Part of the reason behind the skepticism of nearly 50% of Americans in regard to the #coronavirus vaccine is related to what they perceive as “hastened” or “political” approach to emergency use authorization. But what most don’t realize, the vaccine saga began over 250 years ago!

In colonial America, “doctors” did not study medicine at school. Instead, they trained through an “observership” with a local practitioner (typically from Europe). In fact, the earliest medical schools in colonial America didn’t start awarding medical degrees until decades later.

It is typically thought that smallpox originated in Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of the infection comes from the Pharaoh Ramses V (died 1145 B.C.).

And in the early 1700s, smallpox reappeared in West Africa, killing thousands of people everyday.

The advent of farming & trading tobacco in the early 1700s in colonial America was a period of economic prosperity. It was also a period of heightened brutality against Black people - who were bought & sold at unprecedented rates from Portuguese, Spanish & Muslim slave traders.

Additionally, the advancement in naval technology, ship building & sailing techniques by the English & Dutch facilitated the movement of Black slaves from Africa to Colonial America, with Europe as transit. This human trafficking business carried smallpox to America.

By then, hundreds of people in Boston were dying of smallpox.

Cotton Mather (the prolific Minister and Statesman of Boston) asked one of his newly acquired slaves a “standard interview” question: “Have you been infected with smallpox?”

The slave answered his master: “Yes & no.”

The young slave (called Onesimus) was telling Mather that he got “inoculated” by local practitioners in Africa prior to his capture by slave hunters. These practitioners took a minuscule volume of pus from an infected person & used a thorn to scratch his skin to confer immunity.

Mather, as the head of the state, was intrigued by the idea & wrote to the medical practitioners in Boston, urging them to consider doing the same in America.

However, the eminent (and racist) physicians in America refused to accept the notion that Blacks were smarter than them.

These White physicians went as far as saying that inoculation was a form of “voodoo” invented by slaves to overtake their White masters.

And this - right here - marked the beginning of casting shadows/doubts on the practice of vaccination.

In fact, the ONLY physician with an actual medical degree living in Boston as the time was Dr. Bill Douglas, who started the “conspiracy theory” of vaccines in America in 1720.

Today in 2020 people & officials STILL believe in vaccine conspiracy theories. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/528874-wyoming-health-official-decries-covid-19-pandemic-as-communist-plot

Dr. Douglas needed the media to amplify his racist ideas & anti-vaccine conspiracy theory.

The founder & editor-in-chief of “The New England Courant”, one of America’s first newspapers, agreed to support Dr. Douglas. His name was James Franklin.

James Franklin’s younger brother used to work as an assistant in the newspaper company. However, he was more intelligent than his older brother. He knew that vaccines were saving lives & that his brother was only supporting Dr. Douglas’s racist ideas based on no scientific proof.

This younger brother would later grow up to become Benjamin Franklin — a Founding Father of the United States of America & one of history’s most successful economists, inventors, & entrepreneurs. Ben Franklin’s face appears on the $100 bill, our currency’s highest denomination.

Decades later (mid-to-late 1700s), Dr. Edward Jenner (aka the “father of immunology”) validated the concept of vaccination in England, & vaccines (including smallpox vaccine) slowly made their way in mainstream medical practice across Europe & America.

However, it was too late & the damage has ALREADY been done. Millions remained skeptical of cures & vaccines, questioning the “ulterior motives” of doctors who advocate vaccination.

This is what we see today, & I suspect future generations will continue to see the same thing.

So now you can see that the “anti-vaxxer” mentality is NOT a novel product - it existed for hundreds of years & the skepticism was created (and exacerbated) by conspiracy theories & racist ideas. The net result is chaos & frenzy.

Today, doctors question the efficacy of vaccines by looking at DATA form clinical trials. Some vaccines work better vs others.

For example, measles vaccine is quite effective with clear mortality benefit but influenza vaccine is NOT as powerful (still VERY important).

However, confusion doesn’t arise because there’s paucity of data, but because people don’t know who to trust. And I genuinely sympathize with the layman person as they’re bound to get confused when they read articles like these:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-pfizer-vaccine-legal-indemnity-safety-ministers-b1765124.html
and
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/incomplete-data-stalls-swiss-authorisation-of-covid-19-vaccines/46196598

But the Moderna & Pfizer #coronavirus vaccines have been scrutinized by career scientists who are INDEPENDENT & UNBIASED. In clinical trails, these vaccines were more than 95% efficacious with NO major safety concerns.

So what do I mean by that?

First, in vaccinology, major safety concerns of new vaccines usually appear within 30-90 days post-inoculation. This is a wide range because not all vaccines are the same. So if the new coronavirus vaccines had SERIOUS toxicities, we would’ve seen them in clinical trials by now.

Second, these vaccines are NOT proven to:
-prevent TRANSMISSION of #coronavirus infection
-have an effect on #COVID19 mortality
-confer long-lasting immunity.

So what’s the point of getting it then?
To prevent SYMPTOMATIC or SEVERE disease.

Third, these vaccines are mRNA based. This means the will use our cell machinery to produce the S-spike protein (which facilitates viral entry into cells).

Once the vaccine tells our cells to produce these S-spike proteins, our immune system will produce antibodies against them.

So now you’ll ask: Can these vaccines inadvertently encode for the WHOLE virus instead & cause disease?

The answer is CLEARLY no because #coronavirus is made up of 25+ major proteins, not just the one S-spike.

Another question: Will this mRNA vaccine “integrate” & permanently become part of my genetic material?

Again, the answer is CLEARLY no because #coronavirus is not like #HIV. In other words, coronavirus (RNA virus) can NOT change to DNA and integrate with our DNA.

Furthermore, it’s important to note that presence of vaccine is NOT synonymous with coronavirus eradication. The disease will NOT disappear. We still have to observe basic public health measures like wearing masks (especially N95 respirators indoors) & physical distancing.

At the end, the point of this thread is to educate folks on the historical basis of the anti-vaccine movements & hopefully persuade you to stop having dichotomous “all vs none” or “black vs white” approach to #coronavirus infection (masks, vaccines, etc). Risk mitigation is best!

As a final (satirical) note, I suggest marketing the #coronavirus vaccine under the name “Coronastatin” or “Coronacodone”.

Americans will jump on it like there is NO tomorrow!