Health Ministries || COVID & You || September 18, 2021

good afternoon everyone and happy sabbath welcome to another in the installment from our health ministries department at the andrews memorial church and this evening we'll be talking about kovid and you we want to welcome those persons who are joining us from sandy park and also those who are joining us virtually on the ejc link welcome everyone now this evening uh covered on you what's on your mind now as a background to our program this evening we actually sent out a questionnaire a survey just to find out what questions persons had and it was amazing the responses that we had so this evening we're going to be addressing those questions but before we start shall we just bow our heads forward of her please kind of loving father we want to thank you for this day we want to thank you for your blessings we thank you for life we ask that you take control of this program direct it guide what is said may everything said here represent you and your will bless all the panelists we thank you for allowing them to join us we ask for your blessings for all those persons who are listening or watching i mean they also receive a blessing we pray amen so as i said as a background to our program this evening we sent out a questionnaire and we received over 350 questions from persons who wanted to know about covid now that tells me that there is still a great need for information regarding the virus and this is why we have we're having this program this evening to try and answer some of those questions now it's not an easy task to go through all these questions so what we've tried to do is group questions together um and questions that were repeated we'll try and consolidate those and we'll try and get through to most of the questions now if you still have a burning question and you're on the youtube platform you can type that in the chat and we'll see if we can get around to your questions but as i said before we have quite a few questions this evening and we want to try and answer as many of them as possible now to answer our questions this evening we have assembled a stellar panel of healthcare professionals all experts in their various fields starting off with dr guyan he is the head of the ent department at the kingston public hospital and um well known to our church he's also a member of the sandy park community welcome dr chad then we have dr michelle hamilton who is a naturopathic physician who enjoys having the ability to share her passion for traditional health care that will enhance the health and well-being of those she meets she practices globally by telemedicine and locally in jamaica at health plus associates then a little later in our program we will have the distinct pleasure of having dr melody ennis who is director of family services at the ministry of health and wellness dr ennis needs no introduction as she is um she's a very common face on these platforms and she's the face of our vaccination drive here in jamaica so we look forward to dr ennis logging on a little later on dr patrick rotherford um is no stranger either currently he serves as a president and ceo of the andrews memorial hospital which is the own assembly adventist hospital in jamaica welcome dr rutherford and joining us shortly will be dr terry baker she is an internist and pulmonologist pulmonology means dealing with the lungs so covet is really her area of expertise she studied internal medicine at university of the west indies and also did a clinical fellowship in toronto she is also senior medical officer at a national chess hospital which is the only hospital in jamaica that deals solely with diseases of the chest so um as you can see we really have an expert panel assembled here to answer your questions so let's get more rolling and i'm gonna start with a very simple question i'm just going to throw it out to our panel what is a virus there are persons out there who don't know what a virus is what is a virus i see everybody itching to um one meal so let me let me just give you as basic as i can put it good evening everyone um welcome to the platform this evening we hope we can actually educate you um in some basic information as well as answer your question so looking at just what's a virus um it is pretty much um uh a collection of infected agent um that has a genetic code either for dna or rna is surrounded by a protein and it needs a whole cell to actually replicate and to survive hence what we see with the covalent 19 virus how it pretty much spreads so it needs actually a whole cell to just pretty much spread and to survive so that is simple enough yes it is simple enough now another question which some of us take for granted is a question of kovit there are persons out there who don't believe kovid is real now for a person who doesn't believe that this virus is real dr chana what would be your response to such a person um covet virus is real and the pandemic is real um not because persons may suggest that not because we can't see it or there are some reports about various pcr machines and whether or not these pcr machines are picking up certain things the reality is that patients who have been diagnosed with covid are being seen are being treated and some are actually dying so to stick the head in the sand right now is uh is is is is not the way to go even though it can't be seen but covet virus and the pandemic is real as it gets thank you dr chana now there's a lot of talk about the immune system and what we can do to boost our immune system doctor hamilton i'm throwing this one back to you how does one boost your immune system before contracting the covet virus um so boosting um based on naturopathic medicine it's not a term that we we like to ascribe or to encourage people to do because we know that that short term period when you try to boost you'll run really the risk of getting an infection still yet so pretty much we like to talk about repairing your immune system which takes some time and it varies for each individual so what you want to consider are lifestyle changes in terms of balancing your lifestyle because most persons when they think of boosting technically your immune system they just think of food and everything else and it ex it expands way beyond food so pretty much if you know that your immune system is not very robust and an example of that is for example for the year you contract the flu two or three times or as um simple as it may be coming across a virus you notice you start to get sick real easy and it takes you a few weeks to recover then you know your immune system needs support now i think most persons are familiar with boosting by mixing remedies at home i hear a lot about flu bombs and all of these things um so what you get is like a temporary support to some extent where you still go through the illness but because it didn't get so severe where you're hospitalized and you think you have done a good job but what you're actually doing is putting a plaster on a big wound that actually needs to be fixed so pretty much what we want to do is repair your immune system and support it because some persons need that consistent support because they have um autoimmune disease and stuff but for everyone else pretty much you want to use your diet so your antioxidant rich foods you ensure that you're eating balanced meals which is your protein your carbs and your fiber and fat you want to make sure that you exercise you want to ensure that you rest if you have a lot of stress in your life or stressful events you want to get that emotional support as well so those are like the main things so it's a little bit broader but those are the the main things i want to highlight for persons to do because once you have balancing in at least 60 of those areas your immune system would be more robust so pretty much you will be able to tell it's working because you if you come in contact with a virus you probably only would be like slight soreness of the throat or you might feel feverish um for a couple hours less than a day and it goes away which tells you that your body has mounted an immune response and it will not progress to anything else so for persons who want to boost i would more recommend repairing just assessing for yourself do you contract the flu two to three times per year if you're using these formulas and you keep on having having to do it several times in a couple months it means that your immune system needs repair and simply you just have to start by going back to a balanced healthy diet getting rest your sunlight all of that and you will start that process which now makes you not dependent on remedies or trying to boost it because it will be ready just like at the army itself always ready for battle that's how you want your immune system because you stand a better chance to deal with this virus if you're able to do so excellent thank you very much dr hamilton i see a question coming in because it's related to what we're talking about here at the very beginning i'll just throw it out um rashando asks what's the difference between a virus and a disease i'm not sure michelle wants to take that one but a disease is an abnormality as a term suggests disease it's a condition where the body is no longer at ease so it's an abnormality within the body that usually can arise from several factors one factor may be an organism in this case a virus so a virus can indeed cause a disease so the disease is a manifestation of abnormality in the body okay thanks dr chad now a common question um that's out there is um talks about whether persons who have had coveted before what their risk factors are so the question is does a person recovering from covid have the same risk of catching the virus as someone who has never been infected anyone can answer that one so if i've had covet before do i have the same risk of catching it again or can i catch it again good afternoon everyone um terry baker here hi dr baker welcome thank you um i apologize for joining late i heard a bit of the question with regard so if someone has had covet 19 if they can catch it again and the short answer to that is yes the short answer to that is yes and we do know of persons who have had cope with 90 more than once uh there are a number of reasons why this may happen one is that one you have while it is if you have coveted 19 you should be able to mount what we call an antibody response which hopefully will help to ward off further infections but because these antibodies were not too certain how long they actually stick around and after time they begin to wean that's the number of antibodies that's one and two because you have various variants associated with a variant of corbit 19 it is potentially it is it is possible to have been infected with one variant and then have a second variant an infection with another variant especially if the antibodies aren't as effective or there are other circumstances that may be that may exist that puts a person at risk of having an infection some other condition that impacts their or has a negative impact on their immune system thank you thank you dr baker and this kind of segues into my next question which i had pencil down beside your name the question is do the different variants have different symptoms and what are these differences if any thank you again dr little so it is difficult to underscore i mean the the general symptoms associated with covet 19 we know are the fever the headache sore throat body aches and pains some persons may have symptoms suggestive of a cold or sinusitis but you do have patients as well that may have diarrhea as as really are presenting factor or the most concerning symptom that they tend to have so there are variants there are over what is it i think the last time about 24 26 variants out there but you have very variants that are of greater clinical importance and interest because of the ability of these variants to to cause significant illness and so you do have some variants where the respiratory symptoms seem to be more common and then you have some persons where the diarrhea seems some diarrhea seems to be their major complaint and these have been associated yes with different variants but there's definitely an overlap in terms of symptoms associated with various with the different variants and you can't say without actually doing a test to say that this variant has diarrhea and another parent will have headache you may have a suspicion but you really have to test for it i hope that answers it answers the question yes i think that that's an excellent answer thank you dr baker um this question i directed dr channer and the person who submitted their questions said i have sinusitis and it acts up at times um i always think that i'm having covey when i have sinus symptoms how can i tell the difference say that they want to know what's the difference between um kovid or symptoms of covid and just their regular sinusitis oftentimes it may be difficult thanks to that question oftentimes it may be difficult as dr baker alluded to the fact that the presentation may vary some patients may be asymptomatic completely asymptomatic but there are several symptoms that overlap between sinus sinus issues and regular corporate the fact that corvid can influence or trigger an inflammation of your sinuses makes that overlap even um more difficult to distinguish however there may be some additional things that you may see in for example with patients one is what we call a nosmia where the patient know has reduced sense of smell and a subsequent reduction in the sense of taste as well the amount of malaise that you may have or weakness that the patient may experience maybe significantly more with the covet virus as well as opposed to a regular sinusitis issue and also one may be able to clearly identify triggers if you have your allergies or your sinuses being triggered if every time you go around a particular smell or a smoke then you're having this pathology you're having this runny nose etc but it doesn't occur when you're not around those triggers then certainly it may be more along the line of allergies and sinus issues rather than a covalent infection but there are significant overlaps uh you have to be aware of the distinction that i just mentioned plus if you have been in contact with a patient who has a confirmed positive covid uh but who has confirmed positive covert disease then that may also also clue you into the fact that you may be actually having a covalent infection thank you very very much dr channel uh this question i'm gonna throughout the um general panel the question is what are the complications of covid19 infection and how does it impact persons is moving forward it's a kind of very general question but um i'm sure you guys can handle this one what are the complications of a covid19 infection all right let me let me start the ball rolling since it predominantly hits my area first then i'll allow it to transition into the other areas so as mentioned if it initially affects your sinus and your allergies then you can have temporary or permanent us loss of your sense of smell as well as temporary or permanent loss of your sense of taste you can have a runny nose you can have all of these uh things that would arise from having a trigger in your cyanisal passages of course you'll have your fifa etc once it passes down the track the respiratory tract and the and they feed pathway the full pathway the elementary track then i'll transition into terry thank you dr channel so to add to what dr china has also said we need to think of what we know so far because a lot is evolving as it pertains to covet 19 as to the what we call the viremic phase of covet 19 when we have the virus that is multiplying and then what we look at is the dysregulated inflammatory response or what is called the cytokine storm so as dr china has said you can have this the issues in terms of the sinus related and the upper respiratory tract symptoms cobit has initially a predilection for the lungs so you can have the shortness of breath the cough symptoms of a pneumonia such as a chest pain interestingly for most of the patients the cough initially at least is a is a dry cough it may become wet and during this time too we have to wonder if there's what we call a secondary bacterial infection another you know another book and another germ coming on board however as the pandemic has unfolded we realize that it is not only confined to the airway whether it be upper or lower airway which would be the lungs but it can affect a number of different organ systems as well and we can look at it nearly from our head to toe so we have the neurological system so you have headaches i've seen persons who present with confusion drowsiness sleepiness on the background of an acute corporate infection uh going down we spoke about the shortness of breath the the cough the fetus of a pneumonia chest pain difficulty breathing we do know that it can affect the gut as we said you can have the diarrhea which can be quite a severe diarrhea associated with it you it can affect the heart so it can cause uh myocarditis that is an inflammation of the muscle of the heart so the person may be prone to having um irregular heart beats or irregular heart rhythms what we call arrhythmias and with this unfortunately some persons may have sudden death we've had persons who have had um on the background a myocardial infarction or a heart attack but more often than not it is this irregular heartbeat or arrhythmia it can affect the kidneys we've seen persons who have presented in kidney failure or during the acute or during the infection not just an infection of the lungs but also an infection the the copic virus can affect the kidneys and we've had persons who have actually had to progress to requiring dialysis hopefully short term we get quite concerned when we have somebody who has kidney failure or kidney issues on the background of corporate 19 and we can have persons presenting with strokes strokes on the background of the carbon 19 there is a risk of developing clots these clots may go to the brain and present as a stroke or you can actually have clots in the clots in the lungs what we call pulmonary emboli which going to cause even worsening of shortness of breath chest pain and oxygen levels falling all of this is with the acute covet infection as i said you can have abnormalities of a number of systems as well as within the blood having said so we need to be reminded that one not every patient will have all symptoms and most patients will have a mild disease the unfortunate thing again is that for some persons for many persons it can be a little tricky initially to to predict who will have mild moderate or heaven forbid severe covet infection thank you uh thank you dr baker follow on question which i have mark this said your name is why do diabetics seem to have the poorest outcomes thank you dr little that's an excellent question um not that we're not getting very good questions all along initially when corvid 19 um raised its ugly head their concern was for the respiratory system because that's where the virus seemingly had a prediction for and so persons who had underlying respiratory diseases such as asthma there was a great concern that these persons may actually be at greatest risk what we have seen as this the person will ask this question is that persons who have diabetes but particularly uncontrolled diabetes and for me it is yes i work in the field but the number of persons who come in with quite high glucose levels and when you speak to them no they're not taking their medication and it makes me concerned because we have recognized that persons with uncontrolled diabetes are at greater risk of having moderate to severe disease disease and sometimes uh an outcome that we would rather not see part of it could be because uncontrolled diabetes itself these persons are what we call immunocompromised meaning that their immune system is not as robust they are not able to fight an infection the high diabetes level itself creates an environment that is conducive so the bacteria are multiplying and not sorry not bacteria my bad the virus itself multiplying and subsequent spread so persons with diabetes particularly uncontrolled diabetes their immune system is not as robust and this puts them in a potentially difficult situation and at risk of having more severe disease um just to add to that if i if i may so obviously you see those same persons with uncontrolled diabetes um the receptors that we we everybody was quite familiar with here persons talking about acetyl receptors they are actually over expressed in these individuals so that that increases the capacity for the virus to actually bind as well and they generally will have a high bmi and so forth as long as they are uncontrolled so just adding that to it thanks dr hamilton i think the next question was probably yours so um good timing so this person asked since there is no cure what do you suggest covet 19 positive persons do while at home to ensure the fastest recovery um so so they're talking about home-based treatment so cope with 19 persons so first of all we want to ensure that these persons have some machines at home to check their vitals because i think there's a there's a lot of information um that is going around in terms of persons doing home-based care without i'm good guidelines so if you're positive and you're at home you should know the signs that you need to look for in case you need emergency um assistance meaning going to the hospital or contacting your health care provider even though we know our system is overwhelmed and one of them we want to pay attention to is their oxygen saturation so a lot of persons have gotten an oxymeter right but they pretty much will take risk because they don't know okay so what is the oxygen that i should look for to know when okay i don't need to be home and trying home remedies so we don't want um anything below 95 percent basically so if you have your oxymeter at home and you're positive and you're having any challenges with breathing you want to monitor that first thing um and ensure that you don't fall below 95 and you're still at home trying to do home remedies and not connected contacting your doctor or going to the hospital right home remedies will not work if it drops that low okay below 95 if you are hypertensive you want to make sure you're tracking your blood pressure as well as if you are diabetic so you want to get those basic equipment in your home to check so you're positive you're either asymptomatic or just mild symptoms um first of all we want to ensure that you're you have a lot you're hydrated so drink a lot of fluids um you want to do um broth so your vegetable broths are are fine to make at home on a daily basis ensure you get enough rest um at least 45 minutes of sunlight which also helps your immune system if you know you haven't been getting enough sunlight um and you are not you're you don't have any other um comorbidities that would restrict you from taking vitamin d we want to increase your vitamin d so outside of the sunlight you might want to get a vitamin d supplement as well you want to actually stay away from a lot of the citrus fruits because if you have any form of mucus that is building up that will also increase it so any form of citrus fruits as well as um um milks or dairy anything like that cheese anything that is in there you want to actually get those oats and sugars refined sugars you want to get all of that out of your body because if you have mild symptoms and you're still eating the same way pretty much that mucus will build up pretty fast and those symptoms could actually progress and get worse so cut out all refined foods all dairy um the citrus fruit so you want the high vitamin c but you can get that from fruits from other fruits as well so a simple thing that you can do is warm lemon water in the morning first thing to flush the system on a daily basis and then throughout the day you pretty much have your broth your vegetable broth your water still eating balanced meals and you can also add to that fish oil because you know dr baker talk about um the fact that you can get clots so fish oil or cod liver oil is fine um you can also add to that probiotics which will help to balance the gut bacteria because when they talk about um diarrhea as one of the the symptoms based on the variant so the probiotics would help very very well um and there are other home remedies um that you can do like hydrotherapy but that again is based on if you have any pre-existing condition because hydrotherapy is not for everyone especially diabetics right so you can do hydrotherapy techniques so like poultices to the throat if you have any form of irritation to the throat you can do a carrot poultice for that um and you can do what i traditionally um tell my patients which is called a wet socks treatment um pretty much you do that in the nights going to bed where you pretty much get a sock um you ensure it's cold so you can put it in the fridge wet it and put it in the freezer for about um 10 minutes get it cold warm your feet make sure it's rinded dry put that on and then put a dry sock over it and then get in bed so start with warming your feet with some warm water while the sock is in the in the freezer then you dry your feet bring out the cold socks put it on put on a dry sock over it and get in bed and that will also stimulate your immune system so that you increase your white blood cell production so in the morning if you have any upper respiratory symptoms whether it be runny nose all of that you pretty much will have that cleared up but remember the first thing you want to do is know the vitals right because you don't want to sit at home doing home remedies and put yourself at risk i know persons would want to probably hear about vitamin c and zinc i think that that has been resounding um for over a year and a half and because of what i know there are persons exceptions that persons we have what we call g6pd deficiency and persons are taking high amounts of vitamin c and some of the the the excess of that can trigger diarrhea diarrhea which can mimic symptoms of forever zinc again some of the side effects of excess zinc in the system when you don't really need it is that metallic taste in your mouth or at the same time you can get flu like symptoms or diarrhea diarrhea and a lot of person has been mounting on that so we want to stick to the basic things that are safe for home remedy and ensure that you monitor your vitals excellent excellent thank you dr hamilton dr baker anything to add to that or dr channer i think dr hamilton said it at all i'm quite i'm quite interested in the call stock treatment so but i'll speak to dr hamilton some more about that okay dr rotherford we're not ignoring you um we have some hard hitting questions for you so we kind of bowling the um the little balls no but i think later on we have some hard eating questions for you dr rutherford so we're not ignoring you um one question about um about the people who get covered a second time yes even what have been said about the immune system is it possible that some people after getting the first time continue to have lifestyle practices lack of sleep not enough hydration and do the things that run the immune system back into the ground that makes them vulnerable for the second time dr baker probably going to answer that um thanks dr ross for that that too is a is such a very important observation because yes having had corvid or even prior we know that the risk of exposure is high under certain under certain circumstances but we naturally don't know who may have kobe so we need to practice infection control measures but in addition we need to take into account what are we doing for our own immune system how are we protecting our immune system how are we bolstering our immune system so i read very recently um every bite you take is either feeding a disease or preventing a disease i may have misquoted it so we need to pay attention now to really and truly what we are eating and what we're putting in our systems uh we may not be able to to exercise in certain circumstances but exercise is also very important since the past year and a half we have what we call covet weight i was only encouraging somebody today that while yes he's staying at home and not going out and trying to avoid quotes she has gained nearly 30 pounds so she's still putting herself at risk so we need to different factors of life food exercise and i'm certain dr hamilton can speak to this natural home products remedies that we can use to bolster our immune system and prevent corvid 19 or any other viral infection that is out there we're entering flu season it is said that we've had less influenza since all of these infection control but what we don't want is like super infections so i completely agree having had corbin persons native need to pay attention to the various factors within their own lives that put them at increased risk food diet exercise sleep hydration and others thank you so much dr hamilton may comment on some of the she did say how things boost the immune system but natural things and there are all sorts of other natural products out there but again it must be done in moderation and in case you don't know with guidance because people have been taking thousands of milligrams of vitamin c every day and saying and as dr hamilton has indicated it is not as innocuous as we think thank you dr baker now going back to um some very basic public health principles someone is asking the question how does hand washing and sanitization kill the virus um so i can take the first go and then lock the channel we can follow um so pretty much think about it so we talk about um the the covid um 19 virus being transmissible um pretty much in terms of um your respiratory system right and we talk about why you're wearing your mask while you wash your hands so pretty much if you think about it when you sneeze you cough you pretty much um will have some escape of whatever is in the um the upper respiratory system so based on the fact that it's a virus right whenever you sneeze and cough it has a lipid bilayer that pretty much if you think about washing off your hands with just water that's pretty much not enough but when you add soap to that you actually get to remove it so the frequent hon hand washing helps you one in case you touch a surface that has the virus or you sneeze or are you covering up you pretty much get to wash it off but also you protect yourself because we all you know inadvertently we just touch all over we scratch our ears put our hand there puts at the corner of your eye so when you keep washing your hand you prevent that transfer of that virus back into your body through your respiratory system as the soap is able to bind um the virus from your hand and you actually get to wash it off that's one of the the a simple way i can explain it um dr channel or um dr baker if you want to add to that i'll chime in a little bit considering the forum beat from the adventist church predominantly just to mention that some of these strategies have been around for for quite a lot of decades and several thousands of years because these are some of the same things that we see being used in leviticus with the children of israel and um so it's not too strange and it's not against principle to wash hands to cover your mouth to isolate to quarantine these are all things that have been practiced from leviticus 12 13 14 uh coming forward particularly with the cases that they had then so it it it speaks to the fact that um i'll put in a particular way science is catching up with god in terms of how he deals with certain things and as you alluded to before dr hamilton the virus itself really requires a host so if you can reduce how well the virus actually gets and maintains a host that you'll reduce how well the virus can multiply and subsequently cause a disease thank you very much dr chandler and i think since you are on i'm gonna ask you the next question i'm gonna boil this one to you so um the other day i was i was walking into my department at work and the security guard at the door was listening to a video about steaming and um what was being portrayed was that you needed to steam several times a day and define temperatures and that kind of stuff and this was going to kill the virus within your respiratory system so i think this ties into the question which one person um asked in the forum it says is steaming really useful and what should i use to steam and then another person asked how does menthol crystals prevent virus spikes from latching on to your mucous membrane so maybe you