The idea of moving at \u201cwarp speed\u201d probably resonates with\u00a0Star Wars fans. A galactic empire is impossible if it takes 100 years for a signal, much less a warship, to move from one system to another at the universal speed limit, 186,000 miles per second, the speed of light<\/p>\n
Serious science fiction lovers know that the warp drive does not traverse space at faster-than-light speeds. It warps space, or leaps through another dimension\u2014it takes a massive shortcut.<\/p>\n
So, what\u2019s the shortcut for vaccine development?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Safety testing?\u00a0It is impossible to test for long-term consequences without observing recipients for a long time\u2014not a few days or weeks. If experts are worrying about long-term effects of having the disease, why not about the vaccine? If one consequence might be a massive immune over-reaction to a later exposure to the coronavirus, we\u2019d need to await another outbreak.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Efficacy testing?\u00a0One way to test for efficacy is to find an animal model. See whether unvaccinated animals get the disease when deliberately exposed, while vaccinated ones are protected. If this works, you still need to test humans: vaccinate one group, give one group a placebo, and see whether a larger proportion of the unvaccinated get sick. Normally, you would wait to see how the subjects fare in the real world, where they might get naturally exposed during their usual activities. This takes time. You could speed this up by giving them all a dose of the virus, which might kill some of them.\u00a0That would be unethical\u2014wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
\u2022 One could test for antibodies, but do they work? Some are asserting that the antibodies that survivors have might not protect them. Why would the vaccine antibodies be better? For one thing, the virus might mutate. Maybe it already has.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Then what about production and distribution?<\/p>\n
\u2022 How about sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into producing various vaccine candidates, just in case they work? Then you could just waste it all if they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u2022 For distribution, why not mobilize the armed forces to quickly vaccinate 300 million people? Our furloughed medical workers might not be up to the job. Might arms be needed if people resist? Incidentally, if everybody gets the vaccine, there\u2019s no control group. Doesn\u2019t the scientific method call for one?<\/p>\n
Why the hurry?<\/p>\n
Experts like Tony Fauci and Bill Gates say we cannot go back to work until there\u2019s \u201ca vaccine.\u201d (Note that they did not say \u201ca safe and effective vaccine.\u201d)<\/p>\n
In fact, we could go back today\u2014if the government were not stopping us.<\/p>\n
One reason for hurry is that the epidemic might be gone, and the vaccinators couldn\u2019t take the credit. We have no vaccine for the \u201cSpanish\u201d flu of 1918, the \u201cAsian\u201d flu of 1958, or the \u201cHong Kong\u201d flu of 1968, all of which killed far more than the current pandemic, and all of which went away. A speedy vaccine, which was developed for the predicted\u00a01976 mass extinction\/swine flu pandemic that never was, resulted in deaths and Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome.<\/p>\n
Humanity survived\u00a0many waves of far more deadly pestilence before vaccines. The smallpox vaccine may have finally eliminated smallpox, but smallpox lesions were identified in Egyptian mummies from the 3rd century B.C., but not in earlier or later mummies. It re-emerged in the 6th and 7th centuries A.D., disappeared until the 11th century, then after being almost absent for about 300 years re-emerged in the 15th century.<\/p>\n
In 2020, much has happened with amazing speed: the flattening of the economy, the suspension of civil liberties, the destruction of medical practices. Censorship of any information that the World Health Organization doesn\u2019t like, for example about potential game-changers like vitamin D and high-dose vitamin C. The declaration of a new drug remdesivir as the \u201cstandard of care\u201d after an underwhelming\u00a0study was prematurely stopped. The sequencing of the coronavirus genome.\u00a0Revolutionary experimental DNA and RNA vaccine technologies.<\/p>\n
Those who were seemingly prescient about the potential of coronavirus\u2014Bill Gates holds a\u00a02015 patent on a coronavirus\u00a0created with recombinant gene technology, and the Gates Foundation held a\u00a0crisis simulation modeled on a coronavirus\u00a0in October 2019\u2014did nothing to shore up preparedness measures such as equipment stockpiles.<\/p>\n
Fear spreads at the speed of light. After 70 years and 100 million users of antimalarial drugs with remarkable safety, FDA is inspiring fear of heart problems from using hydroxychloroquine or azithromycin for COVID-10\u2014but don\u2019t worry if it\u2019s for lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or malaria.<\/p>\n
We need an immediate return to letting doctors practice and letting people work. They need accurate information, so they can make prudent decisions about protecting themselves and their loved ones. We need an immediate end to the dictatorial influence of a few long-entrenched \u201cexperts\u201d or media giants, and investigations of conflicts of interest with all deliberate speed.<\/p>\n
What we do not need is panic-inspired warping of safety testing.<\/p>\n
Jane M. Orient, M.D. (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong> The idea of moving at \u201cwarp speed\u201d probably resonates with\u00a0Star Wars fans. A galactic empire…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":321680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6500],"class_list":["post-323313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-disaster-preparedness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJane M. Orient, M.D.\u00a0is executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons since 1989. She is currently president of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. She is the editor of\u00a0AAPS News, the\u00a0Doctors for Disaster Preparedness Newsletter, and\u00a0Civil Defense Perspectives, and is the managing editor of the\u00a0Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"