At Key Ministry, we believe that Christ-followers can have different perspectives on important issues. This post is offered as a counterpoint to Dr. Steve Grcevich’s post about COVID vaccines on April 11, 2021.
I still remember waking up in the hospital, surrounded by about a half dozen men and women in white lab coats. They were all just looking at me, like I was a new species or a classroom exhibit.
Even though I received all the childhood vaccinations on schedule, at age 8, I contracted the measles. Initially misdiagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted fever, after a few days in the hospital, testing determined that I actually had the measles. Apparently, I must have received the live attenuated measles virus vaccine (the Edmonston B strain), which at the time was combined with an injection of gamma globulin. Information available online indicates problems with both the live and inactivated virus vaccines in those early years of the measles vaccines, problems which weren’t fully resolved until several years after I was born.
After about five days in the hospital, I came home, and for several weeks, couldn’t watch television without wearing sunglasses. I remember being very tired, and weakly resistant to the imposition of protective measures for my eyes.
Photo credit: National Cancer Institute on Unsplash.com.
With health concerns in my family, like significant allergies that could be dangerously triggered by foreign substances forcing an immune response, as an adult I have always done research on doctor-recommended medications and treatments for my kids, my husband and myself. One of my kids had a mild case of chicken pox when vaccinated, even though that rarely happens. And then some months after she received this vaccine, we were suddenly made aware that she is quite allergic to penicillin. She also has asthma and has had pneumonia twice. Both she and her brother took allergy shots, each one for more than four years.
All this time later, I’m still following the same thoughtful process, researching potential supplements, medications and alternatives to medicine, whenever my doctor makes a recommendation. So when journalists from national publications make derisive comments about white evangelicals’ vaccine hesitancy, I would encourage a deeper investigative dive rather than engaging in stereotyping. My views on medications and vaccines haven’t changed at all since the onset of COVID. I’ve been ‘vaccine thoughtful’ for years.
Not everyone is as fortunate to have someone like Dr. G handling their medical needs. I’ve had some really poor experiences with doctors that have increased my ‘thoughtfulness.’ After researching nutritional supplements to support memory and attention deficits in one of my kids, one doctor flatly said that the supplement I was inquiring about wouldn’t work for my child, and conveyed in no uncertain terms that he was an expert, and I was not. Eight years later, a different doctor heartily recommended that same supplement (phosphatidylserine) for the same child, for the same issues.
A few years after the dressing-down by the first doctor, another doctor chucked the report from an education specialist we had engaged onto his desk, declaring that it wouldn’t yield any valuable insights. We had our child evaluated by the education specialist because it was crystal clear that additional strategies were needed to attain academic success. We didn’t define ‘success’ as all A’s, but ‘on pace with peers in ability to prepare for and pass school assignments.’ My child was struggling on several fronts, and had already failed one class. Perhaps the report stepped on the good doctor’s toes, as it stated in the executive summary that we were not seeing the results one should expect with the use of the medications he had prescribed. The real issue was that my child had not yet received a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Turns out, the appropriate education supports—with no medication—would eventually be the winning strategy for academic success.
These poor experiences with doctors and the fact that I experienced a vaccine failure have absolutely made me more thoughtful and determined to understand how medications and vaccines work, and find nutrition-based alternatives when practical to do so. I’ve become self-educated in various medical conditions, by necessity. And sadly, the disrespect I experienced from these two doctors reflect poorly only on them, individuals who presumed they had nothing to learn from anyone ‘outside the club’ of their specialized knowledge.
For journalists who belittle a vibrant faith in Christ as a cause of vaccine hesitancy, I challenge them to look at their parents’ generation. Nearly every US adult aged 50 and older had childhood vaccines, and that generation was far more churched than the current generations under age 50. And those of us in this age group, by and large, had our kids vaccinated!
