OPINION: Attack on doctors’ oath

Vaccinating children is emblematic of the war on the Hippocratic oath: government vs. doctors.

By Matt Walsh
| 11:25 a.m. November 17, 2021

Sarasota
Opinion

We knew they would come — the rebukes, the citations disparaging the doctors, the “shame on you” for printing such low-level misinformation and trash.

We’re printing this week some of the letters we received from readers in response to last week’s report on the Florida Summit on COVID-19, which we headlined on this page: “Do not vax your children.”

We knew that headline would trigger strong recoil. But we did it on purpose. It was, in fact, the most significant news and message coming from the speakers at the Florida Summit on COVID-19.

And we did it with the hope that readers would take note and do what we encouraged them to do — to do more research, to give consideration to the fact there are other voices, points of view, and credible evidence and research than that of the establishment in Washington at the CDC, NIH, FDA and WHO.

Too many Americans have succumbed to the idea that whatever the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, it must be true and infallible. They forget the incredible ingenuity, inventiveness and discoveries that have always bubbled up from great minds outside of government. Galileo was not a government-paid astronomer. Louis Pasteur was not a government chemist. Thomas Edison was not a government inventor.

But as the adjoining letters attest, they see and hear the mainstream media narrative that no one is credible except the establishment elites.

We’ve said it before: We are in a civil war with many raging fronts — the progressive, Marxist takeover of America; the cancel culture against free speech and religion; critical race theory in schools; and the war on COVID-19.

The war on COVID-19 is much more than fighting the killer virus. It’s a war in which the huge, taxpayer-financed, unaccountable public health bureaucracies — CDC, NIH, FDA, WHO — and Big Pharma companies have unleashed their forces in a way that defines the war like this: The ruling, public-health elites and Big Pharma are snuffing out the Hippocratic oath, the sacred covenant that has guided doctors for 2,500 years:

First, do no harm. Prescribe only beneficial treatments to the best of the doctor’s abilities and judgment.

In other words, let doctors be doctors, not automatons.

How to treat COVID-19 is at the crux of this clash.

The doctors we quoted last week are among thousands of doctors and other health care providers all over the world who have been saving lives, preventing hospitalizations and curing COVID-19 patients with early treatment protocols.

But the public health agencies, Big Pharma, hospital corporations and national media outlets refuse to accept and acknowledge the effectiveness of these treatments, the legitimate data that supports their effectiveness and the doctors pioneering these treatments. (See FLCCC.net and “The Complete Guide to the Care of the COVID-19 Patient,” COVID19CriticalCare.com/covid-19-protocols.)

Earlier this week, Dr. Paul Marik, the most published critical care doctor in medicine, developer of early treatment protocols for COVID-19 and disparaged in one of our letters, sued his hospital for preventing him from prescribing life-saving drugs for his COVID-19 patients. (See Rescue.Substack.com.)

And there is this: As we noted last week, the war on how to treat COVID-19 is spreading rapidly to the controversy of vaccinating children.

In California, Jeff Hanson, a real estate investor with three children under age 17, and four others have organized more than 60 grassroots parents, civic and religious organizations — thousands of Californians — in a statewide movement determined to stop Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to impose a vaccine mandate on K-12 students. (See UnityProjectOnline.com.)

These Californians are not “fringe.” They are mainstream Americans protesting the authoritarianism being forced on their children. The Unity Project’s values state: “We stand for parents’ freedom of choice in our kids’ health care. … We stand against forcing children as young as 5 years old to effectively become human shields, assuming vaccine-injury risk.”

These parents — and millions of parents in Florida and elsewhere — want what medicine has practiced for 2,500 years: to count on the doctor-patient relationship, not an unaccountable medical tyrant and the elitist bureaucracies.

Readers respond to 'No vax for kids'

Your vaccine polemic was appalling

Your Nov. 11 editorial, entitled “Do not vax your children,” relied on material presented during the Florida Summit on COVID-19 in Ocala.

You found the event to be persuasive and wrote that “you could not have left … without being convinced that if you had children or grandchildren, you will not let them be vaccinated for COVID-19.”

A possible reason you were so impressed is that the so-called summit was not an inclusive event of world experts but instead was presented by a narrow slice of vaccine deniers, both on stage and in the audience.

As the Gainesville Sun noted the next day, “Several of the doctors who spoke have drawn criticism for pushing misinformation.” No other points of view were included.

This summit was really a fringe pep rally and not a serious search for truth. The basic assertion, made without any credible data, was that the vaccine is dangerous for children and that COVID-19 is not.

This is the opposite of the truth. As a physician and grandparent of three granddaughters in the 5-11 age group, I was appalled at the way you presented this meeting and at the important facts you omitted from your polemic.

For folks deliberating what to do for their own kids, I offer some of the reasons why our nation’s experts have been urging childhood immunization:

COVID-19 is not innocuous for kids. Often the disease is mild, but it is important to know that thousands have become seriously ill, and hundreds of children have died from COVID-19. This is far fewer than other groups, thank God, but it is a continuing tragedy nonetheless.
Thousands of children and their families are dealing with long-lasting symptoms of “long-haul COVID-19,” often after mild initial illness.
Thousands of children have had their education disrupted due to recurrent school outbreaks.
n Many children have become seriously ill with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and continue to require prolonged hospitalization and care.
Children continue to spread the virus, even when they themselves do not get seriously ill, often passing it to those at much greater risk, including grandparents and other loved ones.

