Leave medical choices to us, without political interference
In democratic republics like ours, we rely on a broad array of guardrails, be they legislative, judicial, constitutional, moral, ethical or social in nature, to prevent political demagogues from seizing and imposing intrusive power over the lives of their constituents.
But in recent years, we have increasingly come to elect people whose penchant for power or acclaim leads them to trample such barriers. This has been occurring at all levels, the most egregious and enduring local example being the troika currently holding court as members of the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners.
The latest instance of opportunistic overreach on their part once again targets the professionally apolitical county Department of Health & Human Services. That’s because it holds sway over vaccine programs, which rank high in the commissioners’ hierarchy of public enemies.
It seems the county’s chief public health operative, doctoral degree holder Lindsey Manfrin, has offended sensibilities by acknowledging, “we generally recommend most people 6 months old and older get an annual flu shot,” though advising it’s best to first “check with your provider to talk about the risks and benefits” in order to decide “if it’s right for you.”
Commissioner Mary Starrett offered the bluntest and most problematic justification: Manfrin refuses to endorse her personal reservations about vaccine safety and efficacy, so to balance the scales, should be barred from making any favorable mentions, no matter how nuanced, qualified or scientifically supported.
Just “name, rank and serial number,” Starrett says. Hold it to “these vaccines are available,” she says.
The fact is, immunization against infectious disease has been credited with: Preventing millions of deaths every year, including those of at least 1.5 million children. Eradicating smallpox after it had cut short 300 to 500 million lives during the 20th century alone. Undergoing advances leading the list of the 10 greatest public health achievements of that century.
Immunization has served to virtually eliminate the scourge of polio in the U.S. and other developed nations; sharply reduced the potentially devastating health risks posed by measles, mumps, tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough; and helped curb a pandemic that could otherwise have rivaled the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19, which infected an estimated 500 million, 50 million of them fatally.
Are there risks associated with immunizations? There are risks associated with every substance you introduce into your body, from peanuts to aspirin. Sadly, some people have even proven allergic to penicillin — the wonder drug of the 20th century when it comes to fighting infection, rivaling immunization as a mass saver of lives.
However, no vaccine is introduced to the market without first undergoing multiple rounds of rigorous testing, capped by three-phase human trials. And the monitoring continues in the field, so if the risks begin to rival the rewards, it can be pulled.
The stable of vaccines being offered by the county health department today has been administered to hundreds of millions of people in every part of the planet. It long ago proved its safety and efficacy under the most rigorous analysis modern science could muster.
Our three county commissioners hold no credentials and boast no experience giving them any credible basis to judge. If it weren’t for wholly unwarranted hubris, they would defer to the highly credentialed and experienced public health officer in their own employ.
Their attempt to muzzle her betrays not only an appalling lack of faith in her, but an appalling lack of faith in the constituents they serve. If three random residents of no particular medical acumen are capable of coming to such firm conclusions on their own, why aren’t the rest of us?
Maybe the commissioners ought to let us sift through whatever reputable medical information the department can assemble. So armed, we could then consult with our providers in order to decide for ourselves, without the heavy hand of government trying to put its thumb on the scales.
Comments
Dan
Really N-R?
Really?
"... we could then consult with our providers in order to decide for ourselves, without the heavy hand of government trying to put its thumb on the scales."
Can whatever shameless hack(s) wrote this piece not understand:
This is precisely what the BOC is doing with its new policy:
B.O. 24-56 - Consideration of a policy stating Yamhill County HHS/ Public Health vaccine and pharmaceutical product social media and internet messaging will not contain attempts to influence people for or against a particular product or intervention emphasizing individual choice and informed consent. [Motion passed 2:1].
Note again: "... emphasizing individual choice and informed consent."
Dan
Continuing ...
Think back over the last 4 years.
Remember the mandates?
The coercion?
Social distancing.
Closing businesses.
Masks.
The C-19 injections.
