Could the COVID vaccine destroy your immune system? Probably not

I admire the origin of The Epoch Times. It was founded on the power of the pen to check brute force, in this case the Chinese Communist Government’s brutal repression of democracy. The news outlet’s founders have participated in the Falun Gong movement, which retrieves a version traditional Chinese spirituality to counter the soul-sucking culture of communism.

The Chinese government infamously punished the Falun Gong, and The Epoch Times keeps tabs on the current government’s machinations with an understandably anti-government editorial slant. But that slant does not translate well on certain issues, like COVID-19 vaccination, in more free and open societies like the US and Europe.

For example, compare this alarming article How the COVID-19 Vaccine Could Destroy Your Immune System with this sober, balanced, easily accessible explainer by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The ET article mixes scientific sources and some accurate history with statements that COVID-19 vaccines are likely to worsen COVID-19 infections by actually helping the coronavirus infect a person’s cells in a phenomenon called “Antibody-dependent Enhancement” (ADE). By contrast, CHOP explains that researchers discovered long ago that ADE can occur naturally, with no vaccines involved: One form of the dengue virus can actually use antibodies that already fought off another form of the dengue virus to infect the patient again.

CHOP also explains that vaccines for Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), measles, and the dengue virus have provoked ADE, did result in deaths in very few cases, and thus were discontinued. Even so, CHOP adds that “Other viral vaccines that target multiple types of a virus have been safely used, including vaccines against polio (3 types), rotavirus (5 types), and human papillomavirus (9 types).”

ADE is rare, observable, and thus largely preventable. The kind of scientific sources cited by both articles, such as this one, are part of the usual scientific process of catching and responding to vaccine-induced ADE. These scientific sources do not expose a conspiracy to conceal important information from the public.

The ET article reports these scientific sources, but I found the scientific reporting difficult to follow and the alarming conclusions easy to remember. If someone already fears vaccination and reads the article linked above, they will expect that getting vaccinated will worsen their illness the first or next time they get COVID-19. What a shame. I do not see how this conclusion makes sense when millions of people have been vaccinated without high adverse reaction rates.

If ADE were on the rise, the kind of scientific process that caught it with RSV, measles, and dengue virus vaccines would catch it again with the COVID-19 illness. That scientific process would study whether the rising ADE cases were naturally occurring or vaccination provoked, and in either case would continue the search for another safe vaccine to add to polio, rotavirus, and HVP vaccines already on the success list.

No, the COVID-19 vaccine is highly unlikely to destroy any person’s immune system. Of course, each person must inform themselves and come to a judgment in their own case. Here is how to do it.