Dr Mark Shaw, a retired dentist who’s contributed before to Lockdown Sceptics, has written a guest post about his decision not to have the jab.
At University it was drummed into our heads not to make assumptions. Base clinical decisions on rigorously tested clinical evidence that had endured analysis, audit and surveillance over a sufficiently long duration.
Do you get frustrated when you so often hear assumptions being made that are presented as facts? The Government and MSM frequently refer to the number of Covid cases and deaths plummeting as a result of lockdowns and vaccination – not because this might, much more plausibly, be due to the natural falling from a peak or wave that respiratory viral infections always follow. Do you get frustrated when you hear that the current health, education, justice, social and economic issues (and just about every other dilemma under the sun) are being blamed on the Coronavirus but not on the Government response to it?
Policy makers are guilty, not just of this spin and deceit, but also of carrying out a fatal gambler’s mistake. The punter places a bet which fails, so he optimistically places another to try to at least recoup the value of the last stake. A sensible gambler might stop, pause and re-evaluate the situation and ensure that he or she can afford to pursue a certain strategy financially and healthily. An irresponsible person carries on regardless. The Government’s whole response to the Coronavirus situation smacks of this behaviour: “We’ve gone this far, we must continue to look credible despite the errors and dire consequences – so let’s carry on, keep deceiving and frightening the public until our credibility is restored by eliminating the virus.” The vaccine was the ace in the Government’s pack because a tired public (even ardent lockdown sceptics) were ready to accept anything just to get out of this horrendous mess. I have already mentioned just how unethical this project is in one of my previous articles.
When someone first asked me if I was going have the jab, I explained that I would weigh up the pros and cons, re-evaluate my attitude to risk and conclude that I’d rather take the risk of dying a natural (covid, flu, any other respiratory virus etc) death. I also had a very strong feeling that if, as a result of allowing myself to be injected with rushed out single or multiple vaccinations I subsequently suffered (months or years down the line) from some ailment linked to that, I would find it very difficult to live with the decision I had originally made. This, for me, would be the case no matter how small the risk or how small the ailment. That is just my attitude – nature can take me how it likes but politicians and their machinery won’t be able to influence my departure from this world, no matter how good (or otherwise) their intentions. I believe that is my right. I believe that it is also my human right to be exposed to as many natural pathogens as possible to build up my natural immunity while fit and healthy by having nothing to do with extreme hygiene measures. I’m not sure many people feel the same way. They may be much more risk averse than me – but is their assessment of risk heavily influenced by the current bias of the Government and MSM that advises and then forces us to act in a way for which there is so little evidence. Much of their advice has been based on flawed modelling and general assumptions. Good science has been abused (manipulated and dislocated) to fit a “we were right all along” narrative.
Another pressure to follow the herd is from the proselytizing that one must socially distance, wear a mask and be vaccinated purely for the benefit of your fellow mankind – and to even question this is considered completely irresponsible. It reminds me of when I was working as a dentist back in the 90s. The local Health Board had been ringing around all the dentists to see if any of them would be prepared to visit a terminally ill AIDs patient in hospital to carry out some palliative dental care. I was happy to oblige but I was surprised that the lady who had been ringing everyone was so grateful and said she had almost given up trying to find a dentist prepared to do this. I was even more surprised at the enormous gratitude expressed by the patient and his partner for my carrying out what seemed such a simple act. No NHS dentist was going to be richly rewarded for doing this but I look back and consider those treatment visits over just a few weeks to be one of the most spiritually rewarding of my career. These patients were regarded by some as lepers. It was so unjust and it has taken decades for attitudes to change with regards to those people living today who are infected with HIV. Of course there is no vaccine for HIV but I fear that there may be parallels beginning to develop now with how some of the public will judge, not the Covid infected, but the unvaccinated. There might be a discriminatory attitude that prevails against them for being unable to have a jab or for simply taking the attitude “let nature take its course, what will be will be”.
Those were the days when I could listen to my mother sing (terribly but beautifully!): “Que sera, sera whatever will be, will be the future’s not ours to see, que sera, sera.”
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I definitely agree that the primary cause for cases dropping is that they would be anyway, apart from the vaccines. However, the fact that cases dropped more sharply for the older generations and vulnerable who were vaccinated first, than for the younger generations, strongly suggests to me that the vaccine is having a measurable effect too.
