Reject COVID conspiracy theories on vaccines, masks

Re: “Law of unintended consequences strikes again,” by Henry Whitley, Oct. 3: 

The medical community is certainly aware that all medicines and medical interventions have potential side effects.  For that reason, the FDA requires extensive research before medications and procedures are approved for use on our citizens and maintains a very active surveillance program to monitor for complications that are unintended. Unfortunately, the FDA is not allowed to control the release and use of herbal supplements, as mentioned by Rep. Fontenot last week (“Regulating kratom will prevent tragedies,” Oct. 6) and they also have been shown to have “unintended consequences,” some serious or lethal.

Wind turbines used to create renewable energy to reduce climate change/global warming do kill birds that fly into the turbines as they rotate. Turbines do not create a vortex and chop up birds. Research shows that they cause fewer bird deaths nationwide than I would have expected, and that cats and certainly climate change are an immensely greater risk to birds. 

Reliable research has not shown that whale deaths are not due to wind turbines, and again, climate change is a far greater risk to whales and other wildlife.  Climate change is real, with record high temperatures, droughts, famines, mass extinction of species, melting of polar ice, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, etc., and we can mitigate some of this.

Subjects the letter-writer raised regarding COVID-19 are issues that I, as a physician, can address due to my knowledge and training. 

Masks are uncomfortable, and I am glad when I don’t feel  that I should wear them.  But, they absolutely do reduce transmission of the COVID virus, protecting the people who wear them and those in contact with those who wear masks because they are infected. This saves lives and reduces illness and the unintended consequences of COVID and long COVID. Large studies have documented that health care providers are protected by mask-wearing. There are potential consequences of mask-wearing — fogging of glasses, anxiety, local skin problems, vocal strain, communication problems, discomfort and increased work of breathing in folks with COPD, but these pale in comparison to the consequences of the COVID disease itself.

COVID has killed well over 1,000,000 Americans, most of them unvaccinated. The mRNA vaccines may cause viral myocarditis in about 1 in 30,000 recipients, more often in young males, but it is usually mild and resolves on its own, and COVID causes much more serious myocarditis in a far higher percentage of patients. 

The J&J vaccine rarely caused a blood clotting problem in premenopausal women, but many hospitalized COVID patients develop blood clots in legs and in lungs. Other side effects of the vaccines are rare and self-limited. These vaccines do not cause impotence or infertility. COVID illness can affect almost all organs in our bodies, including the brain. 

COVID vaccines are very effective. Since vaccines have been available, the vast majority (90% to 95%) of those admitted to ICUs, on respirators and requiring other painful interventions and still dying of COVID are unvaccinated. Though there are breakthrough cases of COVID in those who have been vaccinated and the virus is continuously evolving and changing its sensitivity to the vaccines, new vaccines are being developed, and the old vaccines do still reduce the rates of infection, the severity of illness and the spread of the virus.

The unintended consequences of believing conspiracy theories about the COVID vaccine and then not getting vaccinated may be life-altering or life-ending. Those who discourage people from obtaining COVID vaccines do not have your best interest at heart. Please, do research in reliable sources, not cable news and the Alex Joneses of the world, and be vaccinated for your sake and that of your loved ones and all those around you.

Lawrence Krabill, M.D.

Wilson