Vaccine Hesitancy? Let's talk about it here.

I have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as some other autoimmune issues.  My preference is to go the naturopathic/homeopathic route unless it's absolutely necessary that I rely on Western medicine -- in part because I'm ambivalent about big pharma and very sensitive to medications.  I also believe that rather than focusing on symptoms, naturopathy strives to get to the root cause of an illness.  Having said that, I will admit that I’ve had mixed results with both allopathic and naturopathic treatments. 

When I was deciding about the Covid vaccine, I considered two things:  (1) would the vaccine cause a major relapse of fibro and/or chronic fatigue?  I was concerned about a big crash that might take weeks or months for me to recover from; and (2) because of my mast cell allergic reactions, I wanted to receive the vaccine in a more controlled environment, where medical personnel would hopefully be nearby.

I consulted with my CFS physician, who I trust and personally like.  I knew that people with fibro and CFS were not included in the initial trials, so I wondered whether I should wait a few months until more data came in.  It was my doctor’s opinion that although it seemed reasonable to wait if I could control my risk of exposure, in general he was encouraging his patients to get the vaccine as soon as possible.  I was also blessed that I found a vaccination clinic connected to a major hospital. 

Ultimately I decided that the risks of getting the virus far exceeded any side effects from the vaccine, including a CFS/fibro crash.  A CFS crash I could work through in time.  We already know what Covid can tragically do.   

Admittedly I was frightened when I received my first vaccine dose.  I also know how powerful my mind is -- I've had the panic attacks to prove it!  After my vaccine I chose to remain at the clinic for almost 45 minutes, just to be sure I wouldn’t have any allergic reactions. 

Ultimately my decision came down to this:  I believe that God, or Spirit, or the Universe, or whatever you believe, works through whatever, and whomever, is available at the time.  I decided to have faith in the science behind the vaccine.  I believe these scientists love their work, and want to help heal and improve people's lives.  So I thought about the intention behind their work.  And I saw God working with and through these scientists, with a divine hand guiding them in creating this vaccine.  And when I saw the vaccine entering my arm, I chose to see it as something good for my body, strengthening and protecting me. 

In addition, I considered the following:  because of Covid, the stress of being so restricted in my movements and decisions had been affecting my immune system.  That I know for certain.  Also, my life was becoming smaller than it already was from the CFS and fibro.  I wanted my life to open up again, and that included more mobility and connection with loved ones.

I received my second Pfizer shot in late March.  I had a stronger reaction to the first shot – chills, exhaustion, some nausea and fibro aches that lasted a week or so.   Nothing that I couldn’t handle.  After the second shot I had some CFS/fibro symptoms and a sore arm, but it didn’t last long.  What did surprise me was the rheumatoid arthritis flare I had from the second shot.  I don’t know why I was surprised since RA is inflammatory, which is what the vaccine does – it creates inflammation.  As my body adjusted to the vaccine and began to balance itself, the joint pain disappeared.  

Do I wish I didn’t need this vaccine to protect me from this deadly virus?  Absolutely.  Am I grateful that we have this vaccine readily available to us, so we can move on with our lives?  Absolutely.  

While I don’t have autoimmune issues, I have had allergic reactions to other vaccines-specifically the pneumonia vaccine and the shingles vaccine, Shingrex.  With both vaccines, I broke out in hives and had severe swelling in my arm at the injection site.  However, my allergic reaction was over in a few days.  

Then came Covid.  Let’s face it, I was ready to crawl over glass to get my vaccination.  On the day of my first shot, I took an allergy pill beforehand.  At the appointment, there was a lot of discussion about my previous allergic reactions, but the nurse agreed to give me the injection.  Because of previous reactions, I had to wait around for 30 minutes to make sure I didn’t have a bad response.  I was bored, but happy to be vaccinated.  Walking out of the hospital felt anticlimactic.  

The only reaction I had to both doses of Pfizer was a sore arm for 24 hours.  

@bluebelle, you just reminded me of something -- I took a Benadryl before getting my shot.  I don't know whether it made a difference, but it made me feel more comfortable.

