Dammit!

[SueDonim]

... Jesse Mulligan (on Radio NZ) recently recounted his reluctant doctor's visit for a collection of vague symptoms. Diagnosis: Shingles (subsequent to a COVID vaccination). Doctor's action: won't be related to the vaccination so won't report it. That attitude from our health professionals is all too common and good reason to override their actions if you see fit.

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In 2018-19 there were 483 people hospitalised with shingles. That's more than 1 a day. About 60% are older than 60 so 40% (which is significant) must have been under 60. Those that are hospitalised are only a small proportion of those that suffer from the disease. (https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/immu...r-shingles, see section 23.3.2).

MedSafe shows that up to 4 December 241 people reported a relationship between the Covid vaccine and Herpes zoster (https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/saf...ort-38.asp). Out of how many million doses?

So it seems that Jesse Mulligan's doctor thought it was likely coincidental. This doesn't stop Jesse making his own report, which then skews the data further but at least he could feel he's had his say.

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i cannot see the naturopath wrestling Covid, performing an appendectomy, or sorting prostate cancer, but theres a place in medicine for them.

In the COVID situation addressing or maintaining a good level of health and innate immunity goes a long way towards protecting an individual from any infective agent such as this virus. By contrast, bypassing the body's primary defence mechanism (by injection) and/or implementing pharmaceutical including hospital level care post-infection is the conventional medical approach.

Maintaining a good level of health is always a good thing to do, but is not necessarily "respected" by viruses. The original SARS virus in 2002 killed the healthiest people because it turned the strength of their immune system on themselves.

In the current pandemic, it seems to have been older/more vulnerable suffering the greatest impact, so far. But that can change. The hint is there with the fact that many of the problems, including long covid, relate to an autoimmune response. Being personally very vulnerable to "autoimmune" I was at first hesitant about the vaccine, but when I looked into the evidence I found that while the vaccine has a risk of an autoimmune reaction, catching covid is a far far greater risk. So have embraced the availability of the vaccine, including getting my booster this week.

The conventional medical approach makes the best use of the current knowledge about the body and how it works, for the benefit of people who may otherwise succumb to the disease, whether by death or long term disability.