Vaccinating the Already Infected, Elderly And Frail: The Ominous Index Case At “The Commons on St. Anthony” — Auburn, NY.
I’ve waited this long to write about the disaster that unfolded at The Commons on St. Anthony in January 2021, because I wanted the facts to be more clearly established in the press first.
Yesterday, reporter Mr. Robert Harding of Auburnpub.com published an update on the tragedy at The Commons — so it’s time for me to express my professional opinion as an American physician, immunologist and public health advocate.
You can read Mr. Harding’s article in Auburnpub.com at THIS LINK.
The tragic case of The Commons is ominous and telling. Because out of 180 residents and staff infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, at least 28 reportedly died within a short period of time after the start of that institution’s vaccination program. That, puts the mortality rate from COVID-19 at The Commons at over 15%.
This rapid mortality rate is well over what is expected from COVID-19 in all age groups — in fact, the over 15% death rate within the span of a few days is astonishingly high. So, these unusual deaths at The Commons beg the forensic question of what happened at that facility caring for the elderly and frail, many of whom surely suffered from underlying cardiovascular disease.
Certainly FDA and CDC leaderships should be far more alarmed by this unusually high death rate from COVID-19 at The Commons than they seem to be. Of course, I am not at FDA, so maybe I’m wrong — maybe the 5 alarm bells are going off inside the FDA and CDC. But, somehow, based on their “official” public rumblings, I doubt it.
The reason I feel compelled to opine now, as a physician, immunologist, and public health advocate, about the unusual tragedy at The Commons is that yesterday’s article by Mr. Harding confirmed a few critical bits of fact — and a statement from that facility’s administrative leadership.
Specifically, Mr. Harding writes that “Before the first vaccination clinic [at The Commons], the nursing home already had a COVID-19 outbreak. Julie Sheedy, a Loretto spokesperson, told The Citizen that the outbreak began in December after Thanksgiving.”
Apparently The Commons medical staff had started to vaccinate the residents and staff about 3 weeks AFTER the start of the outbreak at their facility on December 22, 2020.
In point of fact, Ms. Sheedy goes on to state that ”Given the incubation period that we know for this virus, our facility was affected BEFORE vaccines were available to be administered.”
In other words, The Commons is stating that many of the residents and staff at the facility were actually already infected at the time they received their vaccine doses starting on December 22, 2020. And because the vaccine was administered indiscriminately, it is likely that many, if not most, of the persons vaccinated were already infected with the virus.
Now I can appreciate the narrative analysis The Commons’ administration is attempting to place on the tragic events that affected their facility by stating that “We certainly wish the vaccines had been available sooner to help prevent the devastation caused by this virus."
After all, it isn’t their fault these patients died, it’s the virus’ fault. If they’d had the vaccine they’d have been able to prevent the infections to begin with — true enough!
But, I also know as a point of fact, that though it is true that had the vaccine been available prior to the outbreak, these infections and deaths may have been prevented — it is ALSO true that many of the residents and staff at The Commons were vaccinated….while they were already infected or carried recent prior infections.
As an immunologist and physician, I will state on this record that it is highly likely that the astronomically high, over 15% (!), COVID-19 death rate at The Commons was caused by indiscriminate vaccination of the already infected.
Since last year, I have been warning the leadership of the FDA and Pfizer/Moderna of the likely danger of indiscriminate vaccination of the already infected.
You may read my first warning letter to FDA and Pfizer/Moderna HERE.
You may read my second warning letter to FDA and Pfizer/Moderna HERE.
In the above two public letters I formally establish why it is dangerous to be indiscriminately vaccinating persons who carry known or occult SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Additionally, I’ve written extensively to Dr. Janet Woodcock, the current acting FDA commissioner and her colleague Dr. Peter Marks, detailing why and how the United States must act immediately to protect those already infected with SARS-CoV-2 from the potential harm of indiscriminate vaccination.
You my read my public letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Woodcock, HERE.
From a scientific perspective as an immunologist, it is clear cut to me that if a person is infected, his/her tissues will be harboring viral antigens for some time following infection — be it a symptomatic or an asymptomatic infection. Subsequent immunization of such recently infected persons would thereby direct an antigen specific immune response to their tissues — thereby creating an inflammatory state and causing tissue injury.