can answer both questions together the usefulness of steaming watch if you steam what you should use and what's the what's the um role of mental crystals i i see you're warming up no gerard yeah man we're balling some serious deliveries now um so statistically from research there there there was a research done several decades ago that confirmed that utilizing simple things like salt water saline sprays in your nostril can reduce how well the virus will latch on and subsequently produce an infection and a virus and a disease we advocate flushing off the nostrils sometimes after sinus surgery in order to minimize infections as well and um so it would not be far-fetched that it can be utilized for viruses full disclosure i try to flush my nose as when i can with my saline as well because i'm overexposed the reality is that the virus requires a host as dr hamilton said and if it can't get into my body or not just get in if it gets in my nostril if it can't spend enough time there to replicate then certainly would have a reduced chance of causing an infection so anything that reduces the viral attachment multiplication and eventual getting into your blood would be helpful this can be as simple as saline sprays if you want to go forward and use mental crystals or steam inhalation i don't see that as being anything that would uh make it any worse however i would advise oftentimes when persons are utilizing homemade remedies for the first time they can go really overboard you know he tells somebody that they must have some garlic tea and they pop six cloves of garlic garlic and try to drink it at the same time but in the same way you tell someone steam inhalation they stand right over the pot on the stove and think okay i'm killing the virus and and they burn all the lining of the nostril and all the lining of the throat so it has to be done with education as dr baker said you certainly must educate yourself as to what's the best thing for you and not everything can be utilized in the way you think it can be utilized i've seen persons with oral burns from trying to gargle with piping hot water to reduce coronavirus and um at the end of the day that just makes it worse so certainly um anything that can be used to flush the nasal passage i'll call it the power wash whether it's with saline or with steam inhalation or with mental crystals mental crystals i think there's a local study that looked at mental crystalline coronavirus and and and that had some benefit to it certainly none of these things make it worse so and there seems to be some benefit from it and it's pretty a cheap and and available modality so i have no problems with asking someone to use that if they should choose so if someone asked for that yes go ahead dr um so um everything that dr china just said that is perfect especially the part about persons will harm themselves because when they think about steaming they'll actually put the pot on the fire and go over it and that's very careful you really need to know what to do the um on the other caution i'll add to that is in terms of the mental crystal you have to to to remember that you can have synthetic grade as well as the one that we know which is the best one that comes from the essential oil such as peppermint so i would prefer persons know um the type of mental crystals um that they're actually getting what is it derived from so the essential oil from the peppermint um would be the best one to actually get if you can't get that you can use eucalyptus oil as well just a few drops and that would also do the trick but some persons may have allergies as well so if you're not sure um pretty much you want to know that before you try if not and you have any form of allergies because you don't want to irritate the sinuses and then you end up with more of a problem you can pretty much do the saline wash it is just as um effective and you know if you have that allergy because sometimes you have certain products because uh menthol is in a lot of products your toothpaste chewing gum can it's not a lot of things so you'll already know if you have some form of allergies so that may not be the root for you you can use the eucalyptus oil but it actually is very helpful so the only caution is pretty much make sure you know what to do in terms of the procedure so that you don't harm yourself piggybacking dr hamilton i i also find oregano to be pretty decent as well for some persons um it's uh it's not a common thing that's seen that we have here but it can actually be ordered and utilized it's uh it's pretty decent for the sinuses as well yes so the for the oregano though i know what persons are doing is actually taking it internally they're using the oregano essential oil and that is hepa toxic it's so in short form it will become toxic in your liver so by within a year time we're going to have a lot of persons turning up in office with liverpool just for inhalation just for you right so i don't that's what i'm saying most persons for the oregano what they're actually doing is taking it internally on a daily basis so for the steam inhalation you're fine but not for the doses that you're recommending that you take on your tongue and swallow not for essential oil oregano essential oils should not be taken internally but the oil itself is the extract from the plant not the the process used for the essential oil that is generally a capsule which is safe so stimulation and the capsule of the oil extract from the plant but not the essential oil for internal use definitely not thank you very much dr hamilton so on friday i was out in bog walk and um i came across a gentleman and um because i was in the outdoors and i wasn't close to anyone i wasn't wearing my mask my mask was in my pocket and he passed me and his first comment was i'm happy that you're not wearing one of those blue masks because those blue masks are killing people so um i said really and i continued what i was doing and he had something to do as well but um when we were both finished what we were doing i decided to have a conversation with him and um one of the things that came up one of the things that i mentioned in the conversation was a pandemic and he said what pandemic this is a pandemic and he went on to tell me about bill gates and what they're doing to try and decrease the population and how doctors have been given instructions to um by the minister of health to kill people in hospitals to decrease the population you name it the conversation went like that so for those persons online who don't believe that there is a pandemic can one of our panelists define what a pandemic is and and tell us you know are we in a pandemic or is this a planned day it's a serious question because there are persons out there who believe what the strength man said terry that sounds like you thank you dr channel right um so i don't want to to to give away my age but let me just say that i have been a doctor sufficiently long enough um let me see if i can do some math here i am uh an internist and a pulmonologist since what what years is 21 2021 so this so i'm clear approaching being an internist itself about 18 19 years oh my goodness time flies and i uh a pulmonologist from about 2006 2007 and a registered doctor from about class of 1995. nobody do the math right no math this is not math here having said so i work at national chest hospital i have never in my whatever calculation years of medicine have seen anything like this i have passed to h1n1 when i say i i have been around we have lost colleagues and friends and friends of friends and family members to each one in one some persons may be aware of stars um the earlier stars infection i don't think jamaica was really significantly impacted it was more north america um that was impacted pandemic has behind it a number of theories as to what is going on when we have a pandemic what we have is a widespread global significant disease affecting a large percentage of persons and this is what we're seeing we may we may sit here until tomorrow trying to theorize where it came from where what started it if it was out of a lab if it was from man eating uncured wild meat um but all sorts of theories are out there whether or not it is aliens who have brought it you have so many theories coming across what we do know is that we have a virus that we have not experienced before that a large percentage of persons don't have the immunity against and as such they are becoming ill we will we recognize that the majority of persons thankfully will recover and if we're even looking at two to three percent of persons having severe illness when you talk about how widespread this disease is i don't think there's a country in this world that has has been left unaffected yes some countries that created severity than other when you talk about two to three percent of persons who get the corporate 19 having severe disease and a significant increase risk of death it is frightening and that is what we're seeing right now so i can't say pandemic i don't know who would plan such a thing and that is what it is it is the implication of the word plandemic but certainly we do have a pandemic and we have right here in jamaica thousands of people being affected and i dare say the numbers that we see recorded um coming through the ministry of health i would say is an underestimation of numbers because we do know that you have persons who are ill and for various reasons have not sought medical attention but whether it is an underestimation or not the numbers themselves right here in jamaica right throughout the caribbean are cause for concern thank you does anyone else have a comment on this pandemic or pandemic there are other persons who ask whether this is man-made or natural that's another popular question anybody else wants to weigh in on this one yeah sure i want to tackle it by the horns um i'm kind of a straightforward straight shooter guy the reality is that at this present moment in time we are still trying to figure out whether it was a chinese guy or a black guy who invented the light bulb the fact of the matter is it don't really matter we turn on a switch and the light comes on when it's a plandemic or pandemic it is here where still random theory hiv was made or was made in a lab or came from monkeys it doesn't matter the reality is that it's here and if it's here then we have to deal with it full stop i like that guy i like that i think it was a black guy who did the ball though okay um okay let me see what my next question is here um [Music] let's switch gears a little bit and let's start talking about vaccines what is a vaccine and how do they work how are vaccines developed i know dr ennis isn't on yet but i'm sure our panel can easily handle this question what is a vaccine i see terry opened up but anyway [Laughter] go ahead go ahead simply put a vaccine is um usually a substance whether it be so we know all the oral polio drops those were vaccines as well that when given stimulate a person's immune system to mount an immune response this is usually in the absence of disease so it's not that the person has the disease which has caused antibodies to be formed but rather a substance is given often times it may have cellular material or um parts of the the offending agent structure makeup which then stimulates the person's own immune system to mount antibodies so that in the event the person comes in contact with the offending virus then they can effectively mount a response and um prevent severe or [Music] severe disease having said so we hear all sorts of stories going on oh i took the copic virus and i still got still got the corvette 19 infection as i said before the vaccines are there to mount a response and help prevent persons from having severe disease and particularly if we blow away what i call are the fourth that surrounds the corvid 19 vaccines vaccines are really there to also help your innate immune system right so it is not to be taken in isolation and or take the vaccine so i don't have to i don't have to wear a mask i don't have to sanitize i don't have to pay attention it is there as one barrier in helping to fight the infection and as i said to fight the infection it is not what we do hope is that persons will not have severe disease if it is that they do take the vaccine i don't know if that answers even part of it but as i said a vaccine is a substance when taken and many vaccines are injectables you don't have oral vaccines will stimulate the person's immune system to monitor response and immune response to help fight the infection dr baker following on on from your answer uh someone online ask a question this was um mach 2 which is better natural immune natural immune system or vaccine so you might have to clarify a few things in answering that question which is better natural immune system or vaccine that's one of the questions of the decade so intuitively we would think that natural immunity should be better what's the difference between natural immunity and vaccines in natural immunity someone has been exposed whether to the virus bacteria or the offending agent and their own innate immune system having recognized this this invader as i said could be a virus could be a bacteria now uh mounts a response so they produce what we call antibodies and those antibodies are circulating they may remain a little quiet in the event the person is exposed again then they become active and hopefully will fight and help prevent um an infection or severe infection so in a nutshell that is natural immunity versus vaccine um what we get from vaccines so you can have someone who has never had had the virus here we're speaking about never been exposed to the virus their innate immune system that's their own immune system has not been exposed so they don't they don't have these circulating antibodies to help fight but then they get the vaccine and because a vaccine may have particles or or parts of the virus that then stimulate their immune system to to produce antibodies so that's not natural it is coming from from because a person has been given the vaccine whether one is better than the next is is very moot very controversial right now and you have studies that have said well natural immunity will win you also have waning of um of immunity on the background of having received the vaccines we would have heard of countries that are given booster shots having um given the vaccine uh eight months ago so we do know that both will win the question is which one will mount a more robust response and which of these responses will last longer whether natural or or vaccine-mediated and only recently i think it was a few weeks ago there was a study suggested that natural immunity may last longer and may offer um greater protection against some of the variants that are coming out but it's still very controversial still very moot and still on the research i never had something in here in terms of oh sorry go ahead a quick a quick illustration um uh a vaccine okay a alt-right case having contracted the case it's like burglars breaking into your house and you have no defense and you have to take time to to build up you may have defense you may get them out eventually and you return to normal a vaccine is showing in your immune system a picture of your enemy ahead of time that it creates a memory of what that enemy looks like so when the enemy knocks at your door you don't let him in finished i like that lots of other ones if i if i me thank you um just to add to that and i think dr channel is going to help me out with this one too um i said with the adventists we we we we talk about health and the health message so when i when i just listen to the question and the responses i have to also defend the fact that look natural immunity is for our purpose it protects us and hence that is why we have um persons who are asymptomatic or very mild symptoms right because their immune systems are robust and that comes from practicing our balance in your lifestyle in general with a healthy diet um you know having good coping mechanisms for stress um your exercise all of that social relationships everything so natural immunity is important now in terms of what we see that's happening and how vaccines come in so for persons with robust immune system that's great but you have others who through just um conditions diseases that they may be