The vaccine may well offer a reasonable level of protection against serious illness or death, so the benefits for vunerable people may well be greater than any potetial long term side effects. However for younger people the opposite may well be true. This is why everyone needs to be given as much information as possible, including possible unknowns, and allowed to make their own choice. If I was in one of the high risk groups I’d have the jab, despite the possibility of serious side effects, but as I’m under 50 and in good health I’m going to turn it down. As there is no right or wrong answer about how risk averse we should be, and everybody’s situation is different, nobody should be critised for their descision to have or not have the jab.
The young have more years to live with negative side effects and more generations to follow in case of thalidomide or similar.
“If I was in one of the high risk groups I’d have the jab”
An odd stance if you hold the basic reservations about the snake-oil and its emergence. It seems to be the point at which ‘sceptics’ cease scepticism. Fascinating.
‘primary cause for cases dropping’
What is your definition of a ‘case’?
‘…strongly suggests to me that the vaccine is having a measurable effect too.’
What test are you using for measurement?
Could ‘cases’ dropping be partly down to the fact that the majority of deaths have been in this age group therefore less of them now anyway?
You get the same effect if by chance you reduce PCR CTs for the over 70s with comorbidities. ‘Cases’ are irrelevant and a meaningless staistic.
WHO issued a notification re the PCR test around 13 January 2021 about the importance of CT level and clinical obs. This was a late response after nearly a year of use of PCR being called out as highly problematic; and so if CT was reduced following issue to accepted level it would most certainly account for a decrease in positive cases, rather than vaccination. The timing of this next to vacc rollout has to be considered.
Excellent presentation. I heartily agree, though personally I’d throw in to my argument against government policy on this several moral hand grenades as well.
This is a reassuring read. I work for the NHS and am currently in the unvaccinated minority within my dept. I’m young, am not at risk of covid, jabs have been approved for emergency use and are still within the trial period yet I am the one my colleagues will soon begin to virtue signal to. It is utterly demoralising that people don’t question the narrative being put to them, or think for themselves. So thankful for pages like this
Me too. Frontline NHS, not that young – 61 – but still not planning to have it for what I think are sensible clinical reasons. Have also seen at least 6 people coming through the doors with a seizure the same day as they had their jab.
Good for you – am sure it cannot be easy [what is wrong with people that they have to virtue signal at you???] hold out as long as you can – I loved his attitude!
You are not alone. I know two other nurses taking a similar stance and they feel the same way. Utterly demoralised. Where are the ethics in coercion?
Mark,
Good on you for speaking out.
Hopefully more in your profession will walk behind you.
Top man, thanks.
Bill
I’m always sceptical of taking medication. I have some allergy issues and I had a bad reaction to a drug I was prescribed more than 40 years ago and the memory stays with me. I spoke to my GP about having the coronavirus vaccine and he suggested that the Astrazeneca one would be my better option but that it was my decision whether to have it at all. I’m 68 and received my invitation but couldn’t bring myself to book an appointment. It felt wrong to me. However 2 friends put pressure on me, laughing off my fears and telling me I must do it for those I love. And because of my age. So I did. 11 days ago. I’ve not felt well since. Brain fog, chills coming and going, edge of headache. Worst of all, I feel I let myself down and I can’t go back. I was weak and should’ve stood up to them. Well done to those staying true to their convictions.
I hope you feel better soon.
Ivy’s Mum if you can get someone to do it for you try to check out Dr Mercola online – he had advice for things you could do if you had a bad reaction to the vaccine – they won’t undo it but they might be able to help you to feel better
I hope you filled in the yellow card and reported the adverse reaction you are suffering.
“We’ve gone this far, we must continue to look credible despite the errors and dire consequences – so let’s carry on, keep deceiving and frightening the public until our credibility is restored by eliminating the virus.”
I concur with your diagnosis. This is the prime motive for Johnson, Whitty and Vallance. It’s a first cousin to Project Fear.
