(Children’s Health Defense) – In January 2020 — pre-COVID — the Commonwealth Fund published a sobering report on the state of U.S. healthcare, comparing the U.S. to other high-income countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The report shared a number of depressing findings. First, despite the U.S. spending twice as much on healthcare (as a share of the economy) as comparable wealthy nations, Americans have the lowest life expectancy and highest suicide rates. Nor is America’s poor bang for its healthcare buck anything sudden or new — a 30-year-old study that compared the U.S. to 15 OECD nations reached the same conclusions.

The Commonwealth Fund report also drew attention to the fact that, among peer nations, the U.S. has the highest chronic disease burden, the highest number of hospitalizations from “preventable causes” and the highest rate of “avoidable deaths.”

Restrictive COVID policies have worsened these health indicators, with mounting deaths of despair and a plummeting life expectancy that researchers predict will drop still further.

The draconian policies — and especially COVID vaccine mandates for healthcare workers (HCWs) — are also wreaking havoc on the U.S. healthcare system and health workforce. Astoundingly high percentages of HCWs have experienced adverse events after accepting the jabs, rendering some unfit for duty. And among HCWs who, having done their due diligence, have chosen to decline the injections, firings and resignations are growing increasingly commonplace. These kinds of handicaps portend an uncertain future for a healthcare system that was already on shaky ground even before the terrible COVID policies took hold.

Early guinea pigs

As soon as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Emergency Use Authorization for the COVID vaccines, HCWs began to find themselves in a catch-22: take an experimental injection (made by felonious pharma giants exempt from legal liability for injuries) or — egged on by hostile parties that now include no less than POTUS himself — risk ostracism or worse.

Many HCWs who dutifully did what they were told, have not fared well. An online survey of 1,245 HCWs published in April (“representing various parts of the country during the early phase of COVID-19 vaccination”) furnishes one particularly hair-raising glimpse of the potential risks — for both provider and patient.

The study focused on roughly 800 HCWs (46% younger than age 41 and nearly all with doctoral, medical or Master’s degrees) who received the Pfizer vaccine and reported one or more symptoms. Almost all (93%) had received two doses.

Post-vaccination, about one in eight HCWs “temporarily” had trouble performing activities of daily living. In addition, the survey results highlighted the following:

• Symptoms such as fatigue, headache, joint pain, nausea, muscle spasm, sweating, dizziness, flushing, brain fog, anorexia, sleep disruptions, tingling and palpitations were common.
• Grouped by organ system, large percentages of the Pfizer-injected HCWs reported symptoms that were “generalized” (76%) or musculoskeletal (53%). However, the injections also displayed the capacity to affect nearly every body system: gastrointestinal (21%), psychological/psychiatric (17%), neurological (13%), otolaryngological (12%), endocrine (10%), cardiovascular (6%), respiratory (3%), urinary (1%) and allergic (1%).
• The principal neurological symptom reported was brain fog or “reduced mental clarity” — a disabling symptom that can scarcely be reassuring to the affected individuals’ patients. This category also included reports of symptoms such as numbness, paralysis, vertigo and reactivation of herpes or shingles. These types of neurological symptoms are no joke; some HCWs have reported being denied health insurance and Workers’ Compensation despite symptoms so debilitating that they can no longer work.
• In the otolarnygological category, ear and eye symptoms predominated, included ear ringing, changes in hearing, ear/eye pain, blurred vision and “flashing lights.” The vision-related symptoms dovetail with data from the European drug monitoring agency, which has recorded tens of thousands of eye disordersfollowing COVID vaccination.
• Oddly, 6% of Pfizer recipients reported upbeat feelingsof joy, relief or gratitude in response to receiving the injections. The researchers characterized this as a “positive sign” of HCW willingness to “[take] the challenge to end the deadly pandemic, irrespective of side effects experienced.”

In early 2021, Czech researchers conducted a nearly identical HCW survey. Virtually all of the respondents (n=818), about a third of whom had at least one chronic illness at baseline, received two doses of the Pfizer shot, and 93% of the latter reported one or more side effects. Disturbingly, the prevalence of adverse reactions was consistently higher in younger (< 43 years old) HCWs with more of their careers ahead of them. Almost one in ten Pfizer recipients reported symptoms lasting for a week or more. Nevertheless, the researchers gaily concluded that healthcare workers and students “are among the ideal population groups to participate in this type of studies [sic] due to their high level of health literacy and scientific motivation.”

No thanks

From the beginning of the COVID vaccines’ rollout, surveys have indicated that HCWs are “somewhat more skeptical [about COVID vaccine safety] compared to the general public.” In early January, one in four surveyed HCWs indicated that they had no plans to ever get a COVID shot, with “wariness of going first” being one of the commonly cited reasons. In many healthcare settings, far larger proportions than 25% have chosen to remain unvaccinated.