diagnosed with over the years their immune system is not as robust and vaccines are actually preventative medicine so in essence in in terms of what we're experiencing of a pandemic the vaccines would actually help in the sense that for persons who have not been exposed you're you're trying to get to herd immunity right and pretty much the vaccines will help that and i think dr rutherford you gave a good example right so if we are able to to make a vaccine that can get us to hurt immunity it means that those with the robust immune system what right with that good um immune system pretty much would be asymptomatic but then they can still spread it and hence that's what we're seeing the others would be protective um if we have a vaccine to get to that starter so less lives are lost we can go back to normal lifestyle but if we do have good immune system in terms of our innate immune system then that would be excellent because then these viruses just like the common flu that comes and go each year and and persons don't miss i mean a lot of persons do die um from the flu but nevertheless the natural immune system i would have to say you want to ensure that your immune system is robust and i would have to put a plug for natural immune system because if 90 of the world um immune system was pretty much um not very good i think we have seen a greater loss of person so far because it's what 90 about 99. um 99.5 percent of persons who recover doctor chanaya can help me from kobe right and it is really those with immunocompromised systems with these lifestyle diseases that are hardest hit and over 65 as well because we do know that you have immuno senescence as you get older the immune system also will age and especially if you didn't have a very healthy lifestyle going into to old age it pretty much will be much faster thank you very much dr hamilton i see that dr melody in is just logged on welcome dr ennis nice to have you we realized that you're on a very busy schedule so we appreciate you joining our platform now can you believe it we have been on the platform for just over an hour how time flies and i don't think we have gone through 100 questions yet and we have 350 questions so let's kind of keep things up a little bit quick responses so this question asked how do i prepare myself um what do i do to prepare and recuperate after receiving the vaccine how soon after can i resume my rigorous and vigorous exercise routine dr ennis you wanna tackle that one what do i do to prepare for receiving the vaccine okay let's give doctor a few more minutes to get herself set uh one of our other panelists want to take that one out can i give it a try go ahead dr hamilton i know you can do more than try okay so if you're if you're considering taking the vaccine you pretty much want to ensure that you get enough rest at least a few weeks ahead of time depends on where you are and the vaccine bits you want to make sure that you get a good enough rest before that you want to make sure that your diet is pretty healthy right because remember the vaccine will stimulate an immune response which we we technically know inflammation especially as adventists we we understand what inflammation will do inside the body and it's going to stimulate that immune response so pretty much get enough rest make sure you're eating healthy um where your diet is concerned increase antioxidant-rich foods which is like your um your fruits your vegeta vegetables all of that um um healthy oils like your fish oil coconut oil all of these things you want to increase that so pretty much your body is able to so more likely you would mock the response but you have limited or no side effects after taking the vaccine so i recommend doing that at least three weeks ahead of time before going and and taking the vaccine and if you have um other comorbidities then you will probably need a little bit more guidance okay thanks dr hamilton now i'm very just sorry may i just jump in here a little thoughts a little yes go ahead in terms of preparing to take the vaccine i will caution people because we've seen unfortunately a few persons who are feeling ill and have opted at that time to go and take the vaccine so if anyone is feeling ill having respiratory symptoms um even if they have a previous history of having sinus or allergic rhinitis or you know sniffles if this is something unusual if they're having a fever if they're having if they're just feeling very tired and lethargic that is not the time to have the vaccine not when you are ill and this is not unique to corvid 19 vaccines so it's not that this is some weird and wonderful vaccine that oh if if you're feeling ill you can't take that is the recommendation for all vaccines if you are feeling ill at that time you don't take the vaccine thank you dr baker now a very common question that's asked and i think a common mis misconception that is out there is that if i take the vaccine my risk of getting coveted is no different than if i didn't take the vaccine so this person asked why can a vaccinated person still be infected with covid19 do vaccinated persons have the same risk of contracting the virus as an unvaccinated person why not um so the question was um can a vaccinated person get the osiris or i can just repeat similar to me why can a vaccinated person still be infected with covid19 all right what reduces covid19 disease is your ability to resist the virus the ability to resist the virus is dependent on antibodies that's within your system antibodies that's within your system is dependent on one how well you have maintained your immune system for a while or whether or not you have pre-manufactured antibodies those pre-manufactured antibodies may be due to having contracted covet before or having a vaccine being given to you um there's another question in the chat that was asking about why do persons who have had cope with me sometimes need a vaccine even within our own sphere at university hospital they have an ongoing um um research looking at persons who have had code with vaccine and trying to utilize the antibodies from those individuals to help the critically ill persons and what they realize is that not everyone maintains a high level of antibody production so they're persons who have had covet naturally and over time their antibody levels may win to the level that they don't necessarily offer much protection to another covid infection that's the reality that's that's that's that's statistics that's not hearsay no if if an individual has um has received the vaccine to boost their antibody levels so that that could be the disparity that we see sometimes where vaccinated persons are unvaccinated persons may still catch cover because it depends on whether or not there's a sustained antibody level to reduce their risk of catching the virus again are catching the disease again um there's another part of the question sherard sorry as so the quest the other part of the question was do vaccinated persons have the same risk of contracting the virus as unvaccinated persons it's a difficult question to answer because many persons who contract the virus remain symptom asymptomatic means that they have no symptom so if you're to look at a cohort of persons and say okay these persons contracted the virus you'll be mainly basing it off the persons who became symptomatic what has been suggested statistically would be that persons who are vaccinated even if they catch the virus they themselves have a less likely chance of having um of of dying or having seriously ill infection that's what the statistics suggest but to suggest that um to have a figure to suggest what percentage of persons for vaccinated will catch the virus are percentages who are unvaccinated it will be difficult because some persons to remain asymptomatic okay any of any of the other panelists want to lean on this one if i if i may just add um if you look at and if we even go back to what dr westerford had said remember being exposed to the virus so it's not that the the vaccine is putting a shield around us like a force field right so really for the vaccine to to to start to work after it has helped to produce antibodies it would have had the person would have had to be exposed no to the virus but it has entered their nasal passages enter the lungs so that person is not that the virus cannot enter it is once it enters what is going to happen and that is why we have seemingly quite a number of persons who have had the vaccine who may have asymptomatic disease because having entered if the vaccine is on board we don't have to rush and make these antibodies no but they're they're ready to attack and so that person hopefully will have less severe disease because the antibodies are already sitting there waiting for in the event that they are exposed to help to fight it i don't know if if that sort of in other words having the vaccine somebody can still get the virus but because the antibodies are there it will quickly the the whole hope is that it will quickly help to contain the virus and hence the person won't have severe disease when vaccines were made the manufacturers declared from their testing that is a level of efficacy and it ranged between 87 and 95 depending on what vaccine you looked at and as we have been going through the through the epidemic more information is coming out of these various strains you're realizing that um efficacy is not as as strong with the delta virus as it was with the previous strains so what is that is saying to us is that getting a vaccine is not a guarantee that you will never ever get prove it again it is saying that um there is a strong percentage way over 50 of a chance that you won't get sick from this getting this disease um and the other piece that you have to take into account is um what they're looking at now is how many people who have been vaccinated wind up in hospital get sick enough to be hospitalized and the the on the i i don't know what the numbers are right now but i've been keeping in touch with my friends in the states that i've been health and and they tell me that the vast majority of people who wind up in hospital are people who were unvaccinated can i take it back a little bit just just um i mean mindful of the forum and mindful of the audience the suggestion therefore is that having a robust immune system is the best way to go and there are different ways of you know making sure your immune system is robust as as as michelle had alluded to their their their natural ways to try to improve i'm trying to remember the word she used um your immune system um but having said that it's very difficult therefore for statistics to capture that group statistics to capture the group of individuals who have a robust immune assist immune system versus um vaccinated versus unvaccinated but we're not going down that route um the reality is that they are to try to improve your immune system overnight if you have spent decades of harassing your body is like getting up tomorrow um jogging a 5k and think you can take on usain bolt it's not gonna work so as in the best possible way even though you have the methodology to improve your immune system if you're starting off at the ninth or you may not get there in time but it doesn't mean that it's not important to do so but you don't want to overestimate your defenses either thank you dr chana now um in my conversation which i i alluded to on friday i indicated to the person who was speaking with that um i had taken a vaccine and his comment to me was um well in six months my organs are going to start to fail and um within two to five years i would be dead um my comment to him was okay we'll mark this point and in five years i'm gonna meet you right back at this location all being well um but this is a real concern out there persons believe that vaccines are gonna cause multiple organ failure and that you're going to die after taking the vaccine so a question that was asked in the group these aren't made of questions these are questions that persons have submitted what effects will vaccines have on our bodies in the next two to five years can we even answer that question um so i can share a little bit in terms of what i've been seeing coming out in research and um most of this is pretty much out of australia and other areas so what we can see um pretty much by looking at the content that are actually in the vaccine um we do know that it will stimulate um the immune system and there would be some inflammation but some of the contents in the actual um vaccine itself although they're similar for all the other vaccines we have um been able to ascertain from that that for some persons who are pretty much don't have a very robust immune system with underlying conditions if they continue on that path meaning that for example lifestyle diseases right these persons continue to practice the same health principles not um taking care of themselves and not managing these conditions well um we see that increased risk for autoimmune disease later on um there's also reports of neurological symptoms and in the short term for persons who are over 50 there's a recurrence of herpes zusta but these are persons which have very weak immune systems over 50 and under a lot of stress per se but for now it's mainly autoimmune disease that they are seen for the future based on health history of persons and what we're currently seeing in in the in the health stratosphere so far but anything else outside of that um i have not seen anything in the research indicating that okay thank you any other comments on this uh good afternoon i welcome dr ennis hi i did recall seeing a document out of australia as well that was speaking to autoimmune conditions and i believe they made mention of multiple sclerosis very interesting because the article went on to say that these persons who may develop multiple sclerosis had a predisposition and they are not sure at all if the vaccine accentuated or accelerated or made it any worse it is just that it was identified so there's a temporal relationship so you get the vaccine and within the time frame that you receive the vaccine you actually begin to show signs and symptoms so it's they have not attributed cause they have indicated that it is indeterminate and i see dr hamilton read all of the article as well that it's indeterminate so it's not a cause and effect it is just temporal that it is associated with because of the timing of receiving the vaccine so we're still not clear if it is a cause but it is something that we continue to watch thank you dr ennis uh another question and dr nsl just bore this one to you right away um when persons um get covered uh it is recommended that they not be vaccinated at the same time the person is asking is it that a vaccine amplifies the effect of the disease should all persons be tested for covid prior to receiving vaccination so let's try the end part of the question first no you don't need to be tested uh the way vaccines work is really just to make our bodies or prime our bodies as you have been told just to prime our bodies to be able to have those germ-fighting foods our antibodies ready that when the germ comes in it doesn't take a long time for it for them to develop so that they can fight now if you are already sick and i think dr baker mentioned this already if and this is for all vaccines we don't give ill people vaccines remember when you carry your child to the health center or to the doctor for their childhood vaccines if the child has an elevated temperature child is vomiting child is irritable the nurse or doctor is going to say to you wait until the child is better so we don't give sick people at all now if you mask the disease by you take your paranoia like you take your cough mixture and you come and get the vaccine the vaccine is not therapeutic it is not going to change the course of the disease at all so whatever would have happened to you is going to happen to you the vaccine neither makes it worse or makes it better so you have coving you take the vaccine the life of covid is going to continue the vaccine is not having any effect at all uh so that's the that's the effect part and then of course just to go back on testing for none of the vaccines that we give we test for the disease so when you are when you are born and you get your tb shot uh your bcg at birth we don't test you for