I just read Bill Gate’s latest blog: What you Need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine. I wanted to share my initial reactions and would love your reflections.
I agree that humanity has an urgent task to create broad immunity for CV19. And the faster this can happen, certainly the better… especially as many US States are re-opening today after restrictions have been lifted in many parts of our country. (NYT April 30, 2020).
Curiously, if you look at the ESRI-driven World Health Organization’s Dashboard on cases and deaths reported and compare TODAY to 15 days ago, you can see that the numbers of cases and deaths worldwide have doubled… and that the United States (according to WHO) stands TODAY at 1,035,353 cases (yes, over 1 million cases) and 55,337 deaths (I know other reports are higher); whereas for comparison China stands TODAY at 84,385 cases and 4,643 deaths. COMPARE THESE CV 19 DASHBOARDS- APRIL 12, 2020 AND MAY 1, 2020.
Given the US-China comparison example, we know that China and the US are culturally different and that both the government and people’s response to CV 19 have been different. Can we in the US continue to voluntarily, strictly follow — as businesses and individuals and communities the guidelines that will help keep our culture and our people and our communities safe?
World Health Organization Basic Guidelines to Reduce CV 19 Transmission
We produced a pop culture music video with Grammy, award-winning Ricky Kej, the WHO in partnership with the UN Foundation to help us remember the basics. There is a lot of information on the WHO website. As well, if you don’t already know, CNN now has an ongoing Q&A Online Portal where you can ask any health question or concern about re-entering society. Dr. Sanjay Gupta also has a special corona virus Fact vs Fiction podcast. The UN have daily briefings on CV-19 by their responsible health team and the Secretary General Dr. Tedros on UN TV. In the US, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention remains another good resource for self-care.
So, my MAY DAY, MAY DAY question going forward is this: When these partial openings are happening in different states, are those decisions being made based on the best health information and advice? It’s not my place to answer, but only to hope that leadership in those states are carefully weighing all human-nature health concerns and providing the best guidelines for the public to follow…and that we do follow these guidelines.
According to Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci we’ve now circa 115 potential vaccines in research pipelines and we are circa 18 months away from a vaccine (maybe as early as 9 months late as 24 months). Optimally, we’d want to deliver one dose, once in life that had 100% efficacy… but 100% effective vaccine like small pox, made many sick and had other side effects. The 2020 flu shot has been 45% effective in creating immunity in the population for comparison…. and 30,000 people died this year from flu (Sanjay Gupta, CNN, April 30, 2020).
Bill Gates suggest we target 70% efficacy (1time dose, if we can) and anything less than 60% efficacy does not pass the scrub test. As trillions of dollars in economic loss are at stake, financing the vaccination effort is not the problem. It’s the time NECESSARY to develop a SAFE and effective vaccine. Here’s a good graphic from his article to show how the alliance of funders and researchers are speeding research and manufacturing by already developing the scaling, manufacturing facilities now, while still in research mode.
Bill argues that the RNA approach is faster than the “traditional” inactive/live vaccines that take longer to grow. Personally, I feel much better about an organic (living) vaccination solution pulled from the treasure trove of nature’s apothecary of fungal solutions, which have “traditionally” been used to combat bacterial and viral infections and/or help boost our own human immune system. Mycellium networks grow super fast… I am not a mycologist to know “how fast” in comparison to what we now need, but I can imagine that mycologists on the teams of researchers looking for the stellar treatment — human immunity support environmental medicine and /or nature-based vaccine … would be stellar. Check out my latest article series III: Tree’s Truth: Network, Share, and Protect Our Common Forest The stealth narrative below the mycellium surface is all about finding a cure to CV-19, and what the mycologists can offer to the table. What do you think?
Lastly, also important will be the final deployment of the vaccine. Here Bill Gates’ suggests that if manufacturing rates for the vaccine are 500 M/ month, then reaching the world would take 4 months (reasonable); but if manufacturing is only 50 M/month, then distribution becomes a real problem. Of course, these decisions will be driven by national leaders and spearheaded by the World Health Organization. Dr. Tedros has already reiterated many times that the distribution of aid and vaccines will be via an equitable and just process. Dr. David Nabarro, Special Envoy to COVID 19 at the World Health Organization in our “Combatting COVID19 with Compassion” series reiterated that point and focused on how we might go about the process of deployment. Important from the WHO’s perspective, Bill Gates, and others who work internationally on distribution of aid, like the Red Cross, FAO, and Gavi Alliance, are all now encouraging national governments to get their deployment protocols now in place; so distribution can happen rapidly when the time comes, as fast as “#humanlypossible
Meanwhile, may we all ride the next waves of COVID-19 safely and consciously and communally, as some slowly emerge from their home cocoons, and as those of us still under Stay Home restrictions continue to use this time in healthy ways to reflect, reset, and regenerate ourselves andour relationships with on another. And may this experience continue to inform our respect for the natural world that sustains us and has revealed her checkmate position on human civilization when we fall out of natural balance.
Dr. Catherine Cunningham, PhD, Natural Intelligence Media is committed to awakening Natural Intelligence in the World. She produces multimedia content — books, films, and podcasts with her creative companions that aim to inspire everyone, everywhere to live a happy, healthy, naturally intelligent life.
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