Natural Immunity, a Wedding, and Booster Shots: A Family Melodrama

To boost (a second time), or not to boost. That is the question. Really?

The science is clear. If you have natural (recovered) immunity from Covid-19 (any variant), you have superior and longer lasting protection than you would from vaccine-induced immunity (any vaccination shot sequence or combination).

We apologize in advance for seeming to promote Megyn Kelly, but Aaron Kheriaty, MD, of Human Flourishing provides an excellent breakdown in this interview. Please visit Human Flourishing for even more vital information in rich detail.

In contrast to the established efficacy of natural immunity, the boosters which are presently available trail — and so do not protect well against — the current Covid-19 variants.  And the current variants are noticeably less lethal — have a vastly reduced risk of mortality. [1] [2] 

If you get infected, you get an upper respiratory tract infection: the sniffles, a head cold, or perhaps a bad head cold. You likely would not even know it was Covid-19 versus the common cold. The variants from Omicron onwards do NOT do well in the lungs.  To quote from a WHO doctor: “Omicron infects the upper respiratory tract; the lung tissues are not as affected.” [3]  Since Omicron, likewise.

This is NOT late 2019, or 2020, or even much of 2021. Your chances of getting seriously ill or dying from Covid-19 complications have been significantly reduced. The virus variants are different. Effective treatments have finally been well established.

Hence why the Nordic nations (Denmark, 1 Feb 2022; Norway, 1 Feb 2022; Sweden, 9 Feb 2022; Iceland, 25 Feb 2022;) Finland, early March 2022) prior to Fauci’s flip-flop had called the pandemic over. For China and USA, the pandemic continues.

Black in the Empire @blackintheempir

It's 2022 and Americans are still fighting over which corporate owned Party they would prefer to be robbed by

The Passion, The Drama

So now for some personal melodrama, which this Substack generally avoids. This author Data Humanist is — or perhaps, soon was — invited to wedding in Sweden.  Various family members from the USA are planning to attend, and getting boosted (second booster shot) for the occasion.

At least of these family members had recently recovered from Covid-19. So this person wants to get boosted. There is no medical case for this — the natural immunity this person already has is far superior to what the boosters (which target now functionally extinct variants) offer in the way of vaccine-induced immunity.

But so what? What’s the big deal? 

Know Your Right to Needless Medical Treatment
First, getting boosted (boost #2; shot #4) is that person’s right.  But know this. People have died from the vaccinations and booster shots.  People have also suffered serious vaccine and booster related complications.  The shots have killed people —the shots have hurt people. Even if the risk is extremely small, the risk is real.

The chart below shows the raw data compiled by VAERS (the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System) for the Covid-19 vaccinations and boosters.  

Should we take the numbers above or shortly below at face value?  No.

For two reasons. First, reports are not proof.  Second, some studies have estimated that adverse events are significantly underreported to VAERS. We do have many anecdotal stories of people who faced resistance and difficulty in filing a VAERS report for the Covid vaccine. [4] [5] 

What is undeniable: when you get a vaccination or booster shot, you do take on the risk of having an adverse reaction. The probability of that risk might be very low; but if you do have vaccine complications, the danger to you can be very high — even up to lethal. People have died from vaccine complications.

What is undeniable: when you get a vaccination or booster shot, you do take on the risk of having an adverse reaction.

To Boost or Not to Boost?

Prior to our enduring moral panic over Covid-19 and Donald Trump, the guidelines for decision-making here would have been straightforward and uncontroversial.

The patient and medical professional would do a risk-benefit analysis of the prospective medical treatment or intervention.  The first rule always: Do no harm.

Following the First Rule
So does getting the booster offer benefits — enhanced protection against the current variants of Covid-19?  In this case: No. The patient already has superior protection from natural (recovered) immunity. 

Furthermore, we have some evidence that needless vaccination or boosting results in pathogenic priming (making it more likely for you to get infected with Covid-19); or, the same otherwise pointlessly stresses and even weakens your immune response (which might contribute to the “pathogenic priming”).

For these concerns, please note that James Lyons-Weiler has authored a peer-review study [6]; and his essential Substack Popular Rationalism provides more a more general account as well as other vital evidence-based Covid-19 information.

Back to our melodrama and case study.

Does the patient even need protection against the current variants of Covid-19?  In this case: No. The patient is an otherwise healthy individual, robust and active, just starting his sixth decade.  The patient could opt in for the flawed protection of a booster shot against the sniffles — but there is no medical reason for doing so.

Still, why not get the booster?

Some good reasons have been suggested above.  But as a general rule, you should never undergo a medical treatment or intervention you do not need. It comprises a waste of time, money, and resources — and it does occur some risk.

In this case, the complications can be fatal. Or disabling. Why risk missing the wedding of your daughter because you had a vaccine-induced stroke or heart attack? 

No idea.

Welcome to New Abnormal
But here we are. Your author is politically independent.  The author’s family members in the USA are life-long true-blue Democrats, and passionate anti-Trumpers. 

At American Exile, our unofficial official position is: we don’t care for Trump or even care much about Trump. Perversely, we think Trump is not that important — we do not subscribe to “the Great Man” theory of history.

Instead, we focus on issues, and data-based historical trends — economic, social, health, human migration, resource consumption, etc. We think evidence matters, and so does reasoned and critical evaluation. Most vital concerns are multi-factorial with empirical and cultural dimensions, and are not celebrity personality contests.

TDS is Real, Sadly
There are some people who for faith reasons ask profess to ask themselves: “What Would Jesus Do”— WWJD?

