Doctors have failed humanity

THE EDITOR: When the pandemic struck with full force in 2020, world health organisations (like WHO and PAHO) were front and centre in assessing the covid19 outbreak and working with governments to make recommendations to stem the spread of the virus. Their scientists have used every iota of data available to them to understand where the virus originated and how it quickly grew from a limited area in China to become a worldwide epidemic.

Based on the information collected, they proposed an amendment to the International Health Regulations (IHR) that would better prepare them for the next instance, which they all expect to happen eventually, with guidelines based on financial contributions from all UN participants but primarily from the wealthiest nations, such as the US, China, Japan and members of the EU. However, no one is looking at the elephant in the room.

While it is vital to have resources available for pandemics, what about working to eliminate the root of the problem in the first place? According to ongoing research, infectious diseases come primarily from animals and their proximity to humans. They include both farmed animals and wildlife, from the production of pigs, chickens and cows for slaughter and dairy to hunting them to eat and, indeed, wherever there is intensive farming of animals for any reason.

For example, “Mink farms are a pandemic ‘time-bomb’ and should be closed worldwide,” leading British virologists have warned, amid mounting concerns that the sites are breeding grounds for dangerous viruses to mutate.

In an article published in the journal on Thursday, scientists from the Imperial College London said intensive mink farming for fur was unethical and dangerous to human health.

“As with any intensive farming, fur farming takes place in a high-density animal environment that allows for rapid spread of viruses with pandemic potential – and for virus adaptation to animals that would be unlikely to occur in nature,” wrote Dr Thomas Peacock, a virologist, and Prof Wendy Barclay, chair of influenza virology at Imperial.

“This is particularly true for normally solitary, undomesticated carnivores, such as mink,” they said. “More so than any other farmed species, [minks] pose a risk for the emergence of future disease outbreaks and the evolution of future pandemic” (The Telegraph).

But why isn’t WHO, who the world looks to for guidance and critical information, even looking at that aspect of preventing future pandemics instead of preparing for their inevitable resurgence? Furthermore, just last week an appeal went out to the Prime Minister from several TT luminaries and organisations “to reject the following WHO CA+ convention articles and IHR amendments which are deficient, ill-conceived, or manifestly harmful.”

They are talking about the proposed WHO CA+ amendments that require member “parties to commit five per cent of their health budgets and pledge an undetermined percentage of the national GDP to pandemic expenditure.”

Why aren’t these consequential people calling on the Prime Minister to reject the amendments but not even considering the deleterious effect of animal production on human health and climate change? Since low-lying islands in the Caribbean are at significant risk of disastrous events such as flooding, high winds and super-hot temperatures, those would be germane selling points at this time.

This disillusion with doctors and government-controlled health organisations has many people sceptical of them. That is why so many of us use the internet as our first line of defence when questions about the efficacy of medication and treatment arise.

Can your doctor be trusted to know the latest and most effective treatment worldwide? Why does China have medicines that they rely on that the US and the EU refuse to acknowledge? What does it say about the medical profession when millions worldwide prefer to rely on internet “doctors” with dubious expertise, much of which is based on anecdotal evidence rather than proven fact-based scientific knowledge?

If the WHO amendments are adopted, the aggregate trillions of dollars acquired worldwide to produce pandemic-related sundry guidelines, along with the intensive hospitalisation requirement, will be wasted on the faulty premise that pandemics are an inevitability that we can do nothing to prevent. That is only because the doctors who can make a difference are not even considering the underlying cause, which is that humans cause pandemics by utilising animals as a food source when, instead, they could take a giant leap into creating a utopian planet by spending all that money to convert the world over to healthy plant-based alternatives.

Moreover, by doing so, not only will humans live healthier lives, but reducing our reliance on animals will positively affect climate change and make our water and food more sustainable. According to the Guardian, “The global food system [animal food production] has a huge impact on the planet, emitting a third of the total greenhouse gas emissions driving global heating. It also uses 70 per cent of the world’s freshwater and causes 80 per cent of river and lake pollution” (the guardian.com).

In conclusion, I ask doctors to be more considerate of their patients. Instead of using pharmaceutical companies as their go-to source for information, they should keep abreast of the latest scientific discoveries. To use a Shakespearean quote, doctors: to thine own self, be true. You and your patients deserve no less.

REX CHOOKOLINGO

rexchook@gmail.com