Thank you for sharing this. It is so reassuring to read. I am a teacher and will probably not be able to admit that I am not intending to take the jab to most of my colleagues. I have nothing against anyone else taking it but as I have no underlying health conditions and all of my friends who got Covid just had flu-like symptoms for a few days, I have calculated that my risk is very low of suffering unduly. I don’t believe in medicalising healthy people and ‘wasting resources’ on them (especially as the jab does not stop transmission) but I certainly would take the vaccine if I were in a vulnerable group and/or elderly. I think we need to focus on health lifestyles far more than vaccination – I have always taught in state schools in London in which a majority of pupils consider it normal to eat fast food every day and many of them are already significantly overweight. No amount of vaccination will change the health inequalities in this country, which have been crudely exposed in our high Covid death rate as well as other illnesses.
Excellent Article. Sums up exactly how I feel. Thank you for speaking out…
I liked this sentence a lot; perfectly expresses how I feel: “[N]ature can take me how it likes but politicians and their machinery won’t be able to influence my departure from this world, no matter how good (or otherwise) their intentions.“
Thank you very much, Dr Shaw, for this very clear explanation of where you stand on vaccination. I too have done my own risk assessment and have decided to hold out against consenting to this vaccine. I will reassess my risk once the vaccine trials are concluded and I hope I will be able to keep an open mind in weighing up the pros and cons.
But I’m finding it very difficult as I feel so much alone in my decision. Almost everyone I know has been avid to get the jab. A couple of people I know have expressed some reluctance but they’ve still gone ahead and accepted the jab because everybody else is doing it. I wish I could meet just one person in real life who shares my doubts – but in the meantime I’m encouraged to read these comments and to see that there are others, even if we’re in a tiny minority. Thanks to all who comment here.
You are not alone – every single one of my friends and family has gone without question to have the jab. Even my husband is not going to refuse, although he says he will make no effort to book an appointment.
I am pretty certain that I will be the only one in my circle of friends not to have had it. It is a lonely world, when you are the only one going against the majority.
As you say, at least we can see other people’s comments here, which is heartening.
Thank you Ruth Sharpe. From time to time I’ve tried to explain my decision to other people by explaining, for example, that the trials on these vaccines are far from concluded and that the regulator has authorised the vaccines on a temporary, emergency basis only. But it’s like I’m talking to myself, or have said something so distasteful that it doesn’t rate a response in civilised company. It’s actually quite scary to have people you’ve previously thought of as intelligent and responsive refuse to engage at all.
I never previously thought of myself as being particularly principled or courageous. I’ve always complied with the law and have been careful not to say or do anything that could be construed as offensive. But one of the very few positive aspects of this appalling experience over the last year is that I now realise that I am able to take a stand and to go against the majority. Small comfort, really, but it’s something that helps get me through the days.
You’re definitely not alone. It’s your body, your immune system, and it should be your choice.
It should be but sadly so many people seem to have been infected with this “it’s the right thing to do” mantra – a neighbour recently told me she felt we all have to get the vaccine to honour all the people who have died from covid. I fear that when word gets out among all my vaccinated neighbours that I am a refusenik I will be shunned – I am just going to have to live with that. I won’t be rude to them for having the vaccination, despite the fact that I disagree with what they are doing, and it would be nice if they could extend the same courtesy to me. I’m not holding my breath.
I so agree. I am a reasonably healthy 63 year old. I live in the country and hate crowded places. I am also a smoker so if I get Covid it is likely to kill me. I have weighed those considerations against the risk of taking an experimental drug whose long term consequences are unknown and decided against. I too feel pressure to have it and expect that friends will not want to meet up with me. So be it. I do wonder how many of the vaccinated will accept numerous further injections to deal with an unknown number of variants in the future.
On a separate note, can anyone tell me why our beloved leader had a vaccine against a virus which his own immune system coped with?
but what was in the vial – vaccine or saline????
I’m a recently retired doctor who fully supports your stance Mark. My rationale is largely based on my lack of need for a vaccine. I had COVID-19 back in April 2020, a mild illness which would have passed for a cold had I not tested positive by PCR – a result which took 4 days to arrive, by which time I was better. Antibody positive in June. Out of curiosity I retested last month (10 months post-PCR) and was still strongly positive. It is well know, but not well publicised, that reinfection rates are very low. I have no reason to believe that my natural immunity is inferior to that of any induced by the pick ‘n’ mix vaccines available. Indeed, it might be better, especially against any variants (since my response will have been raised against many antigens, not just the spike protein).
All this doesn’t make me anti-vax, or mean that I will never take a corona vaccine (though I’ve never had the flu vaccine). Undoubtedly, we are in danger of causing more harm with the cure than has been done by the disease.
