Readers Write: June 10, 2021

Dismayed

Dear editor:
I was very dismayed to see that you devoted an entire half-page to David Greene’s Op-ed on the COVID vaccine. Like Dr. Greene, I am neither an epidemiologist nor a bio-medical researcher, so when I read his scary allegations about the vaccine I wanted to know more. I went to the sources he cited and researched them a bit. Did you know that Richard M. Fleming, one of Greene’s main “sources” on the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines pleaded guilty to “the felony offenses of health care fraud and mail fraud” in 2009? https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/omaha/press-releases/2009/om082009.htm. This makes me suspicious.
Greene’s inflammatory rhetoric is also very misleading. For example, our government is not forcing vaccination. In contrast to Italy, in the U.S., not even healthcare workers like Dr. Greene must get vaccinated. Despite this, Greene ends his essay by alluding to the Nuremberg trials, implicitly equating those like him, who “refuse to comply” with the international effort to vaccinate to the victims of the Nazis. There is no comparison here. Those murdered under National Socialism did not have choices. Greene’s manipulations dishonor their memory.
I would encourage all of my fellow Town-Crier readers to look deeply into the sources they use for medical and all other kinds of information. If you’re searching for the truth, start with a librarian, not a quack. Seriously, Town-Crier, you can do much better than this. I want to support local journalism I can trust.
Lisa Weissig
Carlsbad

Opinion piece from anti-vaxx

Dear editor:
The op-ed article by David Greene last week seemed to me to be an opinion piece from the anti-vaxx spectrum of the political world. His promotion of “treatment options” to being vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus include “monoclonal antibodies, hydroxychloroquine products, Ivermectin, antibiotics, Vitamin D and Zinc in various combinations…” Hydroxychloroquine is a debunked malaria drug- recommendation of the former president; ivermectin is a drug used to prevent heartworm infections in my dog, among other things; and antibiotics are NOT used to treat viruses. People can try vitamin D and zinc to thwart Covid-19, but wishful thinking might be as effective, and cheaper. His misleading statistics about adverse vaccine events come from rickjaffeesq.com, the self-proclaimed “flying cowboy lawyer” and health care litigator.
The prestigious Science magazine recently had an article about how people are twisting the data to scare people (https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/05/antivaccine-activists-use-government-database-side-effects-scare-public ) and Greene’s article, especially the last four or five paragraphs, sounds exactly like a stump speech trying to do just that. I’m wondering why this particular subject was chosen to be printed in our local newspaper which we subscribe to for local news, not controversial national political rhetoric and turmoil.

Richard Greenwood
Fern Valley

Opinions: We all have them

Dear editor:
Opinion: a view, a belief, a conviction.
I don’t believe that an opinion should be viewed as a matter of trust, though. Hopefully it would be more a process of critical thinking. Wikipedia: “Critical thinking is self-directed, self-discipline, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking.”
Critical thinking allows us to hold disparate thoughts and ideas simultaneously while we determine what facts line up in a manner that suggests we’re heading toward a truth. It’s hubris to think we have THE answer, or THE truth.
Few of us will take the time to examine the “facts” or pursue a balanced approach to finding an answer. We like to rely on those “authority” figures to give us the answers. After all, we rationalize, they’ve already done all the research, so why should I? There may be, and usually is, missing needed data, on all fronts.
Therein lies the problem. What’s the background, education, affiliation, etc.? Any conflict-of-interests? How do they stand to benefit from this position?
Dr. David L. Greene’s opinion, though not a popular one, is an equally justified one backed by many scientists, doctors, and educated people – those who take seriously the concept and practice of informed consent, “informing oneself” by researching many sides of an issue. Informed consent is supported by physicians and health care providers to protect the right of patients and their guardians to voluntarily accept or decline medical interventions, including testing, use of prescription drugs and surgery that involve a risk of injury or death. It carries strongly the concept of sovereignty.
There are always risks when taking a drug. Vaccines in particular carry great risk – so much so that our very own government, i.e., the taxpayer, has taken on the monetary responsibility of this risk, paying out over $4 billion to victims of vaccine injury since Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which banned most vaccine injury lawsuits against the drug companies creating them and selling them, and the doctors giving them. These are the same agencies that created the Opioid Crisis. When there is no legal accountability, what incentive then do these drug companies and medical institutions have in creating “safe vaccines?”
Every one of us has a different biology. Each of us responds differently to medication. We should have the choice, free of coercion of any kind, to make a decision based on our own biology, genetics, and beliefs.

