Chaplain Christopher Anderson is a Republican Conservative who ran for Baltimore City Council District 7 in 2020. Learn more about his platform in our candidate spotlight here.
For months now, our government has been pushing for vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the public have questioned vaccines and are not convinced that they are necessary. There are concerns with mistrust of mandatory government vaccines and with good reason.
During the height of the pandemic, when cases were at their worst, several remedies were suggested for possible treatment of COVID-19.
One was hydroxychloroquine, promoted by former President Trump, and the other was Remdesivir, promoted by Dr. Fauci – both of whom worked on finding a solution to combatting COVID-19. Former President Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19, took hydroxychloroquine, and recovered in four days. Dr. Fauci stated if Remdesivir was taken at the first sign of infections it would shorten not only the infection but the length of time a patient would be hospitalized. Also, monoclonal antibody therapy is an effective and reliable treatment for Covid-19 infections, and would definitely be a life-saving game changer and reduce infection rates.
So the question becomes, where are these medications for the general public, and why are they not being used as treatments for COVID-19 versus the general public getting vaccinated?
In a sense, the vaccine could cause as many deaths as the virus because not much knowledge about possible and future side effects are known. Another concern of those who oppose vaccines are that effective vaccines take upwards of three to eight years, not only to be tested, but to be approved by the FDA. Dr. Fauci has said that another, more improved vaccine will be presented to the public in the next three to five years, so then what is being injected in the immune systems of millions of Americans now?
Dr. Fauci has stated that the vaccines available to Americans right now – from Pfizer and Moderna- will not even prevent you from getting COVID-19; you would still have to practice social distancing and wear a mask. Dr. Fauci claimed that taking these vaccines will help the public to reach 80% herd immunity – this means at some point, many of us will catch the virus anyway.
Also, let us also remember the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, giving hundreds of African-Americans syphilis from 1932-1972; hence the mistrust of the government from the Afro-American community to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine is seen as a way of violating their civil liberties or giving access to basic needs being met to only those who have taken the vaccine, and denying both civil liberties and basic needs to those who decline to receive it.
In conclusion, even with the hope of better vaccines in the coming months, we still have to continue to social distance and wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus. We should consider the use of hydroxychloroquine, Remdesivir, and monoclonal antibody therapies to save millions of lives now, even if we have to wait for better vaccines to be available in the future.
References:
- https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/antiviral-therapy/chloroquine-or-hydroxychloroquine-with-or-without-azithromycin/
- https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/antiviral-therapy/remdesivir/
- https://www.medicinenet.com/monoclonal_antibodies/article.htm#list_and_types_of_monoclonal_antibodies_fda_approved
The MoCo Conservative 