House Calls: From Confusion to Clarity

 Introduction to video series - conversations between Paula Tucci and J. Barry Engelhardt MD (retired), CCFP,  MHSc (bioethics).  Topics to be discussed:  Fear, Ethics, Vaccine Mandates (Part 3 dedicated to children), Concerns & Confusions, Critical Thinking and Follow the Science. 

We're recommending that you watch the videos on ETHICS first as it will always give a deeper understanding of the all of the subjects discussed throughout this series. 

 Analogy of fear in relation to pandemic.  

Gov't using precautionary principle.  Binary thinking/reacting  (right or wrong).  

Fear is always driving factor in binary reacting.  We need to move from binary thinking/reacting to a spectrum of possibilities.   Fight or flight.  Turning into a debate culture.  

  Ethics not really addressed in pandemic.  Ethical principles discussed.  

Ethics is based on values = how we treat other people.  Golden rule - treat others as you would like to be treated.  All "codes" were developed over the years of how to treat one another - ethical in nature.  Hammurabi Code of Babylon, Hebrew Ten Commandments, Roman and Greek laws that formed much of our present legal system, Magna Carta, American Constitution, Nuremberg Code and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Universal, same moral principle of sacredness of human life - they are timeless.  Human rights have been developed from our (painful) past. 

 If society has the right to protect itself and obligate an individual to accept certain risks or harms or limitations on freedoms, then it must make a valid moral argument for doing so.  And any rule must have exceptions.  Anytime in history when we have not had compassion, or robotically applied a rule, things go south in a very bad way.  Nuremberg is major example.  Nuremberg Trials were created because of horrific abuses during World War II in Nazi Germany.  People were tortured to death often with oversight and assistance of licensed physicians.  Crimes Against Humanity.  North America not immune to such behaviour - the 40 year Tuskegee syphilis study (1930's to 1970's) in USA, involved depriving black men of treatment (penicillin) for syphilis.      

   We're recommending that you watch the videos on ETHICS first, before you watch these on VACCINE MANDATES, or any other subject.  Ethics will always give a deeper understanding of the all of the subjects discussed throughout this series.  

No medical intervention against any corona virus; mRNA brand-new technology never used before; short time-span of releasing medical intervention; normal procedure is to do a risk-stratification process.  Issues with mandates for essential workers and in particular to nurses.  Vaccinate or terminate is unethical and immoral.  Front line hero's being asked to forgo their own safety concerns.  Have we lost our moral compass as Canadians? 

 Ethics and risks - particularly to children. Studies in 2000 were not done on children, pregnant women or people with auto-immune disease.  Children were not getting sick or dying from this virus.  They pose no risk for getting or transmitting this virus.  Concerns with the new and untested technology for these medical interventions.  Why haven’t we tested children before subjecting them to experimental inoculations?  They already have immunities developed by previous exposures to other corona viruses.  

If children are not getting any benefit from this medical intervention, they are doing it for the benefit of adults.  They are essentially functioning like human shields.