Audio Transcript – Pilot Program

James Madison once said, “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people, by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.” To put it in a modern perspective, it means that when a democratic governing body violates individual freedoms, it will most certainly not come in a forceful, coercive, or violent fashion at first. Instead, it will be achieved by weakening its citizen’s rights over a couple of decades through subtle policy changes that are less obvious and often with the good original intentions. These words of wisdom do not just apply to Madison’s era; it is also applicable to our current modern-day government.

With the recent discovery of the heavily mutated Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, the governing bodies around the globe, and specifically the United States government, have once again placed strong emphasis and often coercive notions urging its citizens to receive the vaccine jab. Although some vaccine candidates, such as Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine, provide sufficient evidence to prove its effectiveness at preventing severe outcomes (Barda and Dagan Effectiveness of a third dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine for preventing severe outcomes in Israel: an observational study), it is still very far from being the elixir of the pandemic. The aggressive vaccination campaigns from these democratically elected governing bodies strongly resemble James Madison’s idea of silent encroachments of individual freedoms. These incursions into individual freedom will not only tremble on our country’s founding principles but will likely stir up severe social turbulence and irreversible lasting havoc to our economic prosperity.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two of its most important mission statements to the American public are to provide public health decisions based on scientific data and place the policy benefits to society above the benefits to their institution (CDC Pledge to the American people). However, it has failed to deliver on both of these promises because one of the perspectives in evaluating the success of public health policies is to analyze whether the policies can withstand scrutiny. The best public health policies should be enacted based on a sensible and reasonable approach that has the most negligible impact on the people’s livelihood.

On October 21, 2021, researchers published a peer-reviewed study in The Lancet journal analyzing whether or not the vaccination helps reduce asymptomatic spreading of COVID-19 and reached the following conclusion,”…Fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections have peak viral load similar to unvaccinated cases and can efficiently transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts (Singanayagam, PhD et al. Community transmission and viral load kinetics of the SARS-CoV-2 delta (B.1.617.2) variant in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in the UK: a prospective, longitudinal, cohort study).” To put it in layman’s terms, it means that in the event of a vaccinated individual infected with COVID-19, their viral load, or their ability to transmit the virus to other vulnerable people is just as likely, if not the same, compared to an unvaccinated infected individual. However, according to the CDC website outlining the benefits of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, they still stand firmly to this date that it could reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus (CDC Key things to know about covid-19 vaccines), which was proven to be factually false in the Lancet study.

In addition, the researchers of this Lancet study further concluded that the antibody durability was significantly better in previously infected individuals than fully vaccinated individuals. This finding suggests that the immunity induced by the vaccine has considerably weaker durability compared to the immunity induced from a past infection. On top of that, the National Institute of Health also published an article on January 26, 2021, corroborating Lancet researchers’ findings. They conducted an observational study concluding that the immunity of more than 95% of the observed patients who recovered from a previous infection had lasting durable memories of the virus for up to eight months after their initial infection (NIH Lasting immunity found after recovery from covid-19). In contrast, the Lancet study concluded that protective immunity induced by the vaccines starts to notably wane down as soon as two to three months after being fully inoculated. However, despite being armed with all of these findings, public health officials refrained from talking about it in mainstream media networks and purposely withheld this information from the general public with fears that it may go against the central narrative from the federal government. Because the administration labeled it as the “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

Another excellent medical example worth mentioning is the potential risks of immune escape variants. Although the concept of immune escape is a fairly simple phenomenon to comprehend, it is still imperative to first understand how the vaccine induces immunity and the mechanisms behind its development. For example, the Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine candidate to receive full approval from the Food and Drug Administration at this time. Pfizer’s vaccine works by incorporating the genetic material of the COVID-19 spike protein in its formula. When inoculated, it releases that genetic material to the vaccinee’s bodily cells and instructs it to produce a harmless replica of the virus’ spike protein. The T-cells, or in this case, the immune cells in the vaccinee’s body, will recognize those newly made replicas of the spike protein as a foreign agent and keep it in its memories in case of a future infection.

However, what is not being openly discussed in the public health dialogue is that this type of technology enables the potential of a highly tricky and worrying situation known as an immune escape. For a virus to rapidly and successfully spread, it will need to learn to adapt and evade the human immune systems. Therefore, by developing a vaccine that only consists of the spike protein of the virus and not the entire viral structure or nucleoid, the possibility of the virus catching on to the scientists’ tricks and learning to heavily mutate its spike protein to evade human immunity is highly plausible. A recent Nature Review article published on June 1, 2021, corroborated this finding. The researchers conducted a study to see whether or not if there is a clear correlation between vaccine antibody effectiveness and mutating viral spike proteins. The study solidly concluded that there is a prolific amount of data and evidence suggesting that there is a very distinct interdependency between the two (Harvey et al. SARS-COV-2 variants, Spike mutations and immune escape).

Furthermore, the Nature research article is not the only agency that reached this conclusion. Also, according to a governmental meeting transcript released on July 12, 2021, by United Kingdom’s COVID-19 response team, also known as SAGE, they reached a similar finding. They noted that “The combination of high prevalence and high levels of vaccination creates the conditions in which an immune escape variant is most likely to emerge (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies Sage 93 minutes: Coronavirus (COVID-19) response, 7 July 2021).” To put it simply, it suggests that these forceful vaccination mandates could very well create an incubation bed for the virus to perform target practice and learn from the scientists and potentially mutate its spike protein to evade our immune response.

