1-I just want to say that I called our Public Health Dept weeks ago for info on pts w/severe #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis getting vaccinated.
Phone call was made per CDC, FDA, & NIH recommendation, as the respective GOV agencies told me they don't have data to give me instruction.😔
2-Have to wonder who is giving our local jurisdictions instruction if the agencies they turn to say they don't have the data. But I digress...
They did not have answers to my questions but said they'd look into it. I never received a call back from the County Public Health Dept.
3-Also expressed concern during the phone call about how we're relying on self reporting regarding side effects of vaccines, which is beyond problematic when trying to collect accurate data for science, so data being collected is accurate and people can make informed consent. 🤔
4-Someone I love developed severe lymphadenopathy after the second shot. Also pretty tuned into the M.E. community and people are self reporting their experiences, many of which indicate that vaccinations are leaving many M.E. patients worse off. Not all, but many. 😔😷
5-I've also heard we're relying on self reporting for breakthrough cases. That to me is shoddy 'science'.
There is a lot we don't know and seems to me that even the experts don't know, but won't really admit how much they don't know, at least publicly. 🧐Garbage in, garbage out.
6-Before people lecture me on how it would be far worse to get Covid, that can't be determined as fact. MOST who get the virus have mild to no sx & aren't hospitalized. There's no way to determine who will or won't get very sick & die vs people who will only get mild symptoms.
7-That being said, we do know there are factors that might put one more 'at risk' for getting very ill and/or dying. All of this of course can change as multiple variants enter from stage left.
8-I already have a serious post viral illness that has progressed to me being pretty much housebound. M.E. symptoms are much like symptoms that #LongCovid patients are now facing. I'm also now forced to contend with a new diagnosis of another chronic illness. 😷😪
9-Side effects of the vaccine could exacerbate my conditions and take me from functional to non functional. For my part, I continue to try not to get sick at all.
I mask and double mask when in public.
9-While I'm not anti-vax, I am hesitant, and with good reason. I have done TONS of research. I've spoken with my primary care doctor regarding my concerns and have made an informed choice FOR ME, at least as informed as is humanly possible at this point. 😔
10-I've agonized over my decision not to be vaccinated, and for all you healthy people out there and to GOV please note: It's a terrifying time, especially for those of us already existing w/serious health issues.
We and our concerns should not be a footnote. #MillionsMissing.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
1-Per CDC 10,262 breakthrough cases (in fully vaccinated people) have been reported & 162 have died. That's a 1.5% death rate in breakthrough cases thus far with the caveat that not all states are even reporting breakthrough cases.
U.S total for COVID-19 deaths is about 1.7%.
2-In both populations unvaccinated and vaccinated, so far, the percentage of deaths is very close.
And in both vaccinated & unvaccinated populations, it's those with co-morbitities, chronic health issues, immunocompromisation, and the elderly that are at most risk of dying.
1-Note that even Jeff Sessions, the same person who told people to 'just take an aspirin and go to bed', signed on to the Pain Relief Promotion Act in 2000.
We never got to where pain was being adequately treated before the anti-opioid agenda kicked in. govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CH…
"The Pain Relief Promotion Act has two main purposes. First, it encourages practitioners to prescribe and administer controlled substances to relieve pain and discomfort." #OpioidsSaveLives
"Practitioners should be encouraged to treat pain aggressively even when the treatment may increase the risk of death."
1-This is just MY opinion.
I think any 'pain pt advocate' should be helping to dispel the notion that 'overprescribing' MDs, or a 'over supply', of legal, known potency, pain medicines, caused the so called 'opioid crisis'. statnews.com/2019/06/28/sto…
2-A pain patient advocate should be working to do away with parole like policies of endless drug testing for pain patients & law enforcement tools like the PDMP; as these 'tools' have done NOTHING to prevent ODs. In fact all above policies have coincided with INCREASING ODs.
3-A pain patient advocate should be pushing back on the 'opioids as a last resort & the 'dangerous drug' narrative.
Opioids are a safe and effective way of treating pain for MOST people and the data shows that prescribed opiates as an initiating point for addiction is RARE.
@thomasjwwalters 1-'Rx opioids caused the OD crisis and #deathsofdespair'
In fact, my hypothesis is that it was a tragic coincidence that opioid prescribing increased to adequately treat those with pain/chronic pain right alongside a prolonged national catastrophe.
@thomasjwwalters 2- We KNOW that drug & alcohol use issues often go hand in hand with emotional, financial, and other types of 'trauma'. The collective trauma of a terrorist attack, war, financial corruption and collapse, ppl losing homes, jobs, retirement... A PERFECT STORM for ⤴️drug use.
@thomasjwwalters 3- These factors touched ALL of America. Especially hard hit was (white) Middle Class America, already struggling, but then landed with the knock out blow of job loss due to Wall Street corruption, exportation of manufacturing jobs, people losing homes, savings, retirement etc...
1-Let's be clear. If it weren't for the false narrative that RX opiates were driving OD deaths, no one would be supporting 'saving' people battling addiction. #opioids #SavingUsToDeath #DrugWar
2-It was only after (white) Uppper & Middle Class Americans, (especially people of affluence), began losing loved ones and kids due to a deadly drug supply that the 'false narrative' about 'opioids' became mainstream. cornellalumnimagazine.com/man-on-a-missi…
3-Drug deaths & addiction, even to 'opioids', has been around a very long time. In fact, the drug war, like any other war, is a profitable enterprise.