Rick's b.log - 2022/07/11
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Eric Clapton's vaccine side effects

As I'm sure you can imagine, it's a topic that we somehow keep failing to agree to disagree about. ☺

Since I had an actual name that I could refer to, rather than vague references to doctors, I had something I could look into.

Now, the Eric Clapton case is interesting. Partly because he is clearly one of those who suffered adverse reactions to the vaccination (given his long standing prediliction for spouting anti-vaxx bollocks, this was the vaccine scoring a massive own goal), but interesting also because either he was unbelievably dumb, or his doctor was negligent.

According to NME, he suffered a "disastrous" reaction and decried the information on its safety as "propaganda".

He is quoted as writing:

I took the first jab of AZ and straight away had severe reactions which lasted ten days. I recovered eventually and was told it would be twelve weeks before the second one

Now, the vaccination is generally safe to use. However, allow me to introduce you to a schoolgirl called Paige Roffey, photo on the right. Well, she's now an adult, this happened back in 2014.
Anyway, as reported here (in Spanish, which I can sort-of understand, picture from there too), she suffered toxic shock syndrome from a tampon. She collapsed, was in a coma for two days, and the outlook was not good. But unlike the Welsh girl who sadly died, Paige did get better.

The number of people affected is small, maybe twenty a year, but the human organism is extremely complex and, yes, a teenage girl can die from something that hundreds of millions of women do on a daily basis - shoving in a tampon.

Therefore, when people say that the vaccinations are "safe", one must take this as a generalisation and not an absolute. Safe for twenty million people does not mean it won't kill you. It is extremely unlikely, but you may be the outlier. Some people had really bad reactions to the vaccination. Some to peanuts. And Paige's claim to fame? Killer tampons.
It happens.

I discussed this here on my blog when going for my own vaccinations. For me it was a very simple equation. How many people has the vaccination killed (incredibly few, probably the lower end of double digits) versus how many people has the virus killed (six and a third million and rising).

Now back to Clapton.

About six weeks later I was offered and took the second AZ shot, but with a little more knowledge of the dangers. Needless to say the reactions were disastrous, my hands and feet were either frozen, numb or burning, and pretty much useless for two weeks, I feared I would never play again

I'm sorry, but this is utter mind-numbing stupidity.
First of all, the delay between shots was not respected - the recommended dosage for the initial vaccination is two 0.5ml doses with an interval of 8 to 12 weeks. There is a reason for the delay.

It has been observed, but not really tied down, that Guillain-Barre syndrome may arise from the vaccination, which indeed may lead to some forms of paralysis or nerves getting in a nasty muddle and causing the sensations that he experienced.
But the more important thing is that the advice notes clearly state that people who have adverse allergic reactions to anything in the vaccination should not take it.

So, by his own words, he had "severe reactions which lasted ten days", and then went ahead and took the second dose in half of the planned duration.

As I said, either he's an idiot, or his doctor is negligent. In no case should somebody who has a week and a half of severe reactions go ahead and take a second dose. To do so is... madness. His body very very clearly said "No" to the first dose.

So, as you can see, the seemingly simple story of "nasty evil vaccination tries to do in one of the leading rock/blues guitarists" starts to unravel when one digs a little deeper.

As for the mRNA inside the vaccination messing with the body's DNA... I talked about this about a year ago, so I shaln't repeat it here, except to say that's not how it works.

Anybody trying to tell you that the mRNA of a vaccine can mess with your DNA and change your body is not a real doctor because they clearly don't understand how cells actually work.
Don't take my work for it, or some twat on social media... instead go see what the CDC has to say, you know, people whose job it is to be on top of stuff like this. Or failing that, just Google for "can covid vaccine alter my dna" and you'll get plenty of results by people who actually know what they are talking about explaining, in varying degrees of detail, why the mRNA in a vaccine isn't going to screw with your DNA.

As for the idea of making chemical changes in your body (the other one I've heard, since that DNA crap is slowly getting debunked), yes. The vaccination can make "chemical changes" in the body. That's kind of the entire point. You introduce an alien thingamejig, your immune system is like "oi, wait, NO!" and learns how to effectively weild a katana to cut it down where it stands (if it helps, picture Azumi - that's your immune system right there, wanna pick a fight?).