tuberculosis when you get to a year and we're giving you measles mums and rubella we don't test you okay so it is not customary it is not necessary because vaccines don't give you the disease or make you have any untoward effect uh from the disease thank you dr ennis i know that there are several vaccines now available in jamaica we have the astrazeneca then um pfizer is now available which a lot of our children over um 12 over 12 are receiving and the johnson and johnson is also available and hopefully other vaccines will be available in the future but this person wants to know what is the difference between astrazeneca and the other vaccines can you kind of quickly summarize you know a few points here a few points or the person wants to know what what's the difference between these vaccines and maybe by extension which one should should i take well the the difference between all the vaccines has to do with the platform that is used to make the vaccines but irrespective of the path you take to get to the vaccine the end result is the same to stimulate the body to form germ fight into so that's we put that at the back of our minds that that is there their function is the same irrespective so you know if you drive a toyota or honda you're still going to get to duns river falls it's just the type just a different platform that you use so the viral vector technology which is what astrazelica uses it uses a virus that has been purified and cored out so you just basically have a shell and that shell is there it's inert or it can do no harm so you have that shell and then what they do now is take the genetic coding of the spike so everybody know how coronavirus looks it has these spikes coming off so it takes a little piece of the genetic code of the spike protein and it puts it inside of that inert vector which is the virus that has been purified and they add some salt and some sugars uh some alcohol and they make that into the vaccine and give it to us so that's the viral vector technology and then you have the messenger rna technology now which is like our pfizer and moderna and what they do is a similar genetic coding of the spike protein that is used but this time it is placed into fat a fat particle and the fat particle is what is called the nanoparticles it is placed into this envelope of fat and that is what uh helps of course there's still add salts and some alcohol again some sugars and that is what makes up so the difference is just the platform one uses a viral vector one uses a nanoparticle and we could go by extension sign of arm is coming cynopharm is another vaccine that has been approved by who and cyanofarm now uses the weakened version of the virus so they use said uh coronavirus but they have weakened it so it won't cause any disease and they use that to make sign of harm uh but at the end of the day be it live attenuated weak conversion be it uh messenger rna the viral vector they stimulate our bodies to make germ-fighting tools thank you doctor innis i think this is gonna be rapid fire questions from you from here on so um another question came in they asked do the available covet vaccines alter your dna that's a very common question and then by extension what is the impact on the v-max 2 gene which some persons refer to as a god gene i'm sure you have heard about that one i i have heard about them but let's go let's go to the first part uh the vaccines do not alter our dna the vaccines uh don't cross over into our nucleus where our genetic material is stored uh the vaccines also once the message is transcribed once they tell our bodies what to do they actually disintegrate they have started to do some studies out of italy and china looking at how long the the vaccine itself actually stays in the body and in the majority of cases it is we get rid of it in two hours and they have found that the longest so far is about 48 hours so there is no residual vaccine inside of our bodies to to cause any problem at all to interfere or interact with any one of our proteins uh dr hamilton you're smiling so you can help me so there is no interaction at all the the the vaccines are very specific they are targeting our immune system to make just the right antibodies or germ fighting tools for covid19 for nothing else just covey 90. that's it dr ennis the the god speak about the god because there are persons out there who believe that by taking the vaccine you're going to not want to have that inclination to serve god it's gonna um change how we feel about worship and all that kind of stuff dr china you're laughing this is really enough people ask these questions because they have concerns i well the science of the vaccine doesn't alter any of our genes at all be it they got gene or otherwise uh the power of the mind i believe remains very strong and we are directed by our thoughts if our thoughts remain pure and the vaccines can't make our thoughts impure so if our thoughts remain pure our actions are steadfast then i cannot see any way that our faith or our faith in any way will be shaken uh so there is no science to it and the subjective side of it once we are strong and steeped in our faith then we will continue to serve the lord as we should thank you after that that the um the thinking that whether human or any other being can separate us from god is is saying god is not strong enough uh it is it is not possible for any force to wrench us from the hand of god unless we say okay god goodbye i'm going to check this out i see a look on your face like okay so so when you read scripture when you when you get the basis of the christian faith it says if you believe in jesus christ you are saved he says either cometh to me i will know why it's cast out okay and it is therefore impossible for satan or man to invent anything that's going to take us out of the hand of god that's our faith thank you very much [Laughter] um so in the field of naturopathic medicine we we focus a lot on epigenetics and we believe that we can pretty much change our genes in terms of diet and lifestyle right so you may be predisposed with a lifestyle disease say diabetes or hypertension if you change the way you heat your lifestyle then pretty much you don't necessarily have to become a diabetic or hypertensive right and we can alter that with food um so i'm going to play the devil's advocate here for a little bit so the doctor says the devil doesn't need any advocates so i'm about late 1970s right we have been working on this mrna technology right but you know quite a lot of persons don't really know about it and we know that we have foods that are genetically modified right and there's a lot of science and research beyond that um you know how that has changed your diet and what are some of the effects of of some of these foods now the crispr technology which i know persons would have posted questions on that the crispr technology which um i think her name is like jen dr jennifer dodena she got the nobel peace prize for that technology a few years ago um we understand that that technology um creates a lot of opportunities in the future for how to treat disease um because it pretty much is able to um insert uh the dna code for different diseases and they have i think successfully treated someone with um sickle cell disease um a while back with the crispr technology now in regards to the the companies that make the vaccine right going back to the whole um era of epigenetics know that if you change the way you eat all of that you can change your outcome in terms of lifestyle disease so if we look at the fact that we do have that technology the crispr technology which has been here for quite some time um and what it can actually do and we know that we have genetically modified um foods currently in our in our global market now the technology is really aimed at curing disease and i understand based on the research that's there they want to be able to use it to cure diabetes and hypertension hence they understand that there's a dna code for persons who have um diabetes and hypertension and they're thinking that that's the new way now to work on treating these conditions by snipping out that particular gene and inserting another gene which um pretty much doesn't predispose the person or if they're diabetic cures diabetes now my only thing with that is that we know that it's a lifestyle disease right and if you change all you eat you pretty much can reverse it as well as control it so if we're trying to say that the the the dna code you can insert it and take to snip out that gene i think that we're going a little bit too far now which which probably has led to a lot of personal focusing on this be mad gene the god gene but it's pretty much your pineal gland and you've been able to um have enough melatonin there for sleep and if you know if you don't get enough sleep obviously that's a lot of health conditions can ensue from that right so person's worrying about the the v map gene if we just look at epigenetics alone right you come to a relationship a saving relationship with god and because of that connection right it gets you to make right choices right which improves your health um improves their mental well-being so i wouldn't be too concerned about that because in essence um just understanding what god does to your brain god's science pastor rutherford you like this what just understanding or meditating on the word of god does just understanding that going to church meetings reading your bible studying all of that changes your brain creates new neural network the damages that has occurred throughout the week all of these things that is the power of meditating on the word of god so i wouldn't worry too much about that part of it because god expands way beyond that and in terms of our human form and how we are created no matter what we do as men as as human beings in terms of trying to destroy god is the maker and there is an end to all of this anyways i wouldn't worry too much about that in itself but yes we do have technology that can insert something we're not saying that the vaccine is inserting anything of course right because pretty much as dr edison says that it has the the dna that protein from the the um the coronavirus itself this type protein that is inserted but the technology has been used is how to treat the coronavirus in itself by trying to target or a lot of body to express um these antibodies pretty much the antibodies that when you come in contact with the virus you pretty much don't get sick from it so it's a new method of treating disease or viruses per se but i wouldn't worry too much about this v martin controlling us our changing our inclination to god not a little can i can i borrow your hat for a sec go ahead go ahead and i'll throw something directly at pasta rutherford just just so it doesn't get lost in the conversation in five seconds passed is the vaccine the mark of the beast it is not all right perfect in five seconds again there's a there's a question that was asked if a christian takes a vaccine does that mean they don't have faith in god absolutely not um if you look at revelation 13 where the mark of the beast is mentioned i think in verse 4 5 and verse 18 24 in both instances it talks about worship the mark of the beast is about who you worship and and there's no vaccine they can give you the force to worship somebody else thank you very much dr rutherford we need to us we need to again acknowledge the um our viewers from sandy park and also ejc um their platform no dr rutherford i have your questions here all lined up i hope you um have marked out your wicket uh marked out um your crease you have your pads on your gloves everything back in hand but in her okay so first one for you dr rutherford it says why has a church made a public health issue a determinant of my faith in god and salvation i i think that's a personal perspective for someone that um that interprets the situation that way there are varying views uh about the vaccine within the church community and i i can't give you i'm going to say to say what percentage are pro vaccine what percentage of anti-vaccine but people have different arguments that they go by to justify their position um the church the seventh-day adventist church has historically had a health message uh we have we're one of the most heavily invested uh church in the world in healthcare and healthcare facilities followed the science and and all the science in all our medical institutions saying that we have on our hands a pandemic and as christians we are to be saving lives this thing is killing people and our job is to save lives that's why we're in healthcare not not just spiritualized physical lives needs to be saved it's compassion it's a good samaritan act and so um from my perspective what i what i see happening is there are individuals who are with an opinion and and i have to hastily say the way this whole thing rolled out with the coming of the coronavirus and the various information from so you know people were experts or whatever there was a lot of uncertainty associated with it um which which reality is something new and we didn't know it was uh there were there's some mixed messages uh about mask wearing and not wearing masks and and those kind of things that came out first and um as things had clarified um people a lot of people didn't follow the clarifications that came afterwards they they handled the old stuff and they have they have questions and concerns and feel that their brains are being manipulated by you know individuals who have secondary agendas um or other agendas besides simply saving lives but but i can assure you from the from the depth of the heart of the adventist community that are involved in health care and the official done of the 70 adventist church the vaccine is a one of the tools that god has given to us to save lives thank you dr rutherford another question running around the same theme um this person says why is the safety adventist church so divided on the matter of the corona virus some senior reps of the church are encouraging the population to get vast while others are discouraging it and the person goes on to say that my husband watch a documentary presented by a certain presenter and team and he is more confused than convinced okay thanks so much why so much division partly because in religious communities because everybody has a bible and uh and can read the scriptures everybody is a theologian and and people think that because they understand some aspect of theology they understand everything that's happening in the world and they try to use their understanding of theology to interpret everything else prophecy and this and that this means that that means that and they forget the fundamental that our faith is boned in god and and god is the only one that knows everything okay so so back to the controversy the the challenge we have and the ministry of health has a challenge the church has that challenge the challenge we have is that there are so many people in social media who are claiming to be experts some say they are doctors and and and when i read or listen to what they have to say i i said to myself i don't know if this person that basic course in science because there's no way they could be a doctor i mean talking that kind of stuff but they have these claims and because in social media you don't have to show a certificate you don't have to do anything and and people who when they hear things that their fear tells them they should they should follow they follow it and they think it's gospel because they heard it on social media and people are sharing these things and and also you know from from where you and i said we understand the process of research and and what it takes to get to a place where something is is considered efficacious or not efficacious um the general public don't understand a lot of what that is what goes into that research and so anybody who comes up and say i'm an expert at this and here's my opinion and and the fear factor comes in they probably get fear i you know let me let me say here for those who are listening progress listening that you recognize this as a way of judging things youtube pays people to post content if that content atta attract an enough number of hits so they can use it for advertising so there are a lot of people out there who are not necessarily looking to promulgate