Why I refuse the anti-covid vaccine
The BAM! editorial team received this opinion piece from an “unvaccinated citizen” who wishes to remain anonymous “to protect [his] family from the judgements and the general intolerance that prevails”.
This text was refused publication by a Belgian daily that wishes “not to introduce scientifically questionable elements into the debate”. Before publishing it, the BAM! editorial team naturally submitted it to its scientific committee for approval, which found nothing to object to. This testimony comes from an ordinary citizen who intends to exercise his constitutional right not to be vaccinated. It shows, in any case, that his non-consent to being vaccinated against covid is particularly… informed. An ordinary opinion, then, but one in which more than a million unvaccinated people in Belgium, and even millions of people vaccinated under duress, may well recognise themselves.
We are neither anti-vaxxers, nor conspiracy theorists, nor from a disadvantaged socio-economic background, nor from any minority; we are university graduates, and yet … neither my children, nor my wife, nor I are vaccinated.
Why? First of all, because we have contracted the virus and therefore have natural immunity, which most scientists acknowledge offers robust protection against reinfection . We are therefore unlikely to fall ill and in turn infect other people.
We also take care of our immunity by making sure we do not lack certain vitamins or minerals. Given our age and in the absence of comorbidities, the probability of us ending up in intensive care, and taking the place of other patients, is extremely low.
Why would we have ourselves injected with a vaccine that is still in phase 3 trials, which is suspected of frequently causing undesirable side effects (more than one million cases recorded on EudraVigilance, the European database of reports of suspected adverse reactions to medicines ), which in certain admittedly rare cases can go as far as death, when we run, or expose society to, very little risk? Not to mention that the official figures are probably
underestimated. Indeed, we all know people who have suffered side effects that were not reported.
The Nordic countries have just suspended the use of the Moderna vaccine for the youngest, having observed risks of inflammation of the myocardium and pericardium , and in Belgium young people are still being pushed to get vaccinated …
Yet a whole section of society treats us like pariahs or bad citizens, and the authorities deprive us of our most fundamental freedoms. We feel as if we were living in South Africa at the time of apartheid, and most people do not care. Instead of judging and condemning the unvaccinated, should not everyone ask themselves whether this is the society they want to live in?
“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything” - Albert Einstein.
What are we to make of Marc Van Ranst’s recent statements: “It is time to convince the unvaccinated in a less friendly way”? Is this not incitement to hatred or violence, punishable under the anti-discrimination law?
Is it normal for some of the most influential politicians to manipulate figures and turn people against one another? For example, when some loudly proclaimed that 98% of hospitalised patients were unvaccinated, which considerably distorts reality, since these figures, taken from the Sciensano report of 18 August 2021 [7], covered the first seven months of 2021, and at the beginning of the year the hospitalisation rate was considerably higher and vaccination much lower, as Sciensano itself points out in its limitations. These figures therefore do not reflect the current reality at all.
More and more scientists acknowledge that trying to achieve herd immunity through vaccination is illusory. The virus mutates and escapes the vaccines. The vaccines do not prevent transmission of the virus. And finally, it is a zoonosis.
The absurdity of the Covid Safe Ticket
The extension of the Covid Safe Ticket (CST) to a whole range of activities is unjustifiable. Firstly, it will miss its objective. The populations that should be protected as a priority are elderly people or people with comorbidities, such as obesity in particular. Yet these are not the people who go to restaurants, cinemas or gyms. The places targeted by the CST are largely frequented by young people.
Secondly, the CST will generate infections, since vaccination does not prevent transmission , and potentially contagious vaccinated people will find themselves in enclosed spaces with unvaccinated people who have tested negative, without distancing and without masks.
The democratic legitimacy of the CST is, moreover, highly debatable. The law is being circumvented: since it would be difficult to make phase 3 vaccines compulsory, constraints are imposed on the unvaccinated in order to force their hand. Furthermore, the criteria established by the pandemic law for recognising an epidemic emergency were officially not met when Brussels and Wallonia decided to impose the CST. How can one justify, a year and a half after the start of the crisis, further restricting fundamental freedoms through mere ministerial decrees adopted in an emergency without any real democratic debate?
Many sectors, among those that have already suffered the most, are once again going to be penalised.
The Covid Safe Ticket will turn people against each other even more. It will also reinforce the distrust of part of the population towards the institutions that trample on their rights.
How can I explain to my teenage son that his natural immunity does not count for the government, even though he contracted covid 3 months ago and his blood tests show a high level of antibodies? For lack of a positive PCR test, he is not entitled to a recovery pass, and will no longer be able to go to the sports club, to restaurants, or out for a drink with his friends. This is indefensible discrimination, and certainly not from a health point of view. How can I ask him to continue to trust our institutions and our politicians?
Admittedly, it is easy to criticise, but if one thinks with a minimum of common sense, is it not obvious that instead of having an almost single strategy of compulsory vaccination, we would also do well to take natural immunity into account, to promote certain treatments that seem promising, to revalue the role of the general practitioner, to promote the benefits of certain vitamins and minerals that strengthen immunity, and to invest more in hospital capacity, both material and human.
Would we not also do well to tackle tobacco, pollution, malnutrition and obesity, which on the one hand kill more people than covid and, on the other, are in fact the primary cause of a large proportion of the deaths wrongly attributed solely to covid.
By An unvaccinated citizen
COVID-19 natural immunity: https://www.md-universal.eu/images/WHO-2019-nCoV-Sci-Brief-Natural-immunity-2021.1-eng.pdf
Having SARS-CoV-2 once confers much greater immunity than a vaccine—but vaccination remains vital: https://www.science.org/content/article/having-sars-cov-2-once-confers-much-greater-immunity-vaccine-vaccination-remains-vital
SARS-CoV-2 antibody-positivity protects against reinfection for at least seven months with 95% efficacy: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(21)00141-3/fulltext
https://www.adrreports.eu/fr/search_subst.html - COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE MODERNA (CX-024414) / COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE PFIZER-BIONTECH (TOZINAMERAN) / COVID-19 VACCINE ASTRAZENECA (CHADOX1 NCOV-19) / COVID-19 VACCINE JANSSEN (AD26.COV2.S)
Covid-19 : les pays scandinaves suspendent l’utilisation du vaccin de Moderna pour les plus jeunes: https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2021/10/07/covid-19-les-pays-scandinaves-suspendent-l-utilisation-du-vaccin-de-moderna-pour-les-plus-jeunes_6097527_3244.html
Five reasons why COVID herd immunity is probably impossible: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00728-2
Epidemiologist says reaching herd immunity with Delta is “mythical”: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/herd-immunity-delta-mythical/117386/
La vaccination ne réduit pas la transmission: https://bam.news/en/investigation/episode-4-4-all-the-misery-in-the-world
Le Covid Safe Ticket ou la dangereuse boîte de Pandore démocratique: https://www.lalibre.be/debats/opinions/2021/10/01/le-covid-safe-ticket-ou-la-dangereuse-ouverture-de-la-boite-de-pandore-democratique-5D62VTJSDBA7LJYH3ANT2PYUOQ/
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of BAM!
Original title: “Carte blanche d’un citoyen non-vacciné”.
The title, standfirst and subheading are by the BAM! editorial team.
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