March 8, 2021. Two years ago, Yuri and I took the first shot of the Pfizer vaccine at the Rockaway Mega site in Rockaway, New Jersey. We knew nothing about it, and no one told us anything about the possible adverse effects. They made us wait fifteen minutes before allowing us to go home. On the ride back, an hour away, Yuri was already telling me he wasn’t feeling right. They said there might be something very mild, no worries.
It didn’t feel mild to him. His legs started to feel heavy, and he couldn’t get past the gnawing sneaky suspicion that something was happening to him. It went on for days, weeks, and three weeks after the second shot; the spike protein took him out and into the hospital.
The Newton Medical Center diagnosis was troubling: kidney failure, heart failure, and lung disease. I was handed a four-color, gloss-coated brochure. With decades of being a graphic designer, my instinct was to scrutinize printed pieces. They are wasteful and costly, and the varnish is not good for the environment. I asked the cardiologist how he came to Yuri’s diagnosis. His attitude was curt and dismissive. “He fit the profile. Older male, 70, with a musician lifestyle. Past smoker.” True, Yuri was once a social smoker. Playing in a rock band in the 1970s, secondhand smoke could have contributed to lung issues. I couldn’t tolerate the smoking and nicotine habit, so it was an issue brought up early in our courtship– if he smoked, I wouldn’t kiss him.
“How is this possible? Yuri is not on any heart or blood pressure medications. We
don’t even have Medicare Part D.”
“You don’t have to follow my advice. I’m just the doctor,” he shrugged.
Dressed in scrubs, he left without an answer, clopping away in silly-looking Crocs.
However, another doctor offered possible explanations. Dr. Donald Allegra introduced himself, “Infectious disease. Prevention, diagnostics, and treatment.”
“What does it mean? What is happening to my husband?” I held Yuri’s hand as he closed his eyes, not wanting to see or hear another doctor without answers.
“Multifocal