As you weigh your decision, here are 10 questions I think we should all be asking:

1. Do I have a reliable way to protect myself from getting sick without a vaccine?

Yes. If you’ve been working on your health with me, you have already been improving your immune system by becoming a healthier person.

Also, studies show that over 80% of COVID-19 patients are low in Vitamin D, and odds are good you have a good Vitamin D level or are working towards that.

And last, you’ve likely already seen a video from me and gotten an email with a good preventative plan. If you don’t have that plan, contact the office and we’ll get it to you.

2. If I do get sick, do I have tools that give me a reasonable shot at containing the virus to a mild case?

Again, yes, there are many supplements and natural treatments that have helped many people recover quickly. Email, call or text us if you don’t have the plan that I’ve shared with all my patients.

3. Am I someone who is more likely to have severe complications from getting this virus or dying? Or do I need to be around a family member who is in this boat?

If you are older, have pre-diabetes or diabetes, have a heart condition, are overweight or have some other pre-disposing factor, you need to think about this one.

Since a lot of the people I work with have an autoimmune condition, I want to explain one thing. Having an autoimmune disease does not necessarily mean you have a weakened immune system. Autoimmunity doesn’t equate to immune-compromised for everyone. Instead, what matters is your personal immune function. Some people with autoimmunity will have a very robust immune system and report rarely ever getting sick, while others do have less of an immune response and catch things easily.

4. Will the vaccine stop me from getting COVID?

No, the vaccines do not prevent infection. However, if you do get infected, it is expected that you will experience a less severe infection. Your experience may vary, though, because the immune response of each vaccinated person is variable. This is true of all vaccines because immunity is related to age, health status, environment, diet, etc. What the vaccines are really trying to do is make more people respond just like an unvaccinated healthy person who has a good functioning immune system.

5. How effective is it?

Pfizer’s “vaccine effectiveness” of 90.7% sounds impressive, but this is relative risk. The absolute risk reduction for an individual is only about 0.4%. This is a quote from BMJ. “The Number Needed To Vaccinate (NNTV) = 256 (1/0.0039), which means that to prevent just 1 Covid-19 case (not death, CASE), 256 individuals must get the vaccine; the other 255 individuals derive no benefit, but are subject to vaccine adverse effects, whatever they may be and whenever we learn about them.”

6. Does it make my likelihood of being hospitalized less and will it make my chance of dying less?

It is expected that your risk of being hospitalized or dying will be less.

7. Will it stop me from spreading the virus?

The vaccine is expected to mean less transmission of the virus to others if you do get sick. But note, this is not NO transmission. You can still spread the virus to others even with the vaccine, so you should still practice all of the safety precautions we currently practice.

8. If I get the vaccine, what are the risks?

There is potential for the COVID-19 vaccines to trigger autoimmunity and severe adverse reactions.

Pfizer reported 3.8% of study participants experienced what they call severe, Grade 3 adverse events which include severe headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, fever. If that 3.8% is applied to 70% of the US and UK populations, that would amount to over 10 million people who would experience severe adverse events.

There is also concern about something seen with vaccines for other coronaviruses that came before COVID-19. Animal studies conducted on MERS and SARS vaccines consistently show that vaccines against these types of coronaviruses cause disease enhancement, or “pathogenic priming,” especially in the older animals. That means you may experience a more severe COVID illness upon exposure to the virus after getting the vaccine.

9. What is the risk of vaccine cross-reactivity causing autoimmune disease in humans?

In research done by Dr. Datis Kharrazian, the COVID-19 vaccines use spike proteins that have been shown to cross react with multiple tissues in the body. That means the coronavirus proteins may trigger autoimmunity.

10. What are the ingredients?

There’s good news and bad news here. One piece of good news is that there is no live virus in this vaccine. That means the vaccine itself cannot give you COVID. The other good news is that unlike many other vaccines, these mRNA vaccines do not contain mercury, formaldehyde, or aluminum. Nor are fetal stem cells used to manufacture the vaccine.

The bad news about ingredients is that there is a compound containing hexane that is known to be potentially neurotoxic. Another ingredient contains polyethylene glycol (PEG) that is associated with hypersensitivity and allergenic reactions. Another question is if the adjuvant in the Pfizer vaccine is squalene. Autoimmune diseases, like Gulf War Syndrome and narcolepsy have been associated with this ingredient.

One Last Thought to Consider

Every pandemic in the history of the world has ended, and most of those without vaccines. If a safe vaccine is available and can speed things up, I’m all for it. At this point though, I don’t think we have the data to know how safe our two current options are.

And remember, because you can still spread the virus and can still get the coronavirus, the advice is to still practice hygiene, social distance, wear masks and adhere to your local restrictions, even after vaccination.

I hope this helps you make a good decision for you in your situation. Whether you get the vaccine or not, I’m here to help you with whatever you need.