I believe that the elderly and frail with underlying cardiovascular disease and ongoing or recent infection are particularly at risk of being harmed by such indiscriminate vaccination.
I have detailed my expert opinion on the high level of risk, the elderly and frail infected with SARS-CoV-2, are at from indiscriminate COVID-19 vaccination in THIS OPINION ARTICLE.
The bottom line is that the a large proportion of the resident and staff at The Commons on St. Anthony in Auburn, NY were highly likely to have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 at the time of their vaccination. This is a fact that the facility’s managers do not dispute. And it likely makes The Commons catastrophe an ominous bellwether case in our pandemic vaccine effort. Certainly this case must serve as an index case for a potential iatrogenic disaster for the FDA and CDC in the United States.
It is my opinion that when the infected residents and staff of The Commons were indiscriminately immunized using the COVID-19 vaccine, the vaccine acted like a lit match would on contact with a gasoline doused log: they were lit up by an inflammatory response to the viral antigens present in the tissues of the unfortunate infected — and over 15% of them died in a very short span of time.
It’s my bet and prediction that, in addition to the over 15% dead, many more of the infected and vaccinated at that facility became gravely ill with “COVID-19 disease”, but were perhaps lucky enough to survive— of course, Mr. Harding’s article does not address this issue. So, I would urge him and the administrators at The Commons to make a full accounting of the ill and the severity of their illnesses. In my estimation, many of the indiscriminately vaccinated while infected are very likely to have become, or still be, more gravely ill than they would have been had they not been vaccinated while infected.
My concern about the hazard of indiscriminately vaccinating the infected is material and highly relevant now, because during this pandemic well over 30 million Americans have already been infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus — and the numbers of such naturally infected persons is daily increasing across the nation. Yet, neither FDA/CDC, nor Pfizer/Moderna are making any substantive efforts to prevent their indiscriminate immunization.
This level of regulatory and clinical laxity on the part of FDA, CDC and the American corporate and medical establishment, is happening in a setting where the clinical trials leading to the approval of the COVID-19 vaccines did NOT include any appropriately powered subset of elderly and frail (or younger) subjects with recent or prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.
So simply put, we do not really know whether and how safe it is to be vaccinating the already infected amongst us during this pandemic.
I’ve written about the laxity in safety standards as it pertains to the COVID-19 vaccines, HERE.
Certainly, the ominous and tragic death of 36 year old Dr. J. Barton Williams of Memphis, TN provides another parallel case to those seen at The Commons. Dr. Williams died from an inflammatory COVID-19 immune response, which was almost certainly triggered by his vaccination regimen — in a setting where he had a confirmed prior asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection (i.e., a positive antigen test previous to his illness).
You may read my analysis of Dr. J. Barton Williams’ death HERE.
Perhaps the reasonable reader will see the commonality between Dr. Williams’ death and the deaths at The Commons in NY: these unsuspecting people were all indiscriminately vaccinated while harboring known or highly likely recent or prior COVID-19 infections.
So though I agree with both the administrators at The Commons, and with Dr. Williams’ physicians, that vaccination BEFORE these persons’ infections occurred, would have likely prevented their deaths — I am also nearly certain that their vaccinations AFTER their infections triggered their severe illnesses and deaths by activating a deadly inflammatory response to persistent viral antigens in their bodies.
In the end, I believe that we will soon recognize, as a nation, what a careless error in clinical and regulatory judgement it has been to be indiscriminately vaccinating the infected amongst us during this pandemic — especially when we could easily #ScreenB4Vaccine.
I fear that by the time Dr. Woodcock (FDA), Dr. Marks (FDA), Dr. Wollensky (CDC), Dr. Bourla (Pfizer) and Dr. Gruber (Pfizer) acknowledge the high likelihood of this harm, the irreversible damage and deaths to those previously infected, will be a fait accompli.
Here is my warning to you, dear reader and concerned citizen: In our irrational American exuberance to quickly dash for a way out of this devastating pandemic, we are acting dangerously, arrogantly and negligently — without regard for what the basic science of Immunology tells us: that the lives of the already SARS-CoV-2 infected amongst us, are likely to be in harm’s way from the indiscriminate vaccination we are driving en mass — and especially in the most frail amongst us.
