I have been hardwired from my childhood because of the Hallmark, the Hollywood, or the billion-dollar Valentine’s Day-related industry to associate Valentine’s day with Paris!  

…and guess what has been ringing in my head since the early morning hours of February 14, and after I read that BBC article on my cell!  Click and hear it for yourself:  https://youtu.be/-hU_X6Vr1MY

By the way, this was the card that I shared with my friends and followers that day:

EPILOGUE:

In our country we can donate our lifesaving bodily organs to our immediate family members. Had I had the option, I would have loved to give my second Pfizer shot to my own son, and go to the end of the vaxx line and wait for vaccines to flood the market. Honestly, that would have been the best Valentine gift for my son!

What had you done?