The unvaccinated have become scapegoats in many countries: in Quebec, they will have to pay a fine, which, in the immediate term and in light of the information offered in the mainstream media, seems to satisfy the majority. But first, who are these unvaccinated? Answer found on the site of the French Senate on January 6, 2022: “In the sample questioned, 40% of the non-vaccinated are mainly vaccinated by difficulty of access, such as immigrants or isolated elderly people living in rural areas. »
The same is true in Quebec, if we judge by an article by Jean-François Nadeau in The duty of January 10 and another signed by Judith Lachapelle in The Press of January 11. Aren’t the 40% of people who are far from the vaccine and isolated from society the hassles of fate who, for this reason, are more exposed to serious forms of the infection, which could at least partially explain the over-representation of non -vaccinated in hospitals? And what is, on the other hand, the proportion of people declared positive admitted to hospital for other reasons?
In the French study, I also read: “Furthermore, even within the non-vaccinated by choice, only 2/3 of them reject the vaccine head-on, when the other third has doubts, but does not consider themselves not as antivax. I believe I have good representatives of these refractory and doubters in my network. Many are doctors and all have a master’s degree or the equivalent. Some are vaccinated, some are not. They are thorough and knowledgeable. Rather than ostracizing them, shouldn’t our government dialogue with them in the context of a real public debate, without ceasing to adopt the necessary emergency measures?
Hygea and Panacea
They have in common to wish for a balance between Hygea and Panacea. As René Dubos reminded us in Man and adaptation, the story of health is an oscillation between these two daughters of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. Hygée represents the preventive pole, hygiene in the broad sense of the term. Panacée represents the drug/treatment/medicalization pole and, consequently, heteronomy. Hygée is rather on the side of autonomy, the healing power of nature and what is now called the holistic approach. In the 19thand century, it was the hygienists — Pettenkoffer, Snow, Nightingale, etc. — who ensured progress in public health through their success against infections of bacterial origin.
René Dubos discovered in 1938 the first antibiotic, gramicidin, and he was one of those who, soon after, at the Rockefeller Institute, developed penicillin, discovered empirically by Fleming. Having noted that this triumph of Panacea made us forget the role of Hygeus in the earlier period, the same Dubos drew the attention of his contemporaries to the toxicity of chemical pollutants and to viruses. He was thus one of the founders of the contemporary environmental movement; it is thanks to him that the exhaust gases of cars were purified. He also supported Rachel Carson in her campaign against DDT and encouraged research in chronobiology, this hygiene of time. What would he think of those who dream of vaccines that would play against viruses the role of antibiotics against bacteria?
The essential remains to be done in the fight against the new agents and factors at the origin of allergies such as many cancers, degenerative or viral diseases and even mental illnesses. However, the emphasis placed on vaccination in the COVID-19 pandemic shows that we are moving even further away from Hygea to get closer to Panacea.
This is why the strategy of immunity through vaccination has prompted so much research into the pros and cons of vaccines hastily approved a year ago. I cannot summarize this research here — there would be more than 1,000 — but I have become convinced that several, among those which show that the current vaccines against the COVID-19 viruses will in the medium and in the long run more harm than good, are not conspiratorial. […]
The fact remains that, in the immediate term, the pressure on health systems must be reduced. Hence renewed confidence in vaccines, but in addition to considering other causes of stress on health systems, it is also important to measure the long-term cost of vaccine-provided immunity as opposed to natural immunity on which, in any case, it may be necessary to bet in the last instance, as Israel seems to have done by opening its borders after having given up controlling the diffusion of the Omicron variant, in a sort of letting go of the scale of a nation.
power of nature
I heard this morning on the radio a young mother of two children say that she would resign herself to a monthly vaccination for herself and her children if it was necessary to live normally. Logically, she should also get used to the daily self-tests. Humanity would thus reach a peak in heteronomy. Fortunately, we hear another story, especially in Great Britain: rely on the old diagnostic and healing power of nature, go to work when you feel able to do so, otherwise stay at home. Autonomy would thus find its rightful place alongside the invasive and ruinous heteronomy for health systems.
This is why enlightened non-vaccinated people must be given the right to speak in public before they are fined. A truncated truth is an error. For example, by failing to go publicly to the bottom of the issue of adverse effects of vaccines, our governments are truncating the truth. They also truncated it by relegating to oblivion the problem of non-vaccination in poor countries and by refraining from reporting on the controversy over the meaning of the word “vaccine”.
The autonomy of the living being close to the freedom of the citizen, we understand that there are some provocative libertarians among the resistants, but we must not conclude from this that they are the majority or make them criminals when we do not not always know how to distinguish COVID from seasonal flu.