TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
A4
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EDITORIAL
Referees
vital to
youth
sports
seasons
Becoming a sports referee can
look like a thankless job.
Emotions during a high school
basketball game or football contest
can run high, and there is never any
shortage of sideline second-guessers
who suddenly become experts on the
rules and regulation of a particular
sport. Those self-proclaimed experts
are never hesitant to let the men and
women in the stripes know it, either.
Yet, high school and middle school
sports are the lifeblood of many
small communities across rural
Eastern Oregon. Each game gives
parents and relatives a chance to
watch their sons and daughters,
grandsons and granddaughters,
compete against other youth.
For those games to continue, for
that traditional part of our life to
prosper, we need men and women
who will offi ciate those contests.
Right now, that’s a problem.
George Gillette, commissioner of
the Blue Mountain Basketball Of-
fi cials Association, recently said that
a decade-long drop in the number of
basketball offi cials is beginning to
have a negative effect.
Gillette’s association can usually
expect 45 to 50 basketball offi cials
to work games across the region,
but last spring the number dropped
below 20. That meant games were
rescheduled or even canceled.
The lack of sports offi cials may
not seem like an urgent news story
to rival a Middle Eastern war or the
federal budget, but for those of us
who live in the small towns across
Eastern Oregon, the absence of the
men and women in the stripes is
important.
To know that games could be can-
celed this winter because there are
not enough offi cials is troubling.
It may be a diffi cult job with low
pay but we need men and women in
our area to step up and get involved.
And we need to remember as we
watch those games and hear the
calls of the offi cials that they are us,
men and women from our region
who are essentially donating time to
help.
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Concerns about the vaccines
By DAVID SPAUGH
Viruses are made of proteins. When a
virus enters the human body, the immune
system may create antibodies that specifi cally
match proteins on the virus. These antibodies
will bind with the viral proteins, triggering a
process that destroys the proteins and thus the
virus.
If a foreign protein has features that are
very similar to other proteins, there is a chance
that antibodies created to bind with the foreign
protein may also bind with the other similar
proteins. This similarity is called homology.
Sometimes viruses have proteins that are
homologous with human proteins. This homol-
ogy increases the risk that antibodies created
to match and bind with the viral protein may
mistakenly bind with human proteins. When
an antibody binds with a human protein, that
antibody is called an autoantibody, and the
binding mistake is called an autoimmune
response. Auto means self.
Autoimmune responses lead to autoim-
mune disease, which is the 3rd leading cause of
illness and death in America, affecting females
four times more often than males, primarily
women of child-bearing age. It takes about six
years for autoimmune disease to develop after
exposure to a trigger. The exact causes of auto-
immune disease are unknown, and there is no
known cure. Protein homology is a recognized
trigger of autoimmune response.
COVID-19 proteins are unusually and
highly homologous to human proteins. Natural
and vaccine exposure to COVID-19 proteins
has already caused immediate autoimmune
responses in some people.
It is probable that natural and vaccine expo-
sure will also cause long-term autoimmune
disorders in some people. Again, autoimmune
disease has a years-long latency period.
The COVID-19 spike-protein is highly
homologous with human proteins. It is too soon
for any scientist to say that the current spike-
protein vaccines will not contribute to future
autoimmune disease.
The normal timeframe for approval of new
vaccines is 10 years, which allows for long-term
safety testing.
Humans have never developed clinically
effective lasting immunity to coronaviruses. It
was never likely that a single-protein corona-
virus vaccine would induce lasting immunity
to a coronavirus. During development of the
spike-protein COVID-19 vaccines, booster
shot requirements were always a predictable
outcome.
Safer COVID-19 vaccine designs have
been available since early 2020. These peptide
designs eliminate homology risk by presenting
only non-homologous epitopes, or only T-cell
epitopes. It is possible that such designs may
induce lasting immunity by presenting less-
dominant conserved epitopes or by inducing a
robust but atypical T-cell response.
The spike-protein vaccines only protect
against infection and transmission for about
fi ve months. Biannual boosters are required to
maintain peak levels of circulating antibodies.
Natural and vaccine exposure to COVID-19
proteins does induce production of memory
B-cells and T-cells, but as available data would
predict, these immune memory responses
are not resulting in clinically effective lasting
immunity. COVID-19 vaccine-breakthrough
infections and natural-reinfections are a reality.
COVID-19 booster shots are repeat expo-
sures to the human-homologous spike-protein.
Repeat exposure to a homologous protein
increases homology risk.
Natural immunity induced by natural
exposure to multiple COVID-19 viral proteins
is likely more diverse than vaccine immunity
induced by exposure to one protein, but there
is no reason to think that natural immunity
will last. It is unproductive to argue over which
temporary immunity is better. That time could
be better spent by uniting people to collec-
tively demand the development and testing of
improved vaccine designs.