Attached is an interesting article on the Covid vaccine written by a naturopathic practitioner:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/08/naturopathic-doctor-advice-vaccine-skeptics-deniers-covid-antivax/

I'm not against the vaccine. I take the flu shot, and have had two covid shots. Even though I had unpleasant side effects, I will take a booster if needed, but if I had a baby of six months, I don't think I would get a shot for the baby.    

@elaineg 

Such difficult choices we face during this pandemic.

Being a new mom?  Really really tough.  

I know a few pandemic new moms and it has not been the first year of their baby's life that they had ever imagined. My daughter's co-worker couldn't even get induced 2 weeks ago because there were no hospital beds to be found.

This New York Times letter to the editor regarding vaccines is spot on: https://twitter.com/davidmwessel/status/1440258271374233600?s=10

I need some help with this. I'm confused about the convergence between "naturopaths" or "new agers" or spiritually-aligned people and the far-right conspiracies, like Q, or other conspiracies like the government tracking you/enslaving you through the vaccine. I don't understand why these things overlap for some people. As an aside, I'm so thankful for this community for its dedication to light and love, and its openness to a symbiotic relationship between science and spirit. But I find it deeply confusing and disheartening to hear many proclaimed psychics, healers, channelers etc. hysterical about doomsday and warning against the vaccine. I don't really know how to understand it. Are they lost, misguided, manipulated, manipulative, scared, sick? Like Christiane Northrop whom Jeanne mentions - what happened there?? I thought for years that she was at the forefront of medicine and wisdom, now she's screaming about 5G being implanted in the vaccine to sell us into slavery - was she always so angry/fearful/conspiratorial?

I just don't know how to place those people, because they also refer to themselves as Light Warriors, or a Family of Light, and yet they seem full of fear and hostility towards fellow humans. (Perhaps not surprisingly, Northrop supports both Trump and other right-wing conspiracy theories like Lauren Boebert). How are these two things reconcilable? Are they? Why is it happening?

The only consolation I can have when it comes to these contradictions is that I truly believe that Love is the only thing that matters - love is the light. And when I see fear, hostility, and the creation of some in-group of chosen people versus the "lemmings", I have to think the persons espousing those thoughts has somehow lost their way. But I guess I just don't understand why.

Jeanne, could you also comment on what you said to convince your friend? Because I also have friends who are skeptical of modern medicine and pharmaceutical companies etc. and I'm not sure how to reach them.

@meliaamal Thanks for your question. I've wondered about the same thing, how natural health enthusiasts would embrace an anti-vaccine position in the face of a deadly pandemic. 

First of all, there are many prominent natural health experts who embrace the Covid vaccine. Andrew Weil is one who pops in my mind and another prominent figure who I can't name for privacy.   

I know a few anti-vax natural health advocates and I found their statements to be extreme and simplistic. They are purists, but in the face of a deadly pandemic, they seem to me to be more fundamentalist to me. I can't generalize to all, but the ones I know believe that if it's all natural, then it's safe.  If it's made by Big Pharma, then it's poison. I'm aware of the abuses of Big Pharma, but I also know that many drugs have saved lives and the vaccine is essential.

The woman I convinced to get the vaccine is a naturapath practitioner who I have respected.  But when I asked her to explain why she was against the vaccine, she surprised me with an all or nothing statement.  She literally said all natural health experts were against the vaccine, which is wrong. To be fair to her, she suffered ill health throughout much of her life, and healed herself with natural remedies, a good diet, exercise and a great attitude. But she had a phobia for conventional medicine and vaccines. 

I pointed out to her that there are many natural health experts who embrace the vaccine.  It helped that she respected my intuitive feeling that the vaccine was worth the risk, unless a person is contraindicated.  But I do not want anyone to rely on my intuition to make their medical decisions.

I told her I could see no reason for her to not get vaccinated. I said I can't assure her nothing will happen to her, especially if she's terrified.  But I've read enough research on the vaccines, research done by many different sources involving hundreds of thousands of subjects. And given the high stakes of not getting vaccinated, I was more than willing to get vaccinated and thought she should too.  I also intuitively felt she'd be fine.  She decided to go for it and she ended out doing well through both shots. 

