COVID-19 crisis is not a TV drama

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/12/2021 (1420 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I HAVE been watching Dopesick on Disney+ over the past several weeks. It depicts the depressing and infuriating ways in which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed to do due diligence in ensuring patients’ safety before allowing the administration of opioids for managing chronic pain.

Based on real events, the miniseries also seems to lay out a perfect rationalization for refusing to believe Big Pharma and not getting vaccinated now against COVID-19. But there are very significant differences between opioid prescriptions and vaccinations, between public-health crises and approaches to pain management.

While we should always be vigilant when it comes to drugs, we should also be aware of the sheer number of medical organizations invested in ensuring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. We also need to be aware of the differences between a medication, such as the prescription of opioids to treat a condition, and vaccination.

In Dopesick, we see how communities throughout the U.S. were transformed by the introduction of OxyContin by Purdue Pharma, and how drug companies actively and aggressively marketed the drug as non-addictive, while providing increasingly larger doses covered by artful slogans for “breakthrough pain.”

The FDA labeled the drug as “safe” and failed to obtain evidence of its long-term effectiveness or manage conflicts of interest in approving the drug. According to the American Medical Association (AMA) Journal of Ethics, “the two principal FDA reviewers who originally approved Purdue’s oxycodone application … took positions at Purdue after leaving the agency.”

As a result of the aggressiveness of Purdue, OxyContin became a drug regularly prescribed to manage pain – not just for cancer, but other types of pain as well. From 1997 to 2002, OxyContin prescriptions in the U.S. went from 67,000 to 6.2 million. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, roughly 21 to 29 per cent of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain will misuse them, and an estimated four to six per cent who misuse prescription opioids transition to heroin.

In Canada, 2021 is considered the deadliest year in Vancouver’s six-year long struggle with the opioid epidemic, which has largely been sidelined because of the pandemic. In Winnipeg, opioid misuse is a constant drain on fire and police resources. This city is on pace to exceed 2020’s deaths doe to opioid misuse.

I personally know of several people who became hooked, and one who died from an overdose. All of them were given opioid prescriptions to handle pain after car or sports accidents. They’re just that addictive.

So, yes, I can understand why some people are reluctant to trust “Big Pharma” to resolve a pandemic when it’s been responsible for a crisis of epic proportions and countless deaths, particularly in light of the AMA’s claim that many of the holes in the FDA process that led to opioid use disorder have not been fixed.

I share those concerns. After all, I had a mother who was given a prescription for thalidomide in the 1960s while pregnant with me. Luckily for me, she never took it.

But vaccinations are not the same as drugs taken as a treatment for pain or any other malady. Vaccines contain weakened or inactive parts of a particular organism (antigen) that triggers an immune response within the body. In very simplistic terms, vaccines make your body create immunity against the virus that’s attempting to make you sick. A vaccine prompts your immune system to respond. A vaccine works with your body to make it stronger.

Many people are also afraid the pharmaceutical companies are once again cutting corners in order to get the vaccines approved for use during the pandemic. Again, no one could blame them for those concerns, given past experiences. But it’s important to remember that researchers did not start from scratch in pursuit of getting the first COVID-19 vaccine ready for use in the general population in 2020.

While this particular strand of the coronavirus is new (and indeed, we’re dealing with the latest iteration right now), scientists have been studying coronaviruses and their structures, genomes and life cycles for 50 years. They had earlier research on creating a vaccine for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012 to work from.

Right now, about half of the world has received at least one dose of the vaccine. There have been over 8.47 billion doses given. Close to four billion people are fully vaccinated.

While I can understand why there would be initial concerns about COVID-19 vaccinations, after considering the sheer number of people who have been vaccinated around the world with so few side effects as we attempt to get a pandemic under control, I feel completely safe.

COVID-19 is not a TV miniseries. It’s real life. Get the vaccine. Please.

Shannon Sampert is a Winnipeg-based political scientist and the former politics and perspectives editor of the Winnipeg Free Press.

shannon@mediadiva.ca