That was the heavy hand of Governor Brown, OHA, YC HHS, so many
institutions, such as school boards, Linfield, the N-R itself,
individuals coercing other individuals, and the list goes on and on.
It is precisely that heavy hand being opposed by the new YC policy:
B.O. 24-56 - Consideration of a policy stating Yamhill County HHS/ Public Health vaccine and pharmaceutical product social media and internet messaging will not contain attempts to influence people for or against a particular product or intervention emphasizing individual choice and informed consent. [Motion passed 2:1].
Note again: "... emphasizing individual choice and informed consent."
I just don't see anything in the new policy about which to disagree.
MSM
Thank you, N-R, for highlighting the dangerous hubris of the troika. Yamhill county deserves better. Oh, wait! We have better! We have Lindsey Manfrin! Let her do her job!!!!
tagup
I choose to remember the citizens that put up with the inconveniences and did their duty to protect their fellow citizens. Their actions saved countless thousands of lives.
Those that resisted even the simple wearing of a mask, and made it a political statement, should be known for their selfishness, vanity and disregard for the health of their neighbors.
Dan
Again, what kind of shameless hack(s) wrote this Opinion?
All of the disease statistics cited above are wrong.
That includes especially the so-called Spanish Flu Pandemic.
There were real illnesses & deaths.
But no pandemic.
At the time, usually not even front-page news.
And no evidence of contagion.
There were deadly vaccines.
Malnutrition.
Contaminated drinking water.
Probably mask-induced pneumonia.
Other bad conditions after WWI.
I had relatives born in the mid 1880s.
Stories about WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, none about Spanish Flu!
Here is the real history of smallpox:
Smallpox and vaccination. A glimpse of forgotten history.
https://zignack.substack.com/p/smallpox-and-vaccination-a-a-glimpse?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Dan
When the CDC/HHS says "Safe & Effective," YC HHS says "Safe & Effective."
Lockstep.
Therefore, problems at the CDC/HHS mean problems at YC HHS.
And there are problems.
We see that locally with the BOC v. YC HHS.
Which follows from what is being played out here:
“Federal Health Agencies and the COVID Cartel: What Are They Hiding?” hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/ron-johnson-roundtable-government-pharma-cover-up-vaccine-risks/
Otis
Ron Johnson is an absolute nutbar of disinformation....and he's a politician...not a doctor.
YamCoCan
Dan sites tin foil hat site after tin foil hat site.
If we ask our doctors - the train professionals - we will get pretty consistent answers about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. And that medical advice not going to reflect the OPINION of the BOC or Dan.
There is a challenger to Berschauer, Bubba King. Let’s home we are finally ready to start digging out of this mess.
marcia
Thank you for the well written editorial.
Dan
https://forum.davidicke.com/uploads/monthly_2024_02/IMG_4552.jpeg.1c709ded7e6ef809319b9ddb60d77649.jpeg
Otis
I should buy stock in Reynolds metals.
Dan
Hillier gives evidence in the USA Senate-What did they hide?
https://youtu.be/kmbMCEDgZXo
George
A. It seems that Nicole Montesano authored this stunt for oncoming County Commission election.
B. At the following link:
https://newsregister.com/article?articleTitle=manfrin-has-a-passion-for-community-health--1579570746--35819--
1.Lots of info about Ms. Lindsey Manfrin career as “she moved upstream” as a nurse while her “doctorate” is not clearly disclosed – addendum (https://govsalaries.com/manfrin-lindsey-151138799
2.Eye-opening David S. Wall’s comments about “some history of HHS and HHS's subordinate Corporation, Yamhill Community Care Organization (YCCO)”
WO
Thank you N-R! I couldn't agree more.
Dan
Ooops!!!
We can't paste actual inks into comments.
I have discovered, to my horror, that simply cutting and pasting
ordinary text into browser probably kicks you into something like a bing
search, and does not take you to the intended information.
But, if you go, for example, to rumble.com, and search there, then
you can find the information.
For example:
Go to rumble.com.
