Today my office got a “1 star” review from a person who isn’t even a patient.  She was upset that I do not require my staff to be vaccinated.  So, I thought I would lay it out there so that you and all my followers can understand my thought process on this whole vaccine issue.

I Support the Use of Safe Vaccines

First and foremost, let me state that I am a proponent of vaccines. I have been fully vaccinated with every other vaccine under the sun (I was in the military and we were given EVERYTHING) and was adamant about getting my flu vaccine until 2016 when I had a severe anaphylactic reaction to the influenza vaccine. 

I’m Personally Allergic to the Components of COVID-19 Vaccines and Influenza Vaccines.

Thinking this was just a hypersensitivity issue, I got my yearly flu vaccine in 2017 and my reaction of hives and inflammation were worse.  We concluded that I am allergic to the base in the vaccine polyethylene glycol (PEG) or polysorbate.  In doing a great deal of research trying to find out what it was I was reacting to, I changed my position on the need for the yearly influenza vaccine.  (It causes a 36% increase susceptibility to coronavirus infections.  You can read about that information here.)  

Polysorbate or PEG is a component of all three COVID-19 vaccines, and is a contraindication to getting the COVID-19 vaccines (listed right on the CDC website – as there is NO package insert on any of the vaccines to date), so I have been very leery of getting vaccinated with anything containing these chemicals.

I’ve Already Had COVID-19 Twice

Near the end of March 2020, I had six patients (3 couples) come off of a cruise to the Caribbean, and had symptoms that we thought were Parainfluenza virus, but later turned out to be COVID-19.  2 weeks later, I and the majority of my staff became ill with COVID-19.   I had classic symptoms of COVID-19, however, my symptoms only lasted about 3 days, many of my staff members were sick for 1-2 weeks, and my wife was sick for 3 weeks.  It was about this time that nasal swab testing became available. 

Over the last 18 months, we have treated over 400 positive COVID-19 cases outpatient.  I have an active patient population of about 8,000 patients.  Between myself and my PA, we see about 13,000 patient visits per year, so we are a busy practice.  The average age of my patients is 65 years old and the majority of these patient have insulin resistance and/or diabetes.   My concern was that we have a huge practice susceptible to severe COVID-19 infections.  However, amazingly in the first 12 months of this pandemic we only had 12 hospitalizations for COVID-19 infections and those were the patients who were not following a low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet and were not controlling their blood sugars or insulin levels.

As predicted, and like any coronavirus, yearly resurgence of the infection will re-occur.  We’ve seen about 15 new cases of COVID-19 in the office in the last four weeks which appear to correlate with the Delta Variant being seen in the hospital across the street from my office.  In the last month, we have seen a resurgence of COVID-19 infections, and five of my staff members were out of the office due to positive COVID-19 infections.  Symptoms lasted 3-14 days in my staff.   All of these patients and my staff were treated with my protocol and none have been hospitalized. 

I personally came down with a reoccurrence of the infection and had symptoms of sore throat, headache, sinus pressure, loss of taste & smell, and productive cough resolve within 72 hours following our treatment protocol.  Like the flu with over 600 variants, there are already 160+ variants of the COVID-19 virus around the world.   So, it is to be expected that we will see this yearly, much like we’ve seen the flu.

Because of my position on this particular vaccine and the influenza vaccine, many members of my church (who has heavily supported this vaccine) and the medical community have ostracized me and my family, as I’ve raised concerns and been vocal about this issue. And yet, a recent real world study in Israel of over 800,000 people demonstrates that those with natural immunity to COVID-19 have 13 times greater protection than those that are vaccinated.

I’ve Seen More Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccine Then Any Other Vaccine

In January, when the vaccine came out, I was interested in using this in our practice, but I had concerns regarding the untested delivery mechanism that this vaccine used and I was concerned that there were no clinical trials established at the time to know what to expect from this vaccine.

About 30-40% of my practice opted to get vaccinated.  And about 30% of my staff opted to get vaccinated as well.

Of great concern to me is that I have started seeing strange long-term vaccine reactions in those patients that got vaccinated:

• I have three patient that had profound fatigue – literally could not get out of bed for 4-5 months after getting vaccinated.  Two of these patients are still experiencing these symptoms today.
• I have two patients who had pericarditis/myocarditis from the vaccine (Now a Black Box Warning for these vaccines)
• I have seven patients with persistent elevated D-Dimer levels 3-6 months after vaccination predisposing them to blood clots and pulmonary emboli.  Two actually had life threatening blood clots in the lungs. (Blood clots is also a Black Box Warning on these vaccines)
• Four of these seven had colitis that persisted for 6-8 weeks that was unresponsive to antibiotic therapy.
• And, one of these patients has symptoms of severe fatigue & tachycardia (rapid heart rate) upon standing that has yet to resolve.
• I have two others that had spontaneous bruising over their lower extremities for 6 weeks associated with severe fatigue.

95% of the people that get vaccinated in my clinical experience seem to have no problem.   5% of patients have profound symptoms of illness as if they had a mild to moderate case of COVID-19 that can last up to 7 days.  

When I have commented about what I am seeing to my colleagues, they roll their eyes at me and blow it off.   And, behind my back, they tell others that I’m just blowing things out of proportion. Yet, the patients I have seen above are real and these symptoms have dramatically affected their lives, their families and their ability to work and provide a living for themselves.

Am I against getting vaccinated?  No, but I want people to clearly understand the risks and benefits of vaccination.  To date, there is still no package insert that is given to those receiving the vaccines, providing any warning, including the Black Box Warnings. And, the patients that have had adverse reactions have told me that they would never have considered getting vaccinated if they knew about the symptoms they were potentially going to experience.