Opinion: Medical experts losing credibility

Full disclosure: I’m elderly, have health problems and have taken three shots of the Moderna vaccine.

At a time in the distant past, I was required to read, understand and comment on contractual documents. I acquired several hard-earned lessons about language in documentation that have stayed with me to this day. Sentences that contain the words “will” or “shall,” as in, “This product “will” cure migraine headaches” had better be true, provable and reproducible or you “will” be sued in a court of law.

Remove “will” from the headache claim above, and insert might, may, could or should and the liability changes.

I mention this because when one reads a news article, they “should” take note of these verbs. To illustrate this I have reproduced, verbatim, several paragraphs from an Associated Press article by Lauran Neergaard that appeared in my local paper on Dec. 9.

“Pfizer said Wednesday that a booster of its COVID-19 vaccine may offer important protection against the new omicron variant even though the initial two doses appear significantly less effective.

“Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said that while two doses may not be strong enough to prevent infection, lab tests showed a booster increased by 25-fold people’s levels of antibodies capable of fighting off omicron. For people who haven’t yet had a booster, the company said two doses still should prevent severe disease or death.”

What these two paragraphs seem to be saying is that the booster could help you even though the first two shots didn’t work as planned, but, even with a 25-fold increase in antibodies, if you haven’t had the booster, you should be OK. Do you think this is a convincing argument to get the booster?

Dr. Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief medical doctor, urges folks to, “Go and get your third boost as soon as possible. This is comforting and a very positive message that we now have a plan that will induce immunity that is likely to protect from infection, symptomatic illness and severe disease from now across the entire winter season.”

Dolsten’s remarks assure us that the third boost will provide some unknown level of immunity, but that it is merely likely to protect throughout the winter.

Most news articles I’ve read about the RONA over the past few years are rife with these kinds of reports.

This is one of the reasons why the medical leadership, from The World Health Organization, through Dr. Anthony Fauci and on down to the doctors who choose to call their colleagues quacks and charlatans because they disagree on treatment of the virus, have lost credibility with people.

One cynic online wrote, “Why don’t we just count the number of cases, give Pfizer $20 a head, and forget the shots?”

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

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