Medical advice: Confessions of an Israeli family physician
I believe the average Israeli is well-informed on health issues. Yet despite all our efforts, a large percentage of the population declined the offer of a vaccine.
By DR. JONTY MARESKYA bus driver wears a mask following the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 20, 2020.(photo credit: REUTERS/CARLO ALLEGRI)For many years I was ambivalent about annual flu vaccines. On the one hand, I have immeasurable respect for the real experts at the Centers for Disease Control whose knowledge and understanding of these issues are unquestionable. On the other hand, sometimes one feels that working on the ground gives you a perspective that is downright anecdotal, yet not without value. One hears the complaints of the patient who claims he got so ill after the vaccination that he may just as well have had the flu itself. Add to this cost in time and money involved in getting the vaccine. And then you see the acutely ill patient with influenza recover in a flash after three days on Tamiflu. And one begins to think “who needs it?” Big mistake!The 2009 H1N1 - Swine Flu pandemic brought me to my senses.The most shocking thing to me about this novel virus was its predilection for young healthy people. And especially pregnant women! In retrospect, we now know that the world was spared immeasurable disaster due to the fact that virus made its debut in the US. As a result it was rapidly recognized by the CDC, and within no time at all a vaccine was produced and distributed worldwide, effectively neutralizing the threat.The following year the standard annual trivalent flu-shot transformed into a tetravalent vaccine with a built-in H1N1 component. To the credit of those amazing virology gurus in the CDC they hit the mark. The vaccine was a great success and continues to be so year after year.I have enormous respect for the epidemiology department of the Health Ministry. If there was any doubt, their exemplary performance in coping with the present COVID-19 pandemic speaks for itself. I predict that at this time next year the shekel will be one of the strongest currencies in the world and these are the people whom we will thank and praise. In 2010, for the first time, the flu vaccine was being offered in Israel to all those at high risk for free. From year to year the pressure on the medical community and on the public to vaccinate against influenza increased. Incentives were provided to doctors to encourage their patients to take the vaccine - at a regular doctor’s visit for zero charge. The media developed creative promotions on billboards, TV, radio and the press imploring citizens to take the vaccine.I believe the average Israeli is well-informed on health issues. Yet despite all our efforts, a large percentage of the population declined the offer. When asked why take the vaccine, I explain how H1N1 shocked us all in its disregard for age or fitness. I explain that we, the medical community, are inundated with warnings of an impending pandemic. I spare no discretion in describing the potential implications of such a disaster.And now that it’s upon us, even I, the prophet of doom am shocked by the enormity, the tragedy and the devastation that a pandemic wreaks.And I’m angry....I’m angry at those self-appointed “experts” who in the name of every quack concept available, have the gall and audacity to repudiate the carefully designed strategies of those exceptional “conventional” institutions whose expertise is based on layer upon layer of solid foundations of wisdom, spanning decades of intensive research conducted by thousands of some of the wisest minds this world has known.These quack “experts” with their fake doctrines and their simplistic theories (herd immunity, less is more, natural is safer etc.) portray themselves as an “alternative” solution to a vulnerable, unsuspecting public. And their sales pitch invariably contains strong undertones of mistrust in anything “conventional” or God-forbid “not natural.” The medical profession is portrayed as a corrupt, untrustworthy, exclusive fraternity, driven by profit with no regard for the genuine well-being of the individual, the community or the world we live in.I’m angry at those anti-vaxxers who believe these irresponsible misled quacks, many of whom carry medical degrees. Their abuse of their “democratic right” to refuse vaccinations is irresponsible, selfish and outrightly dangerous to all.When this pandemic is all over, the world needs to know on whose advice did the British administration decide that herd immunity was going to save the day in Britain. Whoever was responsible for propagating this ill-conceived policy should be investigated and held responsible for the deaths and suffering of thousands of innocent beloved people.As for those religious leaders who advised their dedicated followers to defy the advice of the medical experts - and the orders of the government – they know to whom they are answerable for lives lost due to their indiscretion.The medical profession is not an exact science. But it is a strict discipline. There are norms and there are rules. It's not a coincidence that acceptance to a reputable medical school and emergence with a medical degree carries with it a badge of excellence. Obtaining a license to practice medicine carries with it a responsibility to conform. When a licensed medical practitioner steps out of line, whether he is simply ignorant and misled or worse if his motives are more sinister (fame or fortune) he should be disciplined.In the discipline of medicine to question is healthy, to defy is unforgivable. And the consequences are terrible! We all know where it starts. In the past few months, we have begun to learn where it ends.The writer is a family physician who practices in Jerusalem.