One concern causing vaccine hesitancy among many people is that the COVID vaccines were produced on an emergency basis, without the usual FDA approvals. The politicization of COVID and the compulsion of socially acceptable treatment options (translation: vaccines) versus unacceptable treatment or preventative options (some combination of zithromax, Vitamin D and zinc) have been puzzling at a minimum. And I’ve read little in the national media about the fact that 78% of people hospitalized with COVID were overweight or obese. Why aren’t there demands from the New York Times for people to exercise and lose weight as a means to prevent complications from potential COVID infection?
I’ve been ‘encouraged’ (translation: badgered) about getting the vaccine by some people who love me. I appreciate their concern, but for now, I haven’t changed my mind. I don’t have any underlying conditions that would have made me an early candidate for the vaccine. As a result, I haven’t wanted to try to move to the front of the line to get a vaccine, and take away the opportunity for the protections the vaccine offers for people living with elevated health risks. I recognize that vaccines are often important preventative measures in public health. I work with disability inclusion ministry leaders and interact with parents of children who absolutely need all the medical protections they can get. If I were in their shoes, I would most definitely want to pursue vaccine protections against this disease.
There are obviously still kinks with the COVID vaccines, from blot clots to developing COVID symptoms. Just like any new treatment, it takes time for the treatment not to be worse than the disease. That’s exactly what happened with the measles vaccine in the 1960’s.
Only two years ago, a dear family friend who is my age barely survived a life-altering stroke. My maternal grandmother died from a stroke. Blood clots are not insignificant.
And COVID is much more like the flu than polio, or the measles, or other diseases with near 100% rates of fatality. The current fatality rate of COVID in the US is 1.79%, meaning the survivability rate is 98.21%. To be clear: I have taken and continue to take all the precautions recommended—and often required—by various health authorities. I personally know people who have had COVID; most have had mild symptoms, but a few have ended up in the hospital. I don’t want to harm anyone else, as that is not loving my neighbor as myself. And because of taking precautions, like almost everyone else, I’ve experienced hardships. I was not able to attend my mother and stepfather’s wedding last fall because of this damnable disease.
I don’t normally get the flu vaccine. I work hard to avoid using any vaccine, particularly the ones made from aborted fetal tissue; some vaccines use one cell line derived from a male baby aborted in 1966. Only a few years earlier, my husband was born to an unmarried young woman. I don’t care if it was five or five hundred duplications ago from the original fetal cell line. That aborted child could easily have been my husband.
Remember, it was only one year ago: nobody knew what to do with COVID when it arrived. I am grateful for the hard work of the doctors, nurses and other front line workers who have cared for patients and developed treatments. I am grateful for the researchers who came up with vaccines, because no doubt they will protect many people.
So if you want to get the vaccine, by all means, do! Most of my family members already have. It’s an individual decision, and I respect your decision, whether you choose to be vaccinated or not. For now, I’m choosing not to get vaccinated. My opinion may change in the future, especially as the vaccine formulations are altered to minimize adverse reactions like blood clots. And given the prevalence of COVID across the US and world, achieving herd immunity should soon be a real phenomenon, even though WHO recently changed the definition to emphasize the use of vaccines versus preventative measures (see some preventative options mentioned above).
So please respect my decision. If, prior to a year ago, you would not have harassed me for not getting a flu vaccine, then I should not be harassed now.
As a Christian, I am commanded by my Lord to love Him and serve Him with all my mind, as well as body and soul. I am exhorted by Him in His Word to seek wisdom above all. Those two things make this Christian consider all sides to any important issue. That includes whether or not to take medical treatments demanded by faith-mocking national newspapers, accept the recommendations of my kinder, gentler family practitioner or make for myself similar medical judgments as my Christ-following ministry colleague, for COVID or any other illness. I’ll continue to wear a mask where required, wash my hands thoroughly and frequently, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. I encourage you to go and do likewise.
Catherine Boyle is the Director of Mental Health Ministry for Key Ministry. You can follow her work here or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and www.catherineboyle.com.