But, then, "chemical changes" is delightfully vague. Pray tell, what the hell d'you think happens in the body when you one-shot a coffee? Down a pint? Pop a headache tablet? Eat cookie dough ice cream? Wank?
All of these activities result in chemical changes in the body that alter how we feel, react, and behave. Our precise chemical makeup is changing all the time. Even in the time you have taken to read this paragraph, your body has squirted a little more pee into your bladder (yes, you ought to go now, go ahead, I'll wait) and pushed the poop a little further down the pipe, taking out the nutrients that it needs while discarding the stuff it doesn't.
Depending on your feelings towards vaccinations and science in general, you might have been "aah, somebody telling the truth" (slowing heartbeat, peaceful) or "you goddamn big pharma shill spreading nazi jew propaganda" (rising heartbeat, agitated; note I included "nazi jew" as a nod to Putin's excuse for invading Ukraine - the man obviously failed history).

Your body is a crazy balance of complex chemicals that give us the ability to sit at a keyboard and bash out tweet after shitty tweet of absolute bollocks. And then get elected President.

We are a marvel, the epitome of evolution on this planet. There is so much we don't understand, about ourselves, about our world, about our place in it, and about how we became. So please, open your eyes and try to understand as those who came before you did. If you read something on social media, or some lame-ass blog (yes, including this one) then do not accept it as truth. Look for verification.

Because, as I seem to find myself saying... one can have any number of experiments and 'proofs' to demonstrate the validity of a theory, but one needs to have only one to disprove it.
It's the same with all the hokum doing the rounds on social media. When you hear something, look for a reliable external source to corroborate. And, no, a hundred people on Twitter saying "me too" does not count. That's what is known as an echo chamber.

Whether or not you choose to get vaccinated is entirely up to you. I have no problem with that. However please base your decision on something real, and not something you heard on social media. And especially beware those calling themselves doctors as, like all the cute girls online are single guys in their forties, I think you'll find all the so-called doctors are also single guys in their forties.

Oh crap. I'm a single guy in my forties... ☺

Your comments:

David Pilling, 12th July 2022, 04:13

It's all a bit in the past now.     So much that has been said has turned out to not be quite how it is. Vaccines don't offer long term protection, nor does catching Covid. The times either protect you for are short. The greatest life saver has been that the virus has evolved to be less damaging.    Turns out there is a genetic component to how much damage the virus does - probably why it has not been such a problem in Japan as in some other places.    They've hyped this up a bit, how much you have in the way of DNA from Neanderthals makes you more at risk.    Most interesting thing I have seen is that there were a lot of unhappy people when the smallpox vaccine was made compulsory (50s). A much more effective vaccine.    If I'd had some kind of reaction to the vaccines I would feel aggrieved. But I knew of the risks in advance. Yes vaccines offer protection against serious disease, but not against passing Covid on to others, which was once a reason to get vaxxed.    Where Covid came from, lockdowns right/wrong, vaccines. All still to be determined - expect the scientists to work it out in the next 30 years.    For now much of it has trickled like sand through their fingers.

Mick , 12th July 2022, 04:28

I had an adverse reaction to AZ dose 1.It started 2 weeks after the dose. Tinnitus plus I guess a similar effect to migraine, numb left arm and scary starry grey outs. It lasted for about 2 weeks and I could barely got out of bed in that time.     I was very nervous going for dose 2 of AZ. But looking at how many had died and the fact I survived dose 1 meant I nervously took it. Besides a sore arm I had no side effects at all from or from dose 3 moderna. 18 days ago I caught COVID. I knew as I had the return of tinnitus, migraine, giddyness and to confirm, a positive latteral test. No numbness though it did feel like a sumo wrestler had bounced up and down on my kidneys and chest. No regrets having the vaccinations but I agree it is down to individual choice. Funny thing though, nobody was interested that I had Covid. So how are we still getting stats? We have to buy tests now, and there's no way to report the results. It makes me wonder how high the actual infection rate is. Keep safe!

David Pilling, 12th July 2022, 12:48

"How are we getting stats" - in the UK, the ONS have throughout been doing random testing of the population. That's as accurate as anything could be, only snag is the numbers are delayed by a week or so.

J.G.Harston, 14th July 2022, 00:09

A friend of mine had a bad reaction to her Covid vaccination, which turned out to be nothing more than her body reacting angrily to having a length of sharp glass shoved into it. You do have to realise that all medical treatment is "assaulting" the body in some form and occasionally the body in question will take objection to that assault. My body objects to having my blood flow interupted with an arm cuff and rebels by shutting down my brain.