By JUDI LUTZ WOODS

I am writing in response to the recent commentary “Dedicated Public Servants and Bad Medicine.” In this piece, the authors misled, misinformed, and at times presented totally false information on COVID and how the experts in our country responded. This unnecessarily undermines our National Health policies and by misinformation can have a direct negative impact on our fellow citizens’ health.

Indeed, false information pushed by those already suspicious of our government can lead to great harm. This false information pushed primarily by the MAGA crowd has resulted in real deaths of real Americans. “Researchers from Yale University who studied the pandemic’s effects ..say that from the pandemic’s start in March 2020 through December 2021, “excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before.” To me this is directly from the false, scare tactics that many have used to promote their own agenda.

The authors continue making powerful anti Public Health statements, such as asserting “we cannot forgive the damage done by dishonest COVID policies … loss of children’s education destruction of the economy, the assault on small businesses, drug overdoses, suicides, excess deaths, vaccine deaths and other socio-pshopatholigies run amok”

Forgive them? Most of us are thanking them for providing guidelines for prevention, giving us the tools to test at home, and eventually a vaccination that was very effective for most in preventing this dreaded virus that quickly can become deadly. As a senior and parent of a medically challenged child, I am most appreciative of the easily obtained information, the guidelines and the vaccine.

Studies have estimated that the COVID vaccination saved nearly 140,000 lives in the USA through May of 2021. About 570,000 died of COVID in the USA at the time. The study further found that there would have been an additional 709,000 deaths in our Country without the vaccine (News In Health)

The letter makes reference to the Great Barrington Declaration. This declaration promotes “herd immunity.” Herd immunity is the name for a point in time when it’s hard for a disease to spread through a group of people, which means we would sacrifice a large portion of folks to allow them to get ill, perhaps die, so more are exposed and build up immunities to the disease. However, “any pandemic management strategy relying upon immunity from natural infections for COVID-19 is flawed. Uncontrolled transmission in younger people risks significant morbidity and mortality across the whole population. In addition to the human cost, this would impact the workforce as a whole and overwhelm the ability of healthcare systems to provide acute and routine care.”

There has been wide rebuttal of this report in the John Snow Memorandum signed by 6,400 vetter signatories. This report “cites clear evidence that the virus is highly contagious several times more lethal than influenza even in healthy people. It affirms that COVID-19 can be constrained by good public health measures and warns that herd immunity may be hard to achieve.”

The authors then mention that the ” FDA filed in court on behalf of Pfizer, to hide all the COVID vax test data from public view for 75 years” again this is misleading. “The FDA said they had so much data it would take 75 year if they released 500 pages a day.

Rather than producing 500 pages a month — the FDA’s proposed timeline — the judge ordered the agency to turn over 55,000 a month. That means all the Pfizer vaccine data should be public by the end of the summer rather than, say, the year 2097.” no one was trying to hide anything. Rather it is a case of short staff, the immense volume of data and the time it will take to produce all the information requested.

The authors then complain that the FDA has not approved the drug ivermectin, which the authors think (with no evidence) is due to how cheap this medication would be compared to other medicines for COVID.

This medication has been approved for humans in specific doses to treat some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea. The FDA continues to study if it could be effective in humans for covid. However so far the agency has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical attention including hospitalizations after self mediating with ivermectin intended for animals. The agency continues to study this drug and its possible use in the treatment of COVID-19.

Just a note for all who feel we were unjustly compelled to conform to wearing masks, getting a vaccination, or guidelines for isolation if contracted this illness Father of our Country…George Washington while head of the Continental Army mandated inoculation against smallpox for all continental soldiers in 1777.

Mandated to get the vaccination to prevent the spread of deadly diseases. Such mandates have been part of our educated Country since the very beginning. “Historians credit the medical mandate with the colonists’ victory in the Revolutionary War and the creation of the United States of America.”

In the 1950s, growing up in Pittsburgh where Dr. Salk created the vaccine for polio, my mother could not rush us fast enough to get our vaccinations against this horrible disease. Before the vaccine was created and found safe for use,About 16,000 cases of polio (paralytic poliomyelitis) occurred each year in the U.S. in the 20th century.

Mother knew that a simple shot in our arm could prevent us from contracting this disease that left so many either dead or greatly impaired. It was a time where we trusted our government, knowing that scientists rarely have political agendas. Rather their interest is in the data from real studies conducted by well educated scientists. By the way my mother was a staunch Republican with a strong faith in science.

We need to return to a time where we put our trust back in science and those who conduct research to discover ways to improve our lives. For the most part scientists working for our government are non political.

They are only interested in data and facts, drawing conclusions based on those findings. We need to return to a place where we accept findings from our leading scientists and reject politicians who have no scientific background but do know how to incite fear and suspicion.

Judi Lutz Woods, M.S., is a Fredonia resident.