"Never Sacrifice Who You Are..."

Came home after a looooong day at work, and still "on call" for the rest of the night. The photo is one of the first posts I saw upon logging onto FaceBook...I needed to see this...it was a great summation of my day, and fired up the last few remaining vibes of energy in my sagging spirit.

Flu shot clinics are in full swing where I work, and in every friendly neighborhood pharmacy around the area. I even got a canned message from one of the local chains (Lord knows how they got my number...) that they are ready to serve me up a flu vax, and I should come down there and check it out!

For the last 2 years I have been feverishly trying to educate my patients about what the media and CDC "forget" to tell them amidst the fear mongering TV ads and magazine articles.

Things like the Cochrane collaboration (the "gold" standard of evidence based medicine used by physicians all over the world) not being able to find a single study to support the effectiveness of the flu shot, except for those unabashedly influenced by the drug companies who sponsored them; things like the CDC essentially lying about death rates from influenza; things like the real adverse reactions that could be expected from the vaccine; things like the lack of appropriate safety trials among those patients (infants and elderly) who are at most risk from both influenza and side effects of vaccination; things like just taking Vitamin D can be more effective, without ANY side effects. The list can go on and on...

My efforts at education have earned me some negative attention, of course. Here I am, a run-of-the-mill, Mid-western, allopathic physician telling my patients exactly opposite of what the party line has been for years now. Tch-tch-tch... I had a series of emails from "the powers that be" today that prompted a rather passionate, albeit somewhat sarcastic response from me this evening, some of which I will share here:


"As far as the flu clinics go, I know they will be run through here. I actually prefer that they come here for their flu shot so that they get REAL informed consent and not the propaganda (since that word seems to be popular lately) pushed upon us by the media and the pharmaceutical companies. If they still want it, fine…


As far as rights go, I know a lot of people who would like to be able to smoke while waiting for their appt…I am against smoking and feel it is harmful for their health…are we infringing on their rights by not offering cigarettes? Silly thought to most in this day and age, but 50 years ago, cigarettes were thought to be harmless, too. And at one time, a bit of arsenic was a popular cure all as well. 


Do you think I am doing this because it is fun? Just to stir up a little trouble? Because I am bored and have nothing better to do? 


I am practicing medicine. I am doing and saying what I believe is the right thing for my patients because the oath I took way back in medical school was “First, do no harm”, not “First, do what everybody else thinks is right because someone who seems important said so”. I was that nerd in medical school who enjoyed journal club and picking apart poorly done research articles and the drug reps touting such. I have been researching vaccine safety for over 3 years now and have probably read thousands of articles on the subject as well as the position statements from the CDC, FDA, and other health governing boards. I have revisited my education in immunology, microbiology, and the principles of infectious disease. I have seen and listened first hand to accounts from patients on symptoms that have occurred following a variety of vaccines. I have witnessed the decline in “sick visits” among children and the elderly since changing my practice recommendations on vaccines. 


I am not trying to be a radical – my conclusions just happen to fall 180 degrees opposite of the status quo. That does not make them wrong, it makes them different. 


I am willing to debate, discuss, and educate anyone who cares to do the same. That is how we learn. That is how misinformation is discovered and corrected. That is how science and medicine move forward. 


I am very willing to be wrong if it furthers my ability to do what is right by my patients and the world as a whole. "

Which comes back to why I felt such a particular warmth in my heart on seeing that brief, but illustrative, handwritten statement - just because your opinion/appearance/thought process/whatEVER might fall on the opposite side of the "status quo", it does not make you wrong, just different.