Aside from the medical perspective, another way in evaluating the success of a public health policy is to analyze whether or not the governing institutions and policymakers have a clear understanding of the complete scope of impacts resulting from their policies. The most notable impact of these public health policies is the economy. As previously mentioned, the current administration labeled the pandemic as the “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Unfortunately, this was proven to be very far from the truth given the previously mentioned medical researches. However, to make matters worse, President Biden, during a recent televised press conference that took place on September 9, 2021, addressing the 25% of the unvaccinated Americans, said the following, “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us (Guardian News Biden: ‘Patience wearing thin with unvaccinated Americans’).” Sadly, it is just simply very ill-suited and misguided for him to say this, given his position of power, because by saying that, he is essentially alienating the very audience that he needed to persuade to take the vaccine.

However, even though President Biden’s reputation has been rapidly spiraling down for quite some time now, it still would have been okay provided that it stopped right there. Unfortunately, though, the catastrophe continued. Because later, during that speech, he announced that he would be instructing the labor department and OSHA, also known as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, to draft up requirements mandating private businesses with one hundred employees to force their employees to take the shots (White House Fact sheet: Biden Administration announces details of two major vaccination policies). What is more alarming, though, is when the employees refuse to comply with this mandate. In that case, they risk losing their job because, according to OSHA’s pamphlet, termination due to not complying with the vaccination mandate does not violate the anti-discrimination policies. Therefore, the employees will not be entitled to restitution and unemployment benefits in the event of an unjustified termination.

In order to thoroughly understand the magnitude of the obliviousness of this enactment, it is vital to know that this policy was enacted despite the administration knowing ahead of time that the August U.S labor statistics fell short of meeting the market expectations by a considerable margin. To put that in context, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for August of 2021, we created about 235,000 jobs (Press Office Employment situation news release). That is, while the market expected about 720,000 jobs, as reported by CNBC on September 3, 2021 (Cox Jobs report disappoints – only 235,000 positions added vs. expectations of 720,000). That is an enormous difference between the actual and expected figures.

It is needless to say that no working families should be losing their jobs over a vaccine jab. However, to put it in a broader political safety assurance context, forcing these employees to be vaccinated and punishing them when they fail to comply with these mandates will certainly not benefit the current administration’s approval ratings and their overall political legacies. A clear indication of this failure is within the labor statistics report for September. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for September, we have only created about 194,000 new employments (Press Office Employment situation news release). A staggering 18% decline over the August data.

Alienating, segregating, and punishing these unvaccinated individuals will only achieve the complete opposite results, pushing them further away from the goal while politicizing the narratives and inciting divisions. These medical researches should set a solid foundation for making impactful and non-intrusive public health policies. Unfortunately, however, instead of educating and being honest with the general public, public health officials and the governing institutions decided to hide critical data, turn a blind eye to science, and follow the central narrative pushed by the people in positions of power. What should have been done is to promote education, be forthcoming with the public with all research findings, not just the research data that fits the central narrative, and emphasize the importance of non-pharmaceutical interventions. That is to promote healthy lifestyles, hygiene practices, and most importantly, proper mask-wearing techniques and provide adequate and healthy supply for those in need. Unfortunately, it seems like the governing institutions are incapable of doing any of that. After all, just as business and marketing practices, knowing what the customers want and need is far more important than pushing out blind products. Also, just like love, building trust is the fundamental key to a healthy relationship and a successful marriage.

Works Cited

Barda, Noam, and Noa Dagan. Effectiveness of a Third Dose of the BNT162b2 MRNA COVID-19 Vaccine for Preventing Severe Outcomes in Israel: an Observational Study, The Lancet, October 29 2021, http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02249-2/fulltext.

CDC. “Key Things to Know about Covid-19 Vaccines.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, November 30 2021, http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/keythingstoknow.html.

CDC. “Pledge to the American People.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, April 6. 2018, http://www.cdc.gov/about/organization/pledge.html.

Cox, Jeff. “Jobs Report Disappoints – Only 235,000 Positions Added vs. Expectations of 720,000.” CNBC, CNBC, 3 Sept. 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/03/jobs-report-august-2021.html.

Guardian News. Biden: ‘Patience Wearing Thin with Unvaccinated Americans’, YouTube, September 9 2021, https://youtu.be/p7chQfQ67SM.

Harvey, William T., et al. “SARS-COV-2 Variants, Spike Mutations and Immune Escape.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, June 1 2021, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-021-00573-0#Sec12.

NIH. “Lasting Immunity Found after Recovery from Covid-19.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, February 11 2021, https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/lasting-immunity-found-after-recovery-covid-19.

Press Office. “Employment Situation News Release.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 3 Sept. 2021, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_09032021.htm.

Press Office. “Employment Situation News Release.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Oct. 2021, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_10082021.htm.

Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. “Sage 93 Minutes: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response, 7 July 2021.” GOV. U.K., July 12 2021, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sage-93-minutes-coronavirus-covid-19-response-7-july-2021/sage-93-minutes-coronavirus-covid-19-response-7-july-2021.

Singanayagam, PhD, Anika, et al. “Community Transmission and Viral Load Kinetics of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta (B.1.617.2) Variant in Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Individuals in the U.K.: a Prospective, Longitudinal, Cohort Study.” The Lancet, 29 Oct. 2021, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(21)00648-4/fulltext#seccestitle160.

White House. “Fact Sheet: Biden Administration Announces Details of Two Major Vaccination Policies.” The White House, The United States Government, November 3 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/04/fact-sheet-biden-administration-announces-details-of-two-major-vaccination-policies/.