Aunt Effie was the “neighborhood healer” in her community of Noble, Oklahoma. When I was visiting and scraped my arm or had a stomachache, she always had the right potion, poultice, roots, soak or fern to treat the ailment. Her husband, Uncle Leonard, was an authority on the ailments of cows and mules. That was 20 years before the widespread availability of penicillin in 1939. The lifespan of the average person was 47 years old. Today, it is 78 years old (pre-COVID-19).
That is just one example of the uncountable human lives science has saved by diseases cured and prevented, not to mention those of domestic animals. My time practicing veterinary medicine was mostly in feedlots, on big ranches and dairies, on range ewes and saddle horses. I spent and used millions and millions of dollars to save animal lives and prevent disease. All my medicines were approved by the USDA (vaccines) and the FDA (pharmaceuticals) and took years of testing to prove that it did what it said on their labels.
I, as a DVM, am responsible for medicine I use on the patient. If I misuse a product, I am liable to be sued … but not the salesman, the layman doc, the actor in the commercial, the entire “alternative medicine” industry that is mandated to confess on their label, “This product has not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration and is not approved to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.” The FDA … the one team that can protect the public from what used to be called “quacks.”
If the expert medical doctors we have been seeing on TV regarding the COVID-19 virus seem hesitant to answer the questions the raving media asks, there is a reason … they are stalling, waiting.
In most cases of nature, there is constant change. You are asking the doctors to predict specific outcomes. They can only compare similar past consequences. Oh, and they are responsible for what they say, unlike the newspaper columnist, the television commentators, all politicians and my sweet Aunt Effie.
Regarding those of you of the rural community who have been my “family” all my life and are afraid to get your COVID-19 vaccination, ask yourself, “Am I afraid to vaccinate my calves for IBR, BVD, Lepto, BRD, red water, blackleg? Am I afraid to vaccinate my horses for tetanus, sleeping sickness? My dogs for parvo, rabies … and my kids for measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox?”
As a friend, it would make my life a lot easier.
P.S.: Ivermectin is a horse wormer.
