‘DON’T mention the vaccine!’ My mother’s worried admonishment came as she accompanied me to an appointment with our family doctor.
She was concerned that I might provoke the GP’s hostility if I suggested my chronic fatigue, icy hands and feet, hormone issues and newly compromised immune system were Covid jab-related.
I was worried too. Getting this face-to-face appointment felt like a small miracle and my priority was securing medical help. However, I also felt strongly that I needed to raise the possibility that I was suffering vaccine damage.
So, after telling the GP my symptoms and being given a provisional diagnosis of Raynaud’s Disease to explain the cold extremities and a referral to a chronic fatigue specialist, I plucked up courage and spoke. ‘I realise this may be controversial, but I think these health problems are related to the Covid vaccines, especially my Pfizer booster,’ I said.
I braced myself for a brusque riposte of ‘safe and effective,’ ‘extremely rare side-effects’, etc – the line constantly parroted by the Government and NHS. But, without even blinking, my doctor said through her mask: ‘Oh, that’s not controversial at all, in my experience, that’s not at all uncommon. I’ve had several patients recently with similar symptoms … even a lady today with Raynaud’s Disease, likely related to the boosters.’
I’m not often lost for words, but I was struck silent for a while. My mother filled in for me by adding that she too felt her immune system had been weakened by the booster. There was not a flicker of resistance or surprise on my GP’s face. Her reaction was to nod.
Afterwards, Mum and I sat in the car outside the surgery and said the same word at the same time – ‘Wow!’ So many emotions and questions have circulated through me since that appointment. I keep hearing my doctor’s voice saying ‘not controversial at all’, ‘not uncommon’. Yet the surgery had displayed an enduring eagerness to vaccinate.
Then a thought occurred to me. Rather than repeat the increasingly threadbare ‘safe and effective’ mantra, is there now a whiff of doctors trying to normalise adverse vaccine reactions? The strategy might well be to acknowledge to the patient that the vaccine has caused them harm, but tell them it’s not worth making a fuss about it. After all, as jab-happy proponents such as Health Minister Maria Caulfield love to say, even paracetamol can cause negative effects. Such setbacks are ‘to be expected’ and we must just keep quiet and carry on.
Well, if ‘normalising’ vaccine damage is what the medical profession is trying to achieve, it won’t work. The damage caused in many cases is too catastrophic to be so simplistically dismissed.
Those of us who have long acknowledged the truth of this won’t be muzzled. We will shout louder and ask more questions. It will be a hard fight, but there is strength in knowing that we are on the right side of history.