There are still “some vestiges of democracy left on our terrestrial globe,” according to medical commentator John Campbell, Ph.D.
In a recent YouTube episode, Campbell discussed an article by The Defender on how Idaho’s Southwest District Health Board — the local health agency that presides over six counties — on Oct. 22 voted 4-3 to pull COVID-19 shots from the 30 locations where it provides healthcare services.
The board made its decision after receiving roughly 300 comments from constituents urging board members to stop promoting the shot. Before holding a vote, the board also heard presentations from doctors on safety and efficacy concerns regarding the shots.
What happened in southwest Idaho was “remarkably encouraging,” Campbell told viewers. “We’ve got local people here voicing concern through local democracy. … Democracy needs to be ground up, not top down.”
The board’s action could likely serve as a model for other parts of the world.
Campbell quoted Mary Holland, Children’s Health Defense CEO, who told The Defender:
“After hearing from 300 constituents, listening to well-informed physicians and assessing the public record, the Southwest Idaho Health District Board made an informed decision not to stock its own clinics with COVID shots.”
Campbell also told viewers that Dr. John Tribble, the board’s only physician, told The Defender the vote happened because many people in the district were demanding answers.
“Many came forward with heartbreaking stories of vaccine injury,” Tribble told The Defender.
After listening to its residents, the board members felt it was important to allow “the free and open discussion and evaluation of the evidence for and against the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine,” Tribble said.
‘We have to listen to what our patients are telling us’
Campbell commended the board for listening to its constituents.
“We have to listen to what our patients are telling us,” said Campbell, a former nurse and healthcare educator. He said:
“A few years ago, that’s what basically started to enlighten my thinking — the mismatch between what the authorities were telling us [about the COVID-19 vaccines] and what these poor patients were telling us as they suffered terribly from vaccine adverse reactions.”
Campbell also commended the board members for evaluating the evidence on the COVID-19 vaccines’ safety and efficacy by hearing presentations from well-informed doctors — rather than assuming the shots are sufficiently safe and effective just because federal agencies promote them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends COVID-19 vaccines and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves them.
According to Tribble, the evidence presented to the board “clearly showed a lack of safety and efficacy as it compares to the risk from COVID-19 and their [the board members’] decision reflected that.”
Tribble said board members who voted to remove the shot “exhibited courage” because they did so “based on the evidence, in direct opposition to the federal health agencies’ recommendations.”
The board heard presentations from cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole, pediatrician Dr. Renata Moon and obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. James Thorp on safety concerns related to the COVID-19 vaccines. The board also heard from district staff physician Dr. Perry Jansen who recommended keeping the vaccine on the district’s clinic shelves.
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‘Let’s hope cans of truth are opened up all around the world’
Campbell said he hopes the Idaho Southwest District Health Board’s action will inspire other health agencies to openly discuss the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines compared with the risk of a COVID-19 infection and evaluate the evidence for themselves. “That’s all we’re asking — evaluate the evidence. Follow the evidence wherever it leads.”
He added: “Let’s think for ourselves rather than accepting the dictated, authoritarian, top-down decisions from on high.”
He quoted Laura Demaray, a southwest Idaho resident and nurse who attended the board’s vote. Demaray told The Defender that many federal health agency leaders are captured by industry, but that’s not the case with most local-level health officials.
“They aren’t all bought out yet,” she said.
Demaray encouraged other U.S. citizens to invite well-informed doctors to speak to their local health boards because the doctors’ presentations become part of the public record “and your community gets to see that.”
“That is how you open up a can of truth,” Demaray added.
Campbell said, “Let’s hope cans of truth are opened up all around the world on this and many other issues.
Watch here:
