About that Medical Freedom
by Joni Kamiya, Hawaii Farmers Daughter, March 12, 2025
I’m just getting over a bout of influenza A right now and it has been a miserable ride to say the least. I did get the vaccination last year and I’m hoping it gave me some protection in that it could have been a lot worse.
I did need to see the doctor for managing to symptoms and needed a whole of supportive meds like a nasal decongestant, tamiflu, cough medication, fever reducer, antiemetic meds, and finally an antibiotic. I tried the non-medical interventions and nothing alleviated the suffering I was going through. No amount of hot tea, liquids, or hot showers cleared out the congestion and sequela that came with enduring the flu.
All I can say, that feeling miserable is just not a walk in the park. Without your health, you really can’t do anything. The ability to do things in life is what keeps us going and fulfills us. When that ability is taken away, there’s not much left.
Just prior to getting the flu, I had a wonderful opportunity to take a Comprehensive Automotive Mobility Solutions class where I got to see how there are so many options for mobility with disabilities. It was amazing to see the new technology out there that kept people with disabilities moving and independent. Despite changes in their function, they still go out and drive and be engaged in life. That is what leads to health and wellness.
The flu started off pretty mild so I was just laying around keeping up with news and what’s happening with the whole measles outbreak. Things are not looking good whether it be the economy or health in our nation. We have a crackpot of a man for DHS who has been actively spreading disinformation. Our own Hawaii legislature just failed to advance the removal of religious exemption for vaccinations also. I’m mad as hell.
As I read some of the comments online on the Hawaii Department of Health accounts as well as what is being spread by some of our own Hawaii Republican legislators like Diamond Garcia, I got even more angry at how a local person could be repeating the same mainland rhetoric that killed millions of Americans during COVID.
His schtick towards the masses of followers was he stood on the platform of medical freedom for people to choose. They had a right to decide what shots they wanted their kids to have and it was not up to the government to decide. This is all happening while West Texas is having the worst outbreak in 2 decades with a death of a 6 year old.
Why is this happening? It’s because those pockets of people have been given unscientific information and made bad choices that are leading to a tremendous amount of suffering that is spreading across the US.
Just looking at the comments on the DOH site where the scientifically illiterate just spread even disinformation that getting measles is not that bad because most survive and vaccinated people spread it, and so on. Like others have said, we have an infodemic going on from the the top down.
Medical freedom is not about being vaccinated. It goes beyond that. Let’s consider this:
This year is the worst for flu. Why? Low vaccination uptake likely contributed.
Measles cases are continuing to grow nationwide because of low vaccine rates.
Those refusing vaccinations claim medical freedom from injecting toxins and other claims of vaccine injury. Politicians like Marjorie Taylor Green are encouraging measles parties too which is absurd and dangerous.
Are these actions really “medical freedoms” when you look at other issues and see how it is being denied?
The babies who are just under the age of one deserve medical freedom from preventable disease and that will only happen when more in the community are vaccinated to protect them.
Women should have full medical freedom to decide on what their needs are for health including access to abortion care not decided by those who sit in a legislature, courtroom, or congregation. They deserve to have the ability to decided what they want to do with their body with their choice.
Those with immune issues deserve medical freedom from illness when responsible citizens do their duty to keep up their own vaccinations for those who cannot take it.
Transgender people should have medical freedom to access care to allow them to have “my body my choice” to live to be the person that they want to be.
Researchers and scientists should have medical freedom to continue their studies of the many issues that are affecting our lives regardless of the wording they choose to use in their funding.
Those in public health should have medical freedom to publish the pertinent health information that is necessary for us in the public to know to continually grow our body and knowledge.
So where do we go from here?
Many times, you have to suffer to realize how good you have it. That hit me like a brick this week with the flu and seeing everything going on in the national scene. I am still the science advocate that I was when I started this blog and am still the same but with many different views as life changes.
The catchy slogans like “Make America Great Again” or “Make America Healthy Again” is all talk when you look at the actions of those pulling the strings.
Making us great again means remembering our history as a nation and returning to our roots of what built it. Our nation was built upon the sacrifices of so many, whether it be veterans, slaves, women, men, children and immigrants. We learned tolerance for those of other religions and ethnicities when they came upon the shores looking for better opportunities. Every single person, worked in their communities and supported each other and many stood up against injustices that would impact so many other lives that led to quality of life for all. Just look at our communities and the diversity within them.
Making us healthy again is not just throwing out all prior vaccination data because it doesn’t fit your narrative or even just deciding that beef tallow is “healthy.” Nor is health going to come from the removal of food dyes to suddenly give us health. No solution is ever easy because it takes a lot of data collection to figure out what is going on. Putting the wrong person in the place of power worsens the likelihood of a real issue being addressed because he has no experience or background to have the adequate logic and critical thinking to move in the right direction.
Reducing the debt isn’t going to be helped either when you have someone who doesn’t even run the government put in charge of it. He’s doing everything he can chainsaw-style with too much power in his head to even think clearly on the impact he will have on others.
America has its own version of the flu right now. The entire nation is sick and there appears to be no end in sight against the set of viruses leading charge. From the Democrats to the Republicans to the president, everyone is infected with something and that disease is spreading fast and bad, worse than COVID did. We need to all sit down and hash things out while Chaos Captain is at the helm and plan for a mutiny with a better armed immune system, our communities, to get rid of flu once and for all with a good vaccination for good science literacy and evidence based information.
This whole infodemic was started using a base of people who didn’t thoroughly vet what was being said, Russian propaganda, combined with multiple attacks with low level cabinet viruses who came from the woodworks, a poor diet of Republicans that were spineless, Democrats who ignored the signs of issues of debt that was being screamed, people with terrible behaviors with no regard for the law, and oligarchs running the media outlets, and here we are now.
The most horrible thing about this is that we will have to land up in our lowest point before we realize that we have to change.