Contrary to your assertions, research has shown that the vaccine in kids is safe, with no serious long-term problems. The myocarditis referred to is vastly more serious and problematic in children who get COVID-19 itself.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association reported there were 107,000 proven cases of COVID-19 in children for the week of Oct. 29 to Nov. 4, after 101,000 the previous week. This infection is still circulating and mutating.

Vaccinating ourselves and our children is the one way we can most effectively protect those we love. My three granddaughters all got vaccinated this week, and I am so happy they could be. Let’s protect all of our kids.

— David A. Lynch, M.D., American Academy of Family Physicians, Retired, Longboat Key

Dr. John Littell, organizer of the Florida Summit on COVID-19, responds: Describing the event Nov. 6 as a “pep rally” demonstrates that Dr. David Lynch clearly did not watch the event. (See FloridaCOVIDSummit.org.)

In fact, this summit was a continuing education event for physicians, nurses and other health care workers. The founder of messenger RNA technology in the development of vaccines, Dr. Robert Malone, presented the science of a DNA and RNA technology in a manner that rarely has been seen these past two years.

Similarly, we had presentations on immunology, pathophysiology and pharmacology, which were all highly technical and free from a pharmaceutical bias, which is a basic requirement for all continuing medical education.

It is indeed regrettable that so many in the medical profession have chosen to follow directives from the Center for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration or their hospital employers rather than use their God-given intellect to further their knowledge of this disease and help their patients make informed decisions.

Wearing a mask while strolling down the vacant hallway of a hospital displays blind obedience rather than intelligence. Similarly, the imposition of vaccine mandates as a condition of employment is a fundamental denial of the basic human right to make one’s own personal health care decisions.

And vaccinating our children without understanding the nature of these new vaccines and having access to the complete safety profile of each is a violation of the basic Hippocratic tenet, “First, do no harm.”

‘No vax for kids’: Full of distortions

Last week, I received a text and picture from my 6-year-old granddaughter proudly holding up her COVID-19 vaccination card.

Although I understand an opinion piece often tends to distort facts, I was deeply disturbed and angry by the misrepresentation of information, the use of highly discredited sources and the dangerous disregard for scientific evidence.

Your opinion piece holds up Drs. Paul Alexander and Peter McCullough as COVID-19 experts when in reality both have been rebuked by their peers, their professional associations and their employers. In fact, Alexander was kicked out of his role as the White House because of statements like these: “So the bottom line is if it is more infectiousness (sic) now, the issue is, who cares? If it is causing more cases in young, my word is, who cares?” (Forbes Magazine)

Equally irresponsible are your list of “resources,” including the Front Line COVID Critical Care Alliance. Did you actually check their resumes or licenses?

Founder Paul Marik was reprimanded by the Virginia Board of Medicine after he was caught prescribing controlled substances to people who weren’t his patients. He currently has a University Limited medical license. The other members of this group are equally suspect and clearly not front-line COVID-19 experts.

And just who recommended the vaccine for my granddaughter? Her dad, a guy who happens to be (quoting Matt Walsh) an emergency room “grassroot doctor” who has been on the “front lines of this epic battle” for the past two years.

Do better.

— Elizabeth Skidmore, Holmes Beach

Dr. Paul Alexander responds: Tell her I said to give them six shots, not one, if that will make her feel good. In fact, 10 shots.

Choice of ‘experts’ is concerning

I am distressed that you again chose to use your bully pulpit to misinform your readers. Scaremongering costs lives, and your choice of the “experts” is again concerning.

Both experts essentially are recommending allowing children to become infected with COVID-19 to achieve herd immunity. Both of them choose to view COVID-19 deaths as limited to the elderly and those with comorbidity. They conveniently ignore the fact that a significant number of otherwise healthy younger people die or become seriously ill from the disease.

In addition, the myocarditis study quoted by Dr. Peter McCullough has been debunked as flawed.

We willingly vaccinate our children against a dozen childhood diseases to protect the community. Vaccination against COVID-19 helps protect the vulnerable who come into contact with children and removes the reservoir of the virus that could cause infections in the future.

You have a responsibility to present a reasoned view to your readers.

— Paul Wilkinson, Sarasota

Dr. Peter McCullough responds: I repeat what I said at the Florida Summit on COVID — preclinical, clinical and peer-reviewed studies have shown the vaccines cause myocarditis in adolescents 12-15. That is fact. And I repeat: Dr. Tracy Hoeg’s study found that the risk of an adolescent age 12-17 of being hospitalized with vaccine-induced myocarditis far exceeds the risk of hospitalization with COVID-19 illness while wisely declining the vaccine.”

Hoeg, furthermore, told Politifact in September there is “a specific concern about post-vaccination myocarditis in boys that needs to be studied further.”

Finally, because all the vaccines are investigational, good doctors cannot promote vaccination since that action violates the Nuremberg Code of medical ethics.

The Doctors' Credentials

Don’t rush to judgment. We encourage you to read the credentials of the so-called “discredited” doctors:

Dr. Paul Alexander: Brownstone.org/author/paul-elias-alexander
Dr. Peter McCullough: UnityProjectOnline.com/leadership.
Front Line COVID Critical Care Alliance founders: COVID19CriticalCare.com/about/the-flccc-physicians
Dr. Paul Marik: Rescue.Substack.com/p/americas-top-critical-care-doctor

— M.W.