An excellent article. I made the same choice. Of course, it was deliberately made hard work, with no shortage of junk paper post etc from the organisation running the scheme. No obvious easy way of saying ‘no thanks’ to it, so I wrote to my GP’s surgery about it, and that should be it (they did let me know that my choice is on my record), but there is still more unwanted paper delivered by post by the other lot. It’s almost as if there is no communication between the two, or it’s a deliberate political campaigning activity; I suspect that’s more like it.
This article is exactly why I have been reading Lockdown Sceptics for the past year – to constantly remind me that I am not insane & there are others that think as I do.
I too believe my natural immunity far outweighs the risk of having the current experimental medicine.
By the way, Dr Shaw, are you still practising? My dentist has only been open for emergencies for a year now, but you can see him privately! Am in search of a new dentist!
I have criticised the editors of this site for their apparent compliance with a ‘pressured’ vaccination policy. I did so quite aggressively on the Toby Young article about LDS aniversary.
I am pleased that my post remained in place, I was half expecting it to be taken down, and I am even more pleased with Mr Young submitting this article.
This site has come of age in my view. And I am very grateful.
Trying to short-circuit new drug trials is just bad science, to do it with drugs using novel techniques is bordering on criminal. However the real crimes are committed by those who use state apparatus and mass media to push their emergency use for a diseases with a 0.23% IFR. There might just be some plausible excuse for offering them to the ‘at risk’ group, but not to the general public. To consider using the same use of pressure to inject children is akin to the Nazi experimentations, the death sentance to the perpetrators should not be ruled out.
Thank you Mark and to Toby for publishing this excellent article.
I worked in HIV prevention and harm reduction in a drugs and alcohol team in the early 1990s and experienced all the prejudice faced by this service user group. Your description of treating the HIV positive person moved me to tears as I remembered how grateful people shunned by the rest of society were for the simple kindness shown them from our small team.
I feel fearful that mass vaccination under heavy coercion may lead to problems. I so hope people with knowledge in this area will be able to speak out and be heard. I believe there will be people of integrity that will do so.
For myself I am certain I had covid in March 2020 so why would I need a vaccine. I have some allergies indicative of Polyethylene glycol PEG antibodies. I don’t feel at risk from covid but I do fear a reaction to the current vaccines. When I can read considered research I feel I can make an informed choice, until then I will resist with dogged determination this Governments hard drive to vaccinate everyone. What they have done to our country this last year leaves me with little Trust in their medication offer.
I’m a healthy 72-year old retired family physician and, in a former career, scientist. I will not be vaccinated. My husband who is 84 was vaccinated last week. As we’ve done with all things throughout the 47 years of our marriage, we respect each other’s choice.
I strongly believe that vaccination passports/certificates will be required in the future for people to be allowed to engage in activities as ordinary as eating in a restaurant, using the library, or driving across the border. As a consequence of their choice to not be vaccinated, people will be barred from these activities. As a matter of principle, I object to this.
Personally, it won’t make much of a difference. Lockdown has already deprived me of my right to engage in these activities – and of much more – for a whole year. I have coped by developing a new way of life. While I’ve always enjoyed my own company and am not extrovert, I also liked being among people when I chose to. The closures and the mask mandate (to which I did not comply) made me dislike the company of others. I slowly gave up being among people. It was hard, but I managed it. I am now a (if not happy) content recluse.
I now face a (moral) dilemma. My husband and I have always enjoyed doing things together. I know he will not be interested in going alone to a restaurant for dinner, or to see play, or to visit a museum. Because I will not be allowed to accompany him, he will forgo these. If I truly love my husband (and I do), what right do I have to – however indirectly – impose such limitations on his few remaining years ? On the other hand, would I not be letting myself down by going along with something I know has no medical or scientific justification, something I know to be just a mascarade ? I don’t know what will be my final decision.
Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful response to a fantastic post – I’m sure you will find a way through. In my view you have done the most important thing, which is to pause and reflect. There is no need to decide anything while we remain in lockdown. I believe that if more people did this the charade would soon be over…..
Thank you for this article Mark, as a fellow ‘fang farrier’ (and a bit more, and also retired) your conclusions mirror my own with uncanny precision. Good to read.