HJNO Nov/Dec 2024

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  NOV / DEC 2024 37 The aftermath of political language, like that levied against the field of health in the Louisiana House Select Committee on Homeland Security this September, is about to play out in this state. Constituents, patients, are being told to distrust medical and public health advice if it isn’t from one of the few select “experts”held “trustworthy” by these politicians — politicians who gen- erally have no healthcare or science back- ground, but who are echoing narratives they believe or, one can hope, want very badly to believe — until understanding is achieved. As an industry, it is important to realize what is happening so you are prepared to have a conversation with your patients and to understand where they may be coming from. I had one of these recently after the Louisiana Illuminator ran a quote by the committee chair after that oversight hear- ing: “When asked if he was concerned the negative talk on vaccines could discourage people from getting vaccinated, committee chair Rep. Jay Gallé (R-Covington) replied, ‘So what if it does?’” If you haven’t read the transcript of that hearing in the beginning of this Journal , please pause and do so. I called into Gallé’s office to see if those words — “So what if it does?”— actually came out of his mouth. I got a call back from a charming state legislator who acknowl- edged he had and elaborated on those words a bit: “So what if it does? Vaccines are still optional, and if people get informed and decide that they don’t want to take it, I don’t see that as a problem.” “You don’t?”I asked, still a little surprised. “I don’t, do you?” he questioned back. I answered, “I think when you look at what vaccines have done, have eradicated in our lifetime, I don’t think we’ve experienced what our ancestors and past generations have experienced because of vaccines.” “And so, you think if someone chooses to not take a vaccine, that is problematic?” Gallé asked. “I think in some cases it can be, but I am no expert. What I do know, because we covered it, is that physicians and hospital workers were the first in line to roll up their sleeves to get the COVID vaccine. There was rejoicing in the halls of the hospitals, and those healthcare workers ‘put their money where their mouths were’by rolling up their sleeves and taking that shot.” I have since been told by a source at LDH that they were getting calls from some of the very state leg- islators conducting that hearing, wanting to get moved up in the line to take the vaccine. “Look,” Gallé continued,” I can’t be responsible for what people listen to or don’t listen to. At the end of the day, every- one has to do their own research, and the reason we have informed consent laws is for people to read up. We have a law that was passed in 1986 that requires informed consent for vaccines. Now that law is not being followed.” “You think it is not being followed?” I asked. “I know it isn’t, I know it has not been fol- lowed in this state … you saw in the hear- ing where the attorney pulled out the blank sheet … and we have all the experts in the CDC, the FDApromoting the vaccine, there was censorship … if you watched the hear- ings with an open mind, it would be hard to deny, in my opinion, that there were effec- tive treatments. Dr. Abraham, the state’s newly appointed surgeon general had a cure for COVID … and there is a whole host of variables that are being ignored …My whole thing is this, I am really a constitutional guy at the end of the day. And I think if you want to take a vaccine, you should be able to take it, but if you don’t, you ought not have to take it. This is a medical treatment, and they have proven unhealthy, and sometimes damaging and life-threating side effects. That happens … we should not be coerced into making it a condition of employment or attending school …” I replied, “I think in the hospitals, their mindset was, we have very, very sick people in here, and we have something that, they felt at the time and I think still feel, will help keep that novel disease — that they had no idea what was going to happen — in check.” “But again,” Gallé replied, “that is not completely true, because people like Dr. Abraham had figured it out. And so, people were being sent home, until they couldn’t breathe.” When I shared with him the FDA has determined that currently available clini- cal trial data did not demonstrate Ivermec- tin effective against COVID-19 in humans, in fact it was causing harm from patients ingesting it and using animal-grade versions of the drug, Gallé asked pointedly, “Do you trust the FDA?” I answered, “I have no reason not to. Do you?” Gallé responded, “No, I don’t trust the FDA or the CDC. They have proven them- selves not to be trustworthy.” “So, you don’t trust any public health expert except for the current surgeon gen- eral of this state?” “It depends,” he replied. “I can list many doctors to support what I am saying. Dr. Scott Atlas; our own surgeon general; the surgeon general of Florida; Dr. Robert Malone, one of the inventors of the mRNA vaccine who has spoken out very heavily against the vaccine; Dr. Jay Bhattacharya; Harvey Risch of Yale, Dr. Zelenko fromNew York; Dr. Pierre Kory — these are all people who know what they are doing, but they weren’t allowed to offer alternative points of view. You don’t see that as a problem? I do.” I replied, “I don’t see where Dr. Abraham was stopped from treating patients.” “Well, he talked about the challenges he had in getting ivermectin … in my opinion, if the vaccine was safe and effective … why was the government, Ochsner, and all of the healthcare systems so ‘heavy handed’ and why did they say the vaccine was the only treatment when we now know there was other treatment? These are the incongru- encies that cause me to question.” “I don’t think they said the shot is the only treatment,”I replied. “You look and see how Trump was treated when he was president and had COVID. He was given multiple treatments, and ivermectin, by the way, was not one of them. Do you think there was a conspiracy to not give President Trump the best treatment available at the time?”