The goal of vaccination is accelerated herd
immunity. That goal cannot be achieved with
a vaccine that is only effective for fi ve months,
especially in a population that is justifi ably
reluctant to take a new vaccine that has no
long-term safety testing. Widespread ac-
ceptance of boosters is unlikely, especially as
people become more informed about vaccine
risk and the availability of safer COVID-19
vaccine designs.
After 19 months of epidemic, 99.95% of
all Americans in the 5-17 age bracket have
not been admitted to a hospital with or for
COVID-19.
For kids, virus risk is very low whereas
vaccine risk is unknown and theoretically
high. Requiring the current vaccines for public
school attendance is unjustifi able and danger-
ous. California has already implemented a
public school COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
After 19 months of epidemic, 99.5% of all
Americans under age 65 have not required
hospital admission for COVID-19.
COVID-19 vaccine mandates are unwar-
ranted, and for kids and young women, poten-
tially unsafe.
This letter is based entirely on CDC data
and peer-reviewed articles published in recog-
nized medical journals.
Data sources and citations are provided at
www.katevax.org.
David Spaugh lives near Baker City.
OTHER VIEWS
A promising strategy to reduce
America’s rate of veteran suicides
Editorial from The Virginian-Pilot, Nor-
folk, Virginia:
The White House’s latest effort to tackle
the diffi cult problem of suicide among the
military and veterans may be the compre-
hensive approach that’s sorely needed. It
could help a lot of people here in Hampton
Roads, Virginia, and across the nation.
The new strategy, announced the week
before Veterans Day, is promising and de-
serves support.
Skeptics will be forgiven, since we’ve
heard a lot of this before. The rate of sui-
cides among the military and veterans has
remained alarmingly high for a decade or
more, despite the well-publicized vows of the
last three presidential administrations to
make this crisis a priority.
The statistics are grim. Since the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks, about four times
more military members and veterans have
died of suicide than have been killed fi ght-
ing. In 2019, the most recent year for which
the Department of Veterans Affairs has
statistics, about 17 veterans a day died by
suicide — and that was before COVID-19
brought more isolation and depression. The
rate of suicide among military members
and veterans is 1.5 times that of American
civilians.
These unacceptable numbers continue de-
spite increased attention and recent federal
initiatives.
Rightly calling suicide among service
members, veterans and their families “a public
health and national security crisis,” the Biden
administration’s strategy calls for building on
existing programs and adding more in a drive
toward real progress.
It’s a comprehensive strategy that will
involve departments and agencies across the
federal government in addition to the depart-
ments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
It intends to improve ways to deal with
people in times of crisis and at risk of suicide. It
also takes a broader approach designed to ad-
dress the many causes of suicide with an eye to
keeping military members and veterans from
reaching that moment of crisis.
It recognizes that just as there are many
reasons people are driven to suicide, there is
not a one-size-fi ts-all solution.
One emphasis is on making it less likely
that a person in crisis will have easy access to
“lethal means.” Often, the time when a person
sinks to that level of desperation is relatively
brief. If the means of suicide isn’t readily avail-
able, the crisis may pass. Since about 70% of
all suicides in America involve fi rearms, this
means keeping guns locked away. As part of the
comprehensive approach, the Department of
Justice is working on a proposal from the Bu-
reau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explo-
sives to require gun dealers to offer compatible,
secure gun storage and safety devices for sale.
Other plans include expanding existing ef-
forts to identify military members and veterans
struggling with mental health problems, doing
more to intervene before a crisis, and making it
easier for those in crisis to get emergency help.
The plan will expand efforts to make high-
quality mental health care easily available and
affordable for military members, veterans and
their families.
One of the most important aspects of the
comprehensive strategy involves correcting the
problems that lead service members and veter-
ans to the brink of suicide. That’s a challenge,
because there are many reasons that go beyond
the common factors, such as post-traumatic
stress disorder. And many service members
and veterans are reluctant to ask for help when
they need it.
This effort will address basic things such as
pay, benefi ts, family stresses and the diffi culty
of making the transition from military to
civilian life. Too many veterans struggle with
homelessness, unemployment, substance abuse
and other problems that contribute to hopeless-
ness.
The 20 years of war since Sept. 11 have put
great stresses on the men and women who vol-
unteer to serve in our military and protect our
nation. The government and society as a whole
have done a poor job of helping them deal with
their emotional and mental-health problems.
The new, expanded emphasis has the poten-
tial to make a difference. Let’s do what we can
to make it work.