As for Christiane Northrup, the New Age Ob/Gyn doctor who wrote Women who Run with the Wolves.  When I first knew her decades ago, I agreed with her views and felt hopeful about the natural health movement because she was a mainstream doctor. She embraced a vegetarian diet of whole foods and echewed invasive surgeries when there were more natural alternatives. 

I never knew the underlying person she was and I still do not know her or why she has taken such a reactionary stance and embraced Trump to boot.  But I met her up close back in the mid eighties when she gave a small talk I attended and I was surprised by how she was not a warm person. She didn't smile or look us in the eye. She seem perhaps shy or even cold. Perhaps that was a bad day for her. But I could not connect with her and went away wondering how this distant woman came to embrace a natural health viewpoint. 

@meliaamal,

Attached is an interesting article on the Covid vaccine written by a naturopathic practitioner:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/08/naturopathic-doctor-advice-vaccine-skeptics-deniers-covid-antivax/

@jeanne-mayell thank you so much for responding. I guess there is a danger in expecting too much of someone who appears to hold similar values (natural, spirit etc.), without knowing them because I thought, purely based on her books and articles, that Northrup was an enlightened, loving spirit. And maybe this pandemic is helping show us for who we are and where we stand, so we're not all hiding behind using the same language to mean, as it turns out, very different things. And as my mother says, "There have always been Charlatans!"

I did look up Dr. Weil, too, since you mentioned him, and he had some very helpful articles and videos explaining (and in praise of) the vaccines, which I thought I might pass on to some friends interested in holistic/integrated health...

And thank you @deetoo! That article was very helpful as well. I really like how he says vaccines were considered naturopathic when they were invented! I sometimes wonder if we could just solve this problem by renaming the vaccines ivermectin.!!

@meliaamal I think the short answer is that these people are still on their journey.  They are in this semi-awakened state where they recognize some truth, but have not come fully out of the delusion of fear. However, that is to be expected... We all are at different points of this journey, for different reasons.  The soul knows no fear and no separation.  One of the main reasons we, as souls, come to this reality is to experience fear and to learn our way back to Love and Unity through that experience.  There are very few persons who have ever really fully realized the end goal of that journey.  Buddha and Jesus both come to mind.  In their cases, they both came here and achieved full Awareness in order help others.  We, however, don't need to be a Jesus or a Buddha in order to help others with their journey. We can help, simply, by sending out a prayer of Love; that each of these individuals learns the lessons they need to learn in order to serve the Greatest and Highest Good. ❤️ 

@frank thank you! I always love your thoughtful compassionate posts. Coincidentally, I was reading about Star Wars for my son and came across this quote from Yoda that echoes your remarks:

Beneath anger is always fear. Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.

I do think a lot of people are very afraid. These are scary times so it makes sense. I will do my best to sit with peace, love and compassion for all. ❤️❤️

@frank 

I love this post so much I am nominating it for the Hall of Fame so it can easily be found again and again.  Thank you for your beautiful and wise words.

@deetoo  Thanks for posting that Mother Jones article. I didn't mention this to @meliaamal, but when I convinced my vaccine phobic naturopathic friend to get the vaccine, I was bolstered by your own erudite decision-making process that you'd shared in deciding to get the vaccine. 

@lovendures I want to second @frank's nomination!  Thank you, frank. I love your perspective. 

Hi all, some information from Britain and Australia 

A British site regarding vaccine hesitancy (I was able to read this when I first went into the article but not when I went back again. It explained how to go about addressing peoples fears)

https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/ld/how-to-address-vaccine-hesitancy

Australian sites

https://theconversation.com/our-survey-results-show-incentives-arent-enough-to-reach-a-80-vaccination-rate-165728

For a laugh nothing more

Here's an article I read today that might have some bearing on Vaccine hesitancy in America.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/anti-vaccine-chiropractors-rising-force-of-covid-jab-misinformation-20211009-p58yle.html

Anti-Vaccine Chiropractors rising force of Covid-jab misinformation.