Search for
COVID VACCINE - BLOOD CLOTS GUARANTEED - DR CHARLES HOFFE
And you are on your way.
Sorry about that N-R readers!
A real SNAFU on my part.
Vhadick
Thank you for publishing this, N-R! Facts. Vaccines have saved millions upon millo Ma of lives, and will continue to do so. Despite modern-day interruptions such as keyboard-enter-paragraph-space-strokes. Science and basic intelligence teaches (most of) us that side effects and breakthrough viruses are inevitable.
Dan
The new BOC language lifts the debate from specific issues for which there could be disagreement, to a general principle upon which we can all agree.
B.O. 24-56 - Consideration of a policy stating Yamhill County HHS/ Public Health vaccine and pharmaceutical product social media and internet messaging will not contain attempts to influence people for or against a particular product or intervention emphasizing individual choice and informed consent. [Motion passed 2:1].
Note again: "... emphasizing individual choice and informed consent."
This N-R Editorial tends to bring the debate back down into the debate over vaccines. Where OHA / YC HHS has been pro vaccine. And only pro vaccine. More or less simply parroting: "Safe & Effective."
With no information on the con side.
That's like a voter's pamphlet with only one choice, vote "YES."
When in reality we can also vote "NO.
fiddler
At the beginning of the covid panic, there was no science behind the covid vaccines and there’s none now. Pfizer testified in Europe that the vaccine did not work. Eight pages of side effects, including deaths, were given to a U.S. court (Pfizer did not want their documents to be disclosed to the public for 50 years; Pfizer and the gov’t settled on 20 years — what are they hiding?). I for one think we should not be told what to do with our bodies. Even someone with a PhD should know better than to promote non-science. Turns out the commissioners are correct in this one. All the deaths were people over 70 with co-morbid issues and they contracted covid from healthcare workers who brought the virus into the facilities. What you hear about stats is B.S. — ALL deaths are attributed to covid even though someone had a fatal heart attack or cancer took its victim. Wake up!
manyhands
3 reasons you should NOT vote for Starrett's cohort, Lindsay Berschauer, for county commissioner:
1. Lindsay's campaign is funded by the George Family, owners of one of the largest hazelnut processing companies in the country. Nothing wrong with that. Where it becomes very, very wrong is when she represents only the big money that helped get her get elected and blatantly ignores the wishes of the citizen majority.
2. Here's one example of how Lindsay serves her wealthy farmer campaign supporters and ignores pure and simple betterment for citizens: In 2020 Lindsay killed the Yamhelas Westsider Trail, even though construction had already begun and it meant returning hefty private donations and a $1.5 million grant to the state. She killed it because her farmer supporters are against having regular people (ugh!) sully "their" county. She killed it even though an online petition in June of 2021 gathered more than 3,200 signatures in favor of the trail.
3. Lindsay appointed six candidates with jaw-dropping conflicts of and lack of qualifications to the county parks advisory board. One of them is her husband. One of them is Celine McCarthy. McCarthy and her husband, Greg, who was convicted in federal court last year of financial fraud, were among the largest campaign finance donors to Lindsay.
4. There are many more examples of this politician's wily undertakings. You'll find them in Mac's News-Register newspaper. Keep informed. Everybody rise up and vote for Bubba King.
fiddler
Manfrin believes children 6months old and older should be jabbed. Fauci said that the chances of a healthy child contracting covid are infinitesimal; yet now they’re all jabbed. Pfizer said the vaccine doesn’t work. Let’s get our heads on straight and call it what it is: a gov’t gone awry by totalitarian edict. This whole covid THING was panic; mass hysteria. Never again!
fiddler
Oh, and PS: there is NO SCIENCE behind the vaccine. We were the guinea pigs. No double or triple blind studies, no peer reviewed articles in any journal, no replication studies. Big Pharma put out a vaccine and the gov’t told us to get jabbed or we can’t buy groceries or be with other people (including schools). Wow. Lemmings