I am a believer in vaccines. I have taken the Covid shots and booster because at least doing something is better than having nothing. But I am not happy about it.
When I was a child, polio was still spreading. I was protected by the polio vaccine. I also received many other life-saving vaccines such as tetanus, smallpox, measles, diptheria, pertussis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and even pneumonia. Sometimes, the drug companies screw up – the Cutter incident – when their preparation failed to kill the live virus resulting in 40,000+ kids got polio from being given the live virus. However overall, the industry has gotten it right.
Th problem I am now having is that the government and even Webster’s Dictionary have changed the definition of “vaccine” in order to finesse the semantics of what is being passed off as a Covid vaccine, really is not a vaccine. According to 26 U.S. Code § 4132 – Definitions and special rules, “The term “vaccine” means any substance designed to be administered to a human being for the prevention of 1 or more diseases.” For decades according to Webster’s the definition of Vaccine had been: ‘A preparation of killed microorganisms, living attenuated organisms or living fully virulent organisms that is administered to produce or artificially increase immunity to a particular disease’.
Fast-forward to September 2021, and you will find that the CDC changed the definition of a vaccine to “Vaccine: A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases.” So a “vaccine” no longer needs to protect you from the disease, just trigger an immune response. Obviously, this came about because we do not yet have a true COVID vaccine. What we have are shots that may reduce the severity of the disease in hopefully a majority of people.
I have had both initial Moderna shots – or what these days is known as a vaccine. I am about to get the Moderna “booster”, which is really a half-dose of the original shot (50 mg instead of 100 mg). If you either the J&J or Pfizer boosters, these are the same as the original shots. These “boosters” are being given because the original vaccines fade in strength in less than 6 months.
So in summary, all that we are accomplishing is possibly reducing the severity of COVID. You are not protected from catching it. You are not protected from spreading it. I would really like the vaccine being given to me to be a true vaccine, that protects me from catching the disease or spreading it. That is not what we have in 2022. I am still taking the shot because at least doing something is better than having nothing. But I am not happy about it.