Emily Roossien
Idyllwild

Shouldn’t have been published

Dear editor:
The article in the Town Crier on May 20 by David L. Greene is so full of misstatements, logical fallacies and outright fabrications that it should never have been published. Many of the errors were refuted by Jack and Becky Clark in the June 3rd edition but I am afraid that people inclined to believe the garbage in Greene’s article might never accept such cogent counterarguments. Maybe we should examine the minimal information we have about the author. The letters after his name indicate that he graduated from a medical school and is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology but there is no information to indicated that he has any knowledge or experience germane to the article. Although I share those same credentials and have some additional ones as well, I freely admit that I am not an expert on the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. I do, nevertheless, have enough knowledge, experience and humility, apparently unlike Greene, to recognize experts in areas such as infectious diseases, immunology, experimental design, statistics and emergency medicine. There is a scientific consensus among them that the disease is real, the effects have been devastating and the genuine vaccines (even if Greene tries to claim they are, apparently, faux ‘vaccines’) are safe and effective. To believe otherwise is to denigrate the dedicated scientists and caregivers who work for the FDA, NIH, other government agencies, hospitals, nursing homes and drug companies. Are they really all liars?
Although the article has “Op-ed” in the title, it was published, not on the editorial page, but on the second page in a length generally not granted to other op-ed articles or letters. One can only wonder what The Town Crier might publish in the future. Will there be a piece claiming that Mayor Max is a pedophile? Or that the airplanes abhorred by Quiet Skies are being equipped by the FBI with roof-penetrating radar to gather dossiers on residents of the Hill? Perhaps there will be an article by the Flat Earth Society full of all the reasons they believe what every rational human being knows is not true.
Choosing to publish this unscientific diatribe has greatly damaged the credibility of the Town Crier, making it difficult to accept the veracity of any future stories.

Thomas R. Kluzak, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., F. C. A. P,, M.M.I.S., M.M.M.
Idyllwild

Gain of function and VAERS

Dear editor:
I have read the Op-ed “Information about the COVID-19 ‘vaccine’ you may not be hearing,” by obstetrics and gynecology doctor David L. Greene that was in the Idyllwild Town Crier, May 27, 2021. I was surprised that the Town Crier would publish such a deceptive Op-ed so I will address some of the deceptive comments.
Greene implies that NIH funded research in China to make the Corona virus more life threatening (aka “gain of function”), but fails to mention that both Dr. Fauci and NIH have denied this. The denials were published in The Washington Post as an extensive fact-check on this issue (“Fact-checking the Paul-Fauci flap over Wuhan lab funding,” May 18, 2021). Despite some debate about the definition of “gain of function,” the claims got two Pinocchios which is the Post’s measure of a false statement. Based on this, the denials by Fauci and NIH are credible.
The author goes on to question why there is a massive push to vaccinate as many people as possible, as if there is something sinister going on. However, the answer is simple. According to CNBC’s report on May 28, since vaccinations started in December 2020, the seven-day average number of COVID-19 cases and deaths have both declined approximately 70% to 80% from their peak. This reduction also means that the chances of variants developing are lower. Obviously, COVID-19 cases and deaths will continue to decline as more people are vaccinated and that is why there is a push to do this.
Greene cites the vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS) and falsely insinuates that 4,200 deaths have occurred due to the COVID-19 vaccines. Based on 285 million vaccinations, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports similar numbers for deaths after a COVID-19 vaccination, but with some very significant differences that Greene left out. Just a couple of lines down in the CDC’s statement there are these sentences; “CDC and FDA physicians review each case report of death as soon as notified and CDC requests medical records to further assess reports. A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records has not established a causal link to COVID-19 vaccines.” The only possible exception is the 32 blood clot cases out of the 10.2 million Johnson and Johnson vaccines. Otherwise, the CDC statements refute Greene’s deceptive insinuation.

Charles Mooney
Costa Mesa

Negative Op-Ed

Dear editor:
I am very disappointed that the Town Crier chose to publish a very negative Op Ed about the Covid 19 vaccine, written by Dr. David L. Greene. Who is Doctor Green? What are his medical credentials? What research has he done on the Covid 19 virus? He has written that the vaccine program is a violation of the Nuremberg Code, a biological weapon and that “those responsible for this crime against humanity will be brought to justice.” He recommends the use of hydroxychloroquine, Vitamin D and zinc instead. His piece is an unscientific diatribe, not a reasoned argument. Does this represent the position of the Town Crier?
We have taken the Town Crier since the days of Ernie Maxwell, and read the paper for local news, not a radical political rant.

Betty Parks
Idyllwild