Just in time for Thanksgiving, several highly effective COVID vaccines have been announced. They will be here within months and this horrible plague will soon be over. Now that’s something to be thankful for!
It’s always darkest before the dawn. This Covid year has been awful in so many ways, but we may look back and see COVID as the impetus for humanity finally defeating one of its greatest enemies — the microscopic virus.
Science has made amazing progress over the last decade in understanding how DNA and RNA works. Research is underway that could lead to the cure of hundreds of diseases.
The COVID crisis ramped up this research development to a far higher scale. Amazingly, we developed and tested multiple vaccines in less than a year. Like the moon race, the benefits from these efforts will be magnified over the next decades in ways that will be hard to imagine. We may eradicate the common cold and dozens of other noxious ailments.
The two most promising vaccines claim success rates over 90 percent. Both use a brand new technology called mRNA (messenger RNA). It is absolutely mind blowing.
Basically, we have created a new virus just a fraction of the size of the coronavirus. This virus infects our cells, causing them to produce only the spikes of the coronavirus, which do no harm by themselves. These spikes activate our immune system to create antibodies to bind with and neutralize the spikes. Then when we get infected with the real coronavirus, our immune system is ready and waiting. By the end of this coming spring, COVID-19 will be dead and buried. And we will have a whole new arsenal to fight viruses going forward. God works in miraculous ways!
There will be huge economic benefits from these advances in our eternal war with our viral enemies. Common cold and flu viruses cost the economy $40 billion a year. That will partially offset the $1.8 trillion our government spent saving the economy from the COVID panic.
Another special focus for us this Thanksgiving: Living in a nation with such an amazing health care system. First and foremost, we should be thankful for the millions of American health care workers who never flinched throughout this crisis and continued to work night and day to provide those afflicted with the best possible care. So many unsung heroes.
Within just a few months, the American health care industry learned and adapted to this new scourge, dropping the fatality rate like a rock. The COVID fatality rate is one-tenth what it was in the beginning.
We have to look no further than our own backyard for a perfect example. Northsider Dr. Reed Hogan developed a simple regimen of Pepcid and Zyrtec — two over the counter drugs — that is now being used throughout the world to prevent the deadly “cytokine storm” in which your immune system overreacts to COVID.
Robert Wise, another Northsider, was one of the first to write about the possibility of the MMR vaccine preventing serious infection. Since his article, first published in the Northside Sun, numerous supporting studies have been done and now a wide scale study is underway at the University of Washington.
Both these developments, by the way, were first reported by the Northside Sun. Both stories, when posted to our website, went viral and spread throughout the world with huge ramifications. No telling how many lives were saved.
MMR is a vaccine that stands for Measles, Mumps and Rubella, all viruses. Turns out the Rubella virus is 25 percent identical to the SARS-COV-2. It won’t stop you from getting sick, but it will keep the sickness in check. Do you and your family a favor. Google “MMR and COVID”
I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t get this vaccine. You can get it at Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, your doctor’s office, anywhere, for about $50. If you haven’t done it, do it now. Go. Do it. Now!!
My family, through our mission work to Africa, had all had the MMR shot. After reading Robert Wise’s article, we all got another one. When the virus attacked our family, it was no worse than a cold.
I got COVID sharing a car ride and a golf cart with my dear friend Kemal Sanli, an Ergon executive. The day after we played, he started feeling bad. Then he lost taste and smell. He then tested positive.
Four days later, my fever shot up to 103 and my head felt like it was about to explode. I immediately started taking Vitamin D, Pepcid, Zyrtec and zinc. I got tested that day but it was negative. Two days later, I got tested again. Positive.
Thank God I took Dr. Scott Carlton’s advice and got a second test. As a result, I was able to isolate and not infect anyone.
I was lucky. My fever and headache only lasted a day. Then after being asymptomatic for three days, I had a runny nose. That was it.
I believe my sky-high immediate fever was my immune system quickly recognizing the threat and responding rapidly. I attribute this to the MMR vaccine.
Kemal wasn’t so lucky. His symptoms crept up slowly and his immune system got behind the curve. He ended up spending over a week in the hospital on oxygen. So many people were praying for him. Finally, he just up and told Jesus that was enough. “You can heal. Go ahead and do it.” Then, just like that, he was cured.
So many people have personally witnessed the power of prayer as a result of this disease. For that, I am thankful.
I am also thankful that I never got anybody else sick that I know of. My daughter Ruth had already had COVID and had the antibodies. John and Ginny never got sick, which is most remarkable given two members of our family had the virus.
For many, thankfully, the worst part of the disease is the quarantine. We dutifully did our part and followed CDC guidelines. It is impressive to see the citizenry do its part voluntarily without the need for government coercion or enforcement. This is another thing to be thankful for: That we live in a state where people do the right thing out of the goodness in their heart. The Spirit is so strong in Mississippi.
Right now we are going through yet another surge in positive tests. Fortunately, the hospitalization and death rates are more or less stable. We should be thankful for that. All we can do is pray and practice good hygiene and wait for the storm to pass. Go get the MMR shot!
Over the next few years, even decades, we will look back and make sense of what we’ve just been through. No doubt, mistakes were made. Did we overreact? Did we react too slowly? These issues will take time to resolve, if ever. It will be yet another learning experience for our society and the world. I am thankful for our research universities and our open system that allows such study and reflection over time.
Even in the annus horribilis of 2020, there is so much for which to be thankful. Have a safe Thanksgiving and be sure to eat too much turkey and pecan pie.
