Disinformation is still hurting in Kentucky’s battle against COVID-19

It has been almost two years since I wrote my initial op-eds in the Herald Leader regarding COVID-19. I received significant blowback when I stated that the United States could have up to 2.2 million deaths in an unmitigated pandemic. So far, we have done far too little to prevent significant disease and are on track to lose 1 million souls in the United States. The Commonwealth Fund has estimated if the United States had not instituted an aggressive vaccination program, we would have had over 1 million additional deaths. Unfortunately, the pandemic’s toll is still rising.

The politicization of this pandemic has been disastrous for the United States. I am a moderate Republican from Kentucky. One that believes you do not have to have an “F” in science to belong to the Party and knows how to spell “RHINO” (Republicans Having Integrity Not Obtuseness).

The narrative which is being spread by some of our leaders is placing Kentucky in grave danger. One only needs to reflect on what has happened in our state and compare the conflicting narratives to identify the disinformation. Unlike what was stated in early 2020, almost all now realize the pandemic is not a hoax. However, far too many still cling to the narrative that the virus is not that bad. At the same time many embrace the rumor that the pandemic started by the purposeful release of a weaponized virus from a Chinese lab and that the FDA is withholding vital monoclonal antibody treatments to allow the virus to kill off Republicans. So which is it? Is the virus not dangerous or is it being purposefully used as a weapon? To believe all of these narratives at the same time makes no sense. In actuality all are false.

Promoting the reliance on monoclonal antibodies as opposed to vaccination is also dangerous disinformation. Monoclonal antibodies are just that, they are “mono” meaning one or single. There are only one or two unique antibody types in the medications and can be highly variant specific. Unlike the few drops in a vaccine, this medication is literally given in a bag, and takes a protracted period of time to manufacture. Unlike the vaccines which make a myriad of antibodies effective against many forms of SARS-CoV-2, the effectiveness of this medication can easily be negated by the mutating virus. There will always be a limited supply. Except in the minds of conspiracy theorists, monoclonal antibodies have never been designed to be a first-line defense against SARS-CoV-2.

Another common form of disinformation is that natural infection is better than vaccinations so if infected you do not need a vaccination. Better does not mean good. And the vaccine they are referring to is a 2-dose mRNA vaccine. According to the United Kingdom’s Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team,(4) the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccine have a 0% to 20% effectiveness in the prevention of symptomatic disease from the omicron variant. Natural immunity from a previous infection conferred a protection of 19%. However, a third dose of an mRNA vaccine given to vaccine recipients conferred a 55% to 80% protection against symptomatic disease. Its effectiveness in preventing hospitalizations and deaths would be expected to be much higher.

Immunity elicited by boosters markedly diminishes after 6 months, but vaccines are our best bridge until antiviral therapeutics become widely available and also to keep our facilities from being overrun. Pfizer and Moderna are both reformulating a vaccine for the Omicron variant and plan to have it available before Summer. For now, let’s just take one month at a time and use the tools which are available to us. The disinformation which some are spewing is nothing short of parroting the propaganda playbook of our communists’ adversaries. It is dividing and weakening our country. We as a country must do better.

Kevin Kavanagh is a physician and founder of HealthWatch USA.

This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 9:21 AM.