We have millions of Americans, it seems, who ask themselves: “What Would Trump Do” — WWTD?  And if they think Trump is for it, they are AGAINST it. Religiously. Passionately. Absolutely. Aka, TDS or “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Fauci, according to the WWTD followers, is a high priest of the anti-Trumpers. So if Fauci is or seems for endless boosters, get boosted.

Waste of time, money, and resources? Check. Will result in needless deaths and disabilities? Check.

Just the law of large numbers. Because no agreement exists on how to count a death from vaccine complications, we cannot offer the ratio. So for the sake of illustration, let’s just put out some numbers as a thought experiment. Please keep in the mind the numbers provided here are just for the example — because of the contention over counting ([4] [5]), no reliable numbers are publicly available.

Thought Experiment
Say the chances of having an fatally adverse vaccine reaction is 1/200K. So after 2 million vax shots,  we get roughly 10 deaths — say give or take 5 either way. Not to mention the other adverse effects. After 20 million vax shots, we get roughly 100 deaths. Again, not considering the other adverse effects.

So let’s say our government has good reason to believe that this 20 million vax shot campaign saved 5000 lives at the cost of taking 100. A net gain of 4900 lives. So in the presumed interest of the greater good, our government officials might well say “vax vax vax.” Perhaps fair enough.

But even this logic — which some would claim is morally questionable — fails in our current situation. The present boosters are near-worthless against the newer variants which in turn have vastly reduced mortality risk. Our thought experiment fails the current reality test.

You would need to be seriously co-morbid or otherwise precariously frail: effectively, you would need to be at mortal risk from any of the common cold viruses. The problem would not be Covid-19: the problem would be the general state of your health. And regardless, the booster would not protect you from becoming infected.  

Speak with your medical provider
To boost (in this case, a second booster for a total of four shots) or not to boost?  Consult your medical provider. Make an informed decision. Do not make a decision based on the hysteria propagated by CNN or MSNBC. 

But if you already have natural immunity, this comes close to a no-brainer.  You can skip the booster, and skip the risk of vaccine complications.

But there is only ONE solution!
No matter. Even as Fauci flip-flops over whether the pandemic in the USA is over, we have reached another peak of Covid-19 absurdity. As follows:

• For large segments of the populations, the danger from the booster shot is now greater than the danger from a potential Covid-19 infection.

• Likewise, the Covid-19 virus variants are here forever — or at least as long as our species persists, and likely longer. 

  • Your risk of getting Covid-19 at some point: near 100%.

  • Your mortality risk from the more recent variants: near 0%.

  • Your chances of getting a free natural vaccination or booster: near 100%.

So the solution: a seemingly endless regimen of ineffective Big Pharma booster shots which have potentially disabling or lethal complications. Because?

Will the faithful submit to this seemingly endless regimen of boosters? So far, the answer seems: Yes.

Why Not Wait?

Since Covid-19 is no longer any a public health emergency in any nation but China, why not wait until we can develop safe and effective solutions which could be part of a voluntary — not mandatory — annual flu vaccination campaign?

Why not?

Why not wait — and do this right?

Because letting go of the crisis entails letting go of the emergency powers assumed during the crisis. Our power elite do not wish this.

And for the faithful, letting go of the crisis means the potential loss of their morally and intellectually superior status, the dissolution of their virtual community of virtue. Might need to live in the real world again. Scary.

So the booster campaigns continue. Offering ineffective protection against functionally extinct variants.

The Covid currently going around almost certainly will not kill you. And will not give you a stroke, a heart attack, or the other maladies listed above as adverse reaction events. But your booster might. So get your fourth (or fifth) jab. Roll the Fauci dice.

Perhaps turn-about is fair play. No vaccines were widely available during the first year of the Pandemic in the USA. When the vaccines were rushed to market, those who were hesitant for whatever reasons were deemed Trump supporters and/or anti-science deplorables. 

Black in the Empire @blackintheempir

Still amazed at how good the Establishment is getting They got people to attack protesting truckers by calling them Nazis, and then got them to support arming actual Nazis in a matter of days

Various media pundits gleefully celebrated the stupidity of the unvaccinated who died from Covid-19. (The same pundits were largely silent on the vaccinated who died from Covid-19). The anti-Trumpers — the WWTD followers — were convinced of their moral and intellectual superiority. The vaccine hesitant: these stupid people who are taking needless risks, and getting sick and even dying, just to make asinine political statements.

American Exile protested this trend on 20 January 2022: “Mocking the Covid Dead.”

But if you indulge in this game of moral and intellectual superiority, tell us: now, right now, who are the stupid people taking needless risks, and perhaps getting sick and even dying, just to make asinine political statements?

The forever-boosters, including and especially those with natural immunity.

Let the Chips Fall Where They May
So if this author is disinvited from the wedding over a family controversy with the American father of the bride, so be it. One needs a second booster shot to attend a wedding in Sweden? Global Karen-ism at its finest.

Even if you have natural (recovered) immunity, it is your right to get boosted. It is also your right to drink yourself to death. It is your right to, et cetera.  But please do not excuse your poor decision-making as either being virtuous or “following the science.”

For the Record

Finally, for the record, this author (as the Substack title implies) currently lives and works outside the USA, and has done so for a number of years. So is your author vaccinated for Covid-19?  Yes. With the Sinovac — the old school version, not an mRNA version. 

Is your author “anti-vax” in any sense prior to the recent Fauci reign of error and terror?  Hell, no. Not that any of this matters in our post-truth society.

Let’s get back to the first rule of medicine: “Do No Harm.” Let’s get back to doing patient-based risk-benefit analysis for medical intervention and treatment.