truth they just want to say something that will catch people's attention so they get a lot of hits and is sent all around the world and get they get all these hits without kind without any concern for the harm that they're they're doing in medicine um one of the basic tenants of medicine it says do no heart and and i believe that is something that in our faith which we should also embrace that if if you see people dying and you do not have the expertise to to analyze whether data is correct or not correct it is inappropriate for you to walk around and say the vaccine is killing people when it's actually the virus that is killing people um if you don't know you don't know you can have opinions for yourself but i i'll suggest to my brothers and sisters out there that really the time we're living in is a call for for love for respect for human life for tolerance and for care and not for throwing stones at each other because it only adds to the tension and and the stress of of being in a pandemic is not productive and it is creating more problems than this can i interject uh dr baker thank you dr rutherford we're going to come back to that quit to the whole this this very important aspect of it dr baker is on call at hospital and have to go but there are some questions in the chat that we need to have for this one is about ivamectine what is the story about ivamectin can it be used what's the truth about it doesn't it work why aren't we using it question to dr baker there are two three other questions one to dr baker and then we'll come back to this point with dr ratafa i'm not sure if doctor was she was there was an emergency that she had to she may have had to go to i remember dr ennis is well capable of handling that one so ivermectin as we know is an old drug and clinicians have found that its use in covid19 in some instances lead to a positive outcome in other instances it has no effect and others negative it is it's it can be used however it is a decision that is taken between the clinician and the patient i say that because the clinician now has the history of the patient the past history the social history the family history the drug history and is aware of the presentation of this patient with covid19 so based on that amount of information that the physician has physician will say i believe that if i treat your condition you're covid with ivermectin you may have a positive outcome and that decision is taken to treat now because treatment with ivamectin is not reproducible in all so it is not that if i give it to everybody all persons with covid will get better that's not how it is and therefore it cannot be promoted to treat everybody you know that blanket you can't use that brush to broad brush to treat everybody because the effects are not reproducible what happens in me might not happen in dr little might happen in dr rotter for what might not happen in dr hamilton so it is difficult to make it standard it comes back to clinical trials so before we advance any medication for persons at large it has to go through these trials to look at not only safety but to look at dosing regimes how much is required and then to look that it has the same effect in black persons in white persons in persons who have a different cultural and therefore possibly environmental exposure so we have to have all of that to say when i give it to everybody on this panel and you out there it's going to work so wherever mectin is at this point is that it does work in some patients and based on that discussion with your physician if your physician believes that it will help you they will offer it to you i want the last thing i want to say about ivermectin is that we should not confuse therapy with something that is preventing so it is not ivermectin against the vaccine okay ivermectin is what you may be given when you have the disease so you are severely ill and your doctor is trying to get you out of that abyss of sickness and get you back and gives you ivermectin okay the vaccine on the other hand is taken before you are sick when you are well and it helps to prevent you from getting to that point of severe illness when you may need ivermectin so let's keep the two of them separate two different arms one therapeutic one preventative and with ivermectin it is not known to behave all the time in persons with covalent and therefore cannot be prescribed to everybody having quoted dr innis if i had some ivamectin on my farm audience and catherine and i decided that you know i just wanted to you know take a little bit you know every now and again until you know boost up my immune system what would you say about that i would discourage you doctor because based on my knowledge of ivor methane i do not know that it is an immune booster i don't know that it actually helps to reduce free radicals for for that matter and i would say if you are on your farm it's in catherine you have natural vegetables on that farm i would suggest that you eat those and put ever leave ever met in for the horse okay okay and i have three more questions quickly um dr baker had an emergency and she had to slip off apologies she's saving lives um next question if there are so many variants why take vaccine and there are so many variants with so much mutation does it make sense to take a vaccine with all these variants that's one more and i have two more after it makes sense at this time and it's a very good question uh we start off with viruses viruses are very smart and their whole aim and function is to remain i call it relevant what that means is that they make themselves so that they trick us all the time they get into our bodies and they hide away from our immune system now once they get in remember our little soldiers are they are marching around and they see it and they take a picture snapshot let me go back now and make these germ fighting tools to hit them so the viruses are very smart they know that they're going to make the germ fighting tools so they say okay i look like this and that's what they took the snapshot of but if i look like this when they come back ah it's something different so viruses in general change to try and outsmart us so that they can continue to infect us that's pretty much it so they're always changing now the changes that occur can be usually one of two things happens either they are more infectious so they change so that they can infect us more or that change so that they can alter the disease that they cause make the disease more severe there are other types of changes that happen but kind of insignificant so we focus on those two and when variants develop we have variance of interest and then we have variance of concern so they interest us when we say hmm this one have the potential to be more contagious uh yes it's going to spread more or it's going to cause the disease to be worse that is of interest now when it actually move over into when it is of concern is when yes it definitely is more infectious or definitely it alters the disease so what has happened with corona so far is that the changes are with infection so there are the change is that it's more infectious but it hasn't really changed to alter the disease severity and that is what the vaccines tackle the vaccines help to prevent severe illness hospitalization and possibly death so for now the variance that we have and we have about four variants of concern alpha delta gamma and beta right so those are the concerns and the they don't they especially the delta is more infectious so more people will get it if i spread in it but the vaccines attack severities of the vaccines are still good and then you have some other variants of interest now like the new lambda copper eta i think those we're still watching to see so right now the vaccine is effective against the virus however and this is that is a key point the more viruses spread from person to person is the more the chance is of the virus mutating or changing okay so we have the power to limit the spread by following the ipc measures remember mass properly over the nose and mouth and sanitize uh physical distance wiping down all the areas that are high touch areas and getting vaccinated so that the spread is less so that there is a smaller chance or a reduced chance of variance developing because you know in truth and in fact if we continue along this uh trajectory with infection rate so high positivity rate over 50 in the globe we're gonna get to a point where we no longer have a a variant we now have a different strain so if you're changing change and change and change so much that you are different and can cause even a different kind of disease we move from being a variant of it to a totally new strain so you know it's important for us to try and stem stop the this pandemic thank you one more two more questions one also what you want to know how can i know if my immunity is strong how can i know this is what someone asks in the chat how can i know if my immunity is strong and then i say i am going to give you my version of it and dr hamilton will give you the other version but my version is your immune system is strong when you do not get sick you don't catch the cold plenty you don't get anything plenty uh you are healthy you are you have energy you have adequate amount of energy you are invigorated you are alive you know you're you're you're you're brilliant you glow your your skin is beautiful because you know the eating business so your skin is beautiful you're glowing you're smiling you're you have energy you are not sapped like oh and then you don't catch everything so everybody around you getting the call and you're good everybody around you're getting the little diarrhea for vomiting and you're good right your immune system is up there and you know some persons who like clockwork as nine o'clock come 10 o'clock then can't make it past that and it's bedtime and they do that straight until six o'clock or five thirty and guess what those are the persons that can go through the day you don't see them with no niggeritis now it is it is all of that that tells you that you are well so that's my little piece that's how i know my immune system working when i catching everything and i was like thing's not right well dr hamilton you are the expert here so go ahead our other hamilton comes on comes on does that then mean if i know my immunity is good that i don't need a vaccine no that does not mean that because we all need some help and the coronavirus doesn't discriminate there are persons with top top immune system that gets corona and dies there are those with weakened immune system that get it and die uh if your immune system is weakened yes you stand up chance of having a worse outcome but it doesn't discriminate so even if your immune system is up there it really only takes one virus to take you down to near knot right it just takes one virus and this virus is very what we call virulent it's it it really can knock you for six when it knocks you it i guess it knocks you at the knees and you you crumble so even if you have a good immune system you are in a better position but it is still recommended that you vaccinate uh if well when doctor before when the foundation return comes on let me get my last question that i've seen the chats over if someone has high blood pressure taking pressure medication and diapholon and aspirin um is there anything negative for taking the vaccine another person asked if i had like blood clots in the past dvt cluttering my legs or clotting my lungs should i take this vaccine now even if i'm normal fine now should i take the vaccine with a history of something like clots in my past and if i have pressure now on these aspirin and affluent can i take the vaccine need to answer this question so the short answer for both of those questions would be yes yes and yes no if you are hypertensive and you are controlled as you have listed the medications that you are on then yes you should take the vaccine because even though you are controlled on those medications if you get covered there seems to be rapid deterioration in your condition a reduction in your ability to fight off the disease and persons with hypertension tend to not do so well especially if you're over 60 if you are 60 and above and you're hypertensive no matter how well controlled you are and you get covey somehow you don't fight it as well so it is recommended that you do take the vaccine now for persons with clots remember we had learned a couple months ago that it is plausible or it can happen after taking the astrazeneca vaccine persons may get a clot so they started to do the studies now to look at persons who had a history of clots so you'd have had a dvt for example before and they looked at persons who had the condition before and those who never had it new to it and there was absolutely no difference so because you have had a clock before and you take the vaccine it does not make you more likely to get a clot again so whether you have had the clot before or you have never had the clot your chance of developing the clot is just about the same okay now if you have had a clock before you're kind of at a little advantage because you cannot know the signs and symptoms that you're not going to be a proper german you cannot watch it so you'll know that if you start getting pain in your calf you'll know that if you're stuck it will swell up and you can hardly touch it and you can't step on it and you know that if you're having any chest pain or any shortness of breath you need to run to the doctor because you have had this before so you are at an advantage because you know what to look for so we are telling everybody now even though the statistics is very low one person every 250 000 may get a clock so if all three million of us in jamaica took the astrazeneca vaccine only about 12 hours may get a clot what we're telling everybody that if you develop that swelling of the leg the calf and if you get pain and all of that then no matter what just make contact but for now if you have had the illness before it doesn't make it any easier or more likely that you'll get another clot so yes and yet old question somebody tickled me last should the vaccine be mandatory and that's the last one that i saw so the vaccines at this time at this time are not mandatory and i'm going to leave it there so can i add to to to comment with and agree with dr ennis you gave perfect examples of a healthy immune system um the only thing i'll add is in fact that persons with very good robust immune systems um they can still have underlying issues that they are not aware of so nothing your immune system is quite robust you don't get sick these persons tend not to go in and do a yearly physical because they say hey i don't get sick so i would still say that irrespective of that if you do contract covet and succumb to that there is probably an underlying issue that is there because i've seen persons with very robust immune system and they are actually cancer survivors and they're actually i mean on cancer therapy i've seen persons with very robust immune system they are borderline diabetic they have elevated cholesterol levels right but they were unaware of it because they don't get sick and i know typically jamaicans unlike overseas you know everybody just run goes in and get their labs done it's about to say come back three months six months jamaicans don't don't tend to do that they will look for a clinic that's keeping if they need a medication a free clinic and they'll go and get you know something um prescribed again in those free clinics and they don't go back because when the doctor says you know come back in three months for me to check your blood sugar because you're borderline no they're not going back until like something else happens so you can have very good a very good robust immune system you don't get sick and you have an underlying condition that is just working and at that point you wonder how is it that you know i have such severe um symptoms because there's probably inflammation in the body that esr marker that you don't pay attention to because you don't go back for the test for the doctor to watch it so as i say very robust immune system but you could be borderline diabetic and don't know and you have a healthy diet but you're having a lot of imbalance in the amount of starch that you're taking in and you're not doing enough physical activity that excess weight or it could be anxiety or or stress or hypertension because you have a lot of person you don't monitor your blood pressure either because you're not on any medication so you're unaware of that but it's that it pretty much gets elevated when you're on a lot of stress you might get a headache and you just don't pay attention to it so the the thing is whether you have a robust immune system or not it is good to go in and get your physical done get your executive profile done and know for sure that there is nothing there that is lumen coming in the future that you don't want to be surprised with suddenly all right so that's the only thing i'll add but you give a perfect example of what a robust immune system looks like okay back over to dr dr sharad little right and the doctor and doctor thank you very much dr cornell now we have 25 minutes left and we're going to try and get in as much of these questions and answers as possible so quickly dr rotherford is it true that taking the vaccine has spiritual implications for assembly adventists i i have not seen any thing like that is it true spiritual implications identification okay so so there are some things that guide my thoughts on that one is if you know to do good and do it not you're in trouble and the other one says whatever is that faith is sin um that's that's so important in romans do you believe as a christian a god interest in your health has given man the power of science which we have used to cure so many diseases so far and that he can give man the wisdom to do something for these times with this virus if you believe that you will you'll take the vaccine and if you have underlying factors that you believe that are of a concerns concern for you then you should just consult your physician and get clarification about that before you go and take it uh the the matter of one's spiritual life is in a different ballpark to a certain extent from one's physical life and one should not always use spiritual to interpret spiritual things you you get yourself in in psychological problems if every time um your head stretch it means something you know god is telling you something and uh if if your foot bottom stretch then you know these signs that people have that they say indicate that god is saying something about the times in which we live so let me let me talk about that just just a little bit each person who has read the bible and we believe in the second coming of christ and read about the signs of the second coming have a different opinion about what are the signs of times and what they mean over the years of my life i have interacted with a lot of people who had a lot of opinions about the fulfillment of prophecy and what different things mean as events unfold that day-to-day basis every time the pope meets with the head of state it means something he might be just negotiating to see how many of his priests he can't get off from going to prison for the abuse that they have done or he may be making good relationships to help some poor country do better we don't know but but because of our view we tend to jump to certain conclusions without evidence and and i believe in the in the case of the coronavirus um we have many people have jumped to conclusions i think the role of leadership is to educate educate educate our role is not to disparage people put anybody down and say you know call anybody by any names or anything like that disrespect anybody our role is to educate and um and officially the position of the 7th evidence church from the general conference through the health department all the way down is that the wise thing for advents to do at this point is to take the vaccine we have we have no biblical indication no authentic biblical indication to indicate that taking a vaccine is going to affect your spiritual life on the contrary i'd like to emphasize this those who minimize the significance and deadliness of this virus and do not wear masks do not practice social licensing believe that they should be in church when the government say you should be there and are criticizing government and church leadership for not opening up for services and stuff like that um need to take responsibility when people gather contract the virus and die um we we have to we have to be responsible people it is it is not right for us to to to walk around and pretend as though this does not exist and criticize those who are taking it seriously and trying to save lives strong words strong words but true words true words dr rothenford quick question another person asked why is adventist church allowing its focus on why is adventist church allowing its focus on preaching the three angels last message to be distracted by the covet 19 pandemic because we are christians and the three angels mentioned says worship god but god god of love and jesus over and over says if people are suffering you need to take care of them excellent dr ennis you're back up at the crease herd immunity what is that is it still achievable um before you bring on dr ellison there's something i'd like to um i'd like to add in here just before she comes out oh go ahead and and that is um with respect to anders memorial hospital and and um and our approach to kovit um i want to make it clear to everybody at this point that we recognize that there's no clothing free hospital in this country there's no code with free space in this country and therefore um you know we can we cannot discriminate on people who are coming to our emergency room whether they have clothing or not everyone who seeks seeking medical care can come to our hospital however because we do not have a functional icu we cannot admit covet patients on an inpatient basis because we don't have the facilities to take care of them on an inpatient basis on an outpatient basis we will take care of them good thank you very much dr rotherford dr ennis back to you heard immunity is is it a fact or fallacy not hearing adopting us you wanna on mute oops right so it is a fact that hard immunity exists and her immunity protects us no when viruses move from person to person unabated they multiply you know in jamaican language them take root and they multiply and they spread plenty and everybody is affected now herd immunity looks at a large number of persons uh not being susceptible to the ravaging effects of the uh virus so it goes from me it stays just in my upper respiratory tract because i have this strong immune system and vaccinated so it doesn't get all the way down into my lungs and multiply and possibly turn into a a variant so it stays up there reproduction rate is less it moves on to dr rutterford he's also protected and the chance of multiplication is less and it goes around to you dr little it gets even less it gets to a point because it is meeting up on all of these obstacles right it's meeting into a wall every time that the virus actually kind of like dies down it becomes what we call endemic but not at a rate where persons are dying alarmingly from it now there are some persons in the society in the community that cannot take a vaccine for whatever reason that is medically sound they cannot take the vaccine so they will always be vulnerable in this situation that we have right now children under the age of 12 would fall in that group of vulnerable children because they can't take the vaccine so when enough of us are vaccinated we form a shield a protection a fence a hedging around all of those persons so you will have one person in the middle call that person blue that blue person is vulnerable is susceptible but everybody else around that person is gray because they have heard immunity so as the virus bounces off of the gray gray gray gray grey grey it never gets to the one in the middle blue which is the vulnerable one so herd immunity helps to protect the population of vulnerable now under when we look at the other vaccines like the childhood vaccines we recognize that for herd immunity to work we have to be between 95 to 100 of the population needs to be vaccinated and that is why we vaccinate children from birth we begin we get that cohort every year if we have 34 000 children being born we start the vaccination and it is mandatory up to age 7 so that we know that we have close to a hundred percent of persons protected now with kofi 19 when we started we said boys adult vaccine we might not get to 95 but if we get to 65 70 we may be able to protect the most vulnerable around us but that was when we started out at first now with the development of the variance we are edging upwards back to closer to the 95 to 100 that we're accustomed to so for now we are like you know maybe with all these variants we need eighty percent of the population uh protected so that you can't have pockets of spikes and you know the epidemic so basically that's herd immunity all of us need to be our brother's people because there are some among us who really can't take the vaccine and we need to be protecting them and that happens when enough of us are vaccinated and we protect the vulnerable amounts dr ennis that kind of segues into my next question or the next question that was submitted says why do children need to be vaccinated given that if they develop side effects these are usually mild so why vaccinate our children our children are vaccinated because they have been termed super spreaders so no they they well you're correct they usually bounce back quite quickly but if they're super spiders they are super uh entities that can culture the the the virus and therefore if it's spread so unabatedly in these children it can they can be holes for tons and the mutations so that's where we are so we don't we remember what we're trying to do is to limit spread we are trying to curb the cut to curtail the virus we are trying to keep it in line and because you have a whole population that can spread it so easily and so widely without even knowing then the possibility of variance coming on that will affect older persons and lead to damage uh is is is you know at the four and as such we try to vaccinate once the vaccines are safe as much of the population as possible do you think vaccines are on the horizon for children less than 12. absolutely so if we have been following the the science and following our neighbors in or well our neighbor in cuba you will see that the cubans have started their trials on children as young as two so they have started looking at the dosing regime they know it's safe they know they're they've passed through the safety trials for their vaccines already and they're now looking at doses dosage regimes uh what what will allow for a higher immunogenicity that's just a big word that will just allow for the best immune response so that is where they are with that for less than two and fizer has also started some studies looking at children 5 to 11. so it is the age is getting lower uh so once all of those trials are completed uh and approval is granted then we'll be able to give it to our children less than 12. okay dr ennis question again do lockdowns really work yes they do tell us why they work okay they do because why we keep saying it it is the virus remains relevant by spreading from person to person so if there is no person to person contact then it cannot spread and it cannot change so if if we were all you know what would have solved this problem from last year is if every last one of us in the world went into a little bubble but of course that would kill all of us because we wouldn't be eating the economy would be nothing there would be no interaction we'll be in solitary confinement which would kill us anyway but really if we could stop every and any kind of movement any kind of interaction so the virus can move from me to to you then we would solve the problem so lockdowns uh curfews limitation of movement does help and what will help even more you know what will help even more if persons obeyed the protocols if they wore the masks properly covering the mouth and the nose because everybody can hear you through the mask you don't have to move it touch out you don't have to move it to smile we know you have the beautiful smell behind the mask we see it in your eyes so if we were wearing the masks properly and we were hand washing hand sanitizing paying particular attention to those high use areas and everybody talk about hand wash hand sanitized you know what is that what is that killer the fact that we touch our eyes we touch our nose we touch our mouth we just keep touching our face it's like this addiction to touch touch the face and we have to not do that so not doing that as well as maintaining that distance because every time i speak you know liquor things just fly out of my mouth it it does if i sing it you know if i shout it make it worse and then if i use those words that have those you know those consonants that then it spread more so i have to be far away from dr channel so he can't pick up any of those different particles you know so the distance is important and i tell everybody if you're in the line to the cashier whether you're under the arm or you are over there you're not going to get to the cashier now quicker is after me still so you don't have to be behind me so you know if we do all of that we would help to slow the spread of this virus over to you doctor dr ennis uh based on the recent survey that came out i think the ministry of health does have a challenge in terms of vaccine hesitancy a significant amount of jamaicans say that they will not take the take the vaccine um what strategies are you gonna try and develop to to get past that hesitancy which is out there you know what i have what i'm thinking is not a strategy so i i i look though at what uh if you if you really look at what has caused the spikes since we have started vaccinating when persons actually go out to get vaccinated so they go out when the vaccines are close to dawn it's running out they they tend to turn up for vaccines they turn up for vaccines when the death rate unfortunately gets high so they are seeing lots of persons dying then they move on out uh we don't want persons to come out at those times we want persons to come out all the time so we can vaccinate the population uh i believe that what is necessary is really education it is having that conversation not necessarily in a forum like this or on mainstream television or you know in the newspapers or it is really that one-on-one conversation with somebody at the bar somebody at the market who have some ideas some thoughts that they don't want a voice they don't want to voice it in any public space or setting but if you get them one-on-one and you have a discussion then you can uh show them the benefits of the vaccine and they will make that decision also access is very important now there are some persons who really want the vaccine but then just can't make it to the vaccination site uh be it that they're they're old or some persons are just afraid to go out they just don't want to go out they're so afraid of cove itself that they prefer to stay home and so access we have to increase access we have to increase education we have to look at influencers telling the message because we we recognize that there is some level of mistrust with government and by extension the ministry of health and wellness is a part of government so there is some amount of mistrust there is even mistrust with with with the fraternity you know that you're in collusion with uh pharma pharmacology uh companies etc so we have to get influencers we have to get the ordinary man and the ordinary woman to speak about their experiences with the vaccine the benefits how it has helped them mentally because persons do have you know they do have some sort of relief mentally that they know that okay even if i get covered i'm gonna be okay you know so that that stress level that is up there because you're anxious you're not sure so those are all the things i believe that we need to do pay attention to education get to our influencers increase our access points and continue to offer the variety of vaccines that we have so persons can make a choice thank you well i think everyone on this platform is an influence is an influencer and in the next four minutes i'm going to give each of our panelists one minute look into the cameras speak to our audience say something that you want a person's on the platform to know about covid and the management of kovid and their overall health starting with you dr chan one minute um kovit is real there are many other things that i could say but um time i understand i in this forum we have addressed many things about kovid there are still some things that need to be addressed and i i would implore even persons in the chat i'd be reading the chat questions come up after the questions around said the good thing is that this is on youtube so you can watch at your own leisure and realize that some of your questions were indeed answered um i have a concern more so a spiritual concern even more than a covert concern and i'm i'll leave this with the persons in the chat because unfortunately some of our members i have no issue with having a dialogue regarding information and dissemination of information but the way the method the approach has left a lot to be desired and um to our health reformers out there who sometimes uh push their own agenda i would say that i will not tell you where my state is on it but i'll just read this quickly from minister of heal in chapter 9 of all the people in the world health reformers should be the most unselfish the most kind the most courteous in their lives should be seen the true goodness of unselfish deeds the worker who manifests a lack of courtesy who shows impatience at the ignorance on waywardness of others who speaks hastily or acts thoughtlessly will close the door to hearts that he can never reach again bear that in mind my fellow brothers and sisters as you go about imploring and pushing um regarding the vaccine that we're still christians at the end of the day the only mandate we have is a mandate from god and that all shall be saved that's it thank you dr chana on to you dr hamilton final words in a minute so um i just want to say that for those of you are watching or who would even come back and listen to the replay that whatever you're doing if you do it out of fair it is not wise you should make informed decisions as as christians we we understand our role we understand that you know this is not necessarily our home but at the same time whilst we're here we are to be our brother's keepers so in terms of what you need to do now take care of yourself as best as you know how we have the health message and my favorite text is exodus 15 26 when the lord says he'll protect us and even if we become sick he will heal us if we live by those principles and be mindful of what we are to our own responsibilities as in regards to our christian service so whether it is that you have whatever apprehension to the vaccine or not we we need to be mindful that each person you make your own decision your own informed decision and whatever you do it is not by for selfish reasons so we shouldn't necessarily be sending out quotes to each other and telling other persons what are what they should not do or accusing them of not taking responsibility because of their choice so just let us remember that we are brothers and sisters irrespective of our decisions but make informed decisions because if you make it out of fair you will still make the wrong decision because out of that same fear you can become ill just the same it has the same ripple effect in the body cause the same anxiety because i've seen persons make decision whether it is for or against vaccine and they live in this anxious feeling or fear and as soon as they produce symptoms whether they're vaccinated or not out of that you have the same shortness of breath the increased heart rate all of that and they still end up in the hospital so just make sure that you make informed decision and just trust god with the process thank you dr hamilton dr ennis final words provide 19 is real it is dangerous it is taking lives 4.55 million persons have died just to put it in context that is way above the population of jamaica had covered only affected jamaica we would not be here this evening having this discussion that is the impact that it is having on the world i want to beg everyone on this platform don't wait for coving to touch or take a family member or someone close to you for you to learn for you to understand that it kills it doesn't discriminate we are all at risk and whatever we need to do to preserve our health to preserve lives that's what we should do we can only know what are the necessary steps to take if we educate ourselves if we seek credible information if we verify what we hear if we critically assess and analyze what we read what is presented to us we have been given that capacity by our lord to know what is right what makes sense what is logical we we we it's it's it's innate it's inborn we know how to do that and we need to sharpen those skills we need to not take everything that is presented on a platter we must assess and once we have done that we will make the correct decision it might not be immediate i am encouraging persons to make a decision no because we don't want any more lives to be lost the vaccines are safe they are effective they will help us to get to whatever we consider normal maybe they'll get us to a better place because learning must take place out of this pandemic there are things we need to do better there are things we need to go back to when i was a child growing up i couldn't come into the house from off the street with my shoes you take it off you couldn't sit on in the chair with your clothes that you were out of street you had to dip it up you had to go beard you understand you couldn't eat around the table without having so this has taken us back to where we knew once upon a time back we knew that and it has taken us back there and i believe when we get out of this we should remain in that space that healthy clean you know that godliness cleanliness space and really and truly i just want to beg of everyone please get the information make the informed decision if someone's decision is not yours that's fine don't discourage persons let them make the decision themselves vaccines are safe we have the vaccines we as physicians do no harm we do no harm so be assured rest assured that when we speak to you as physicians we are not in any way about to cause harm thank you thank you dr innis and dr rutherford final words and at the end i'm going to ask you to say a prayer for those persons who are on the platform go ahead dr rutherford they are muted there is no question that there that we're in a time of crisis and a time of crisis for the christian is enough opportunity time to minister uh if it's war is to be a medic to get out there and pull people off the battlefield or to be at home preparing bandages or things to send to those who are on the front this is a war with the virus and we have seen some casualties around us so the casualties are not obvious to us uh because they they they sit in fear and loneliness so let us bear in mind that is a time to stay in touch you tend to stay in touch with family friends and co-workers who might be uh suffering a silent misery having a mental breakdown because they can't socialize the way they used to let us focus our energies on doing good and being kind and being respectful to each other being tolerant of each other and doing our best to help those who are suffering uh those who have lost loved ones not just stop calling them after the funeral but i mean at the funeral but long after the funeral to be calling and see what aid we can give it's a time for ministry when when we emerge out of this people must know us as a kinder gentler people let us pray loving god and our father we are so profoundly grateful to you for life now for this medium uh of technology by which we can communicate and we can share we thank you for your love and mercy that we are alive in this time to to share this information uh so many of our colleagues and and friends and family members have have uh passed on for for one reason or another and we pray in a special way now for for those who have lost loved ones especially in these times of progress when they have not been able to get the kind of because of social distancing and all the protections have not been able to receive the kind of support that that was facilitated breathing in the usual ways we ask for your mercy on them that you will surround them with your love your care and your compassion we pray father for the health care professionals who are on the line every day uh taking care of sick people in the midst of a pandemic their health lord preserve them we pray some of them work long hours they're compromising their own health to save other people's lives we ask for compensation shock from you god to just keep them by my mighty spirit and preserve them from this disease we pray father that you would bless and direct those are policy makers in various levels of government that they will support those efforts that will make a difference they'll be wise in the allocation of resources and that they will act in the best interests of the public we ask for inspiration for those who are seeking a cure for for this disease and the many other diseases that we almost have forgotten because uh this this one has taken the four as we fight disease lord we ask that you would give to those who are doing the research or who are passionate about keeping people well that they will they will be inspired by you and do a great job above all dear god we ask that you may grant us a spirit of love care and respect for each other the missile righteousness our words will be kind and compassionate and our actions will follow soon grant us know your grace give us a good week coming may be a significant turn in number of uh new cases in jamaica and around the world grant us your blessings and let your spirits present go with us and grant us your peace for christ's sake amen amen thank you very much dr rutherford it has been an intriguing afternoon spent with you the viewers online and with our panelists and all that is left for me to do is to say thanks to everyone who has participated very special thanks to um the support um that we have received from the leadership of our church at the andrews memorial church to our communications department who has behind the scenes kept this flowing smoothly and without hitch we thank you very much to the members of the um health ministries team led by dr daria cornwell thank you very much and to our panelists um dr channer dr rutherford dr hamilton dr innis dr terry baker who had to leave we thank you very much because you have sacrificed your time to be with us to provide information much needed information as you can see the number of questions which persons wanted answers to there is a hunger out there for information and for information from credible sources and i think that we have gone some way in providing some of that information to our waiting audience i want to thank you very much everyone for being um on our platform this evening and at this point in time i'm going to hand over to pastor adrian johnson or home pastor the andrews memorial church who will do our vespers i thank you very much thank you so much dr little uh certainly i too want to say thanks to the health professionals for having done such an excellent job this evening as it relates to the subject was on the table but i just want to give a word of encouragement this event from the word of god shall be the small heads of prayer father we just want to thank you so much for your goodness you have been such a father to all of us you know everything about our sins so we ask even now as we just read a portion of your words we ask that you will be with us we pray in jesus name amen i just want to speak to you about within the next five minutes i'm out of here under the subject jesus calming the storm you know it's a narrative that is found in the book of matthew chapter 8 and verses 23-27 it demonstrates what it looks like when jesus is on board in our lives there will be storms of all kind around us in us above us and beneath us that will cause our faith to limp but there are seven lessons that we can learn from this narrative whether you are a committed christian or not and so the narrative says here according to chapter 8 in verse 23-27 when jesus he was entered into a boat his disciples followed him and verse 24 says and behold there arose a great tempest in the sea in so much that the ship was covered with the waves but he was asleep and his disciples came to him and awoke him and saying lord save us we perish and he said unto them why are he fearful o ye of little faith then he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea and there was a great calm verse 27 says but the men marveled saying what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obeying i think there are seven lessons that we can learn from this narrative lesson number one is that wherever jesus goes follow him wherever he goes i'm saying we should follow him lesson number two is that there will always be tempests of all kinds in us around us but wherever jesus leads we should follow him less number three is that the enemy which is satan will seek to cover our lives with fear in order to weaken our faith and i have often said don't let the devil use fear to take away our faith and lesson number four is that always remember when you are going through your struggles that jesus is right next to you all you need to do all that we need to do is just wake him up with our hands of faith he wants us to exercise faith awakening lesson number five never should you believe that jesus doesn't know what you are going through and we see the many things that happen in the world and we are really wondering jesus are you seeing what is happening to us yes he sees and number six don't let fear take away your faith and the world is gripped with fear of all kinds christians are faithful known christians are fearful everywhere you go it's a pandemic of fear pandemic of fear but as christians let us still exercise faith in jesus and the last one is that jesus will stand up for you it doesn't matter the storm that you find yourself in he will rebuke it for you and he will calm the storm and one of my favorite song is this by richard newell he says he can turn the tides and calm the he alone decides to write a symbol he lights every star that makes our darkness bright he keeps watch all through the night each long and lonely night you still find the time to hear a child's first prayer saints or sinners call and always find there though it makes him sad to see the way we live he always say i forgives i forgive and the last verse says he can grant a wish or make a dream come true he can paint the clouds and turn the great blue he alones nowhere to find the rainbow hand he alone can see beyond the bend he can touch the tree and turn the leaves to gold he knows every lie that you and i have told though it makes him sad to see the way we live he'll always say i forgive what a god we serve he's willing to calm your storm this week we do not want will happen to us but let us allow jesus to calm our storm shall be our heads for prayer gracious father god the narrative that was displayed this evening we see in our lives and we recognize in our lives that there are so many storms of all kinds whether it be family related whether you're health related whether the financial related lord reacts and we know that you can calm in this storm father i pray that you will bless and you will keep us and thank you so much for the help professionals thank you for the leadership of the church thank you for all the members and there are so many people who are so stressed out the lord i ask that you'll give them peace be with us and we thank you in jesus name we pray amen just one little announcement here before we all go uh members of our church the two churches um we will be we're gonna have to go into our and just do zoom link for our family talk uh after we're through here but i just want to wish all of you best as we go through the rest of the evening over back to you dr little thank you pastor johnson i just want to wish everyone a good evening everyone stay safe and have a productive and uh blessed week take care everyone bye-bye you

Channel: Andrews Memorial S.D.A. Church

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Length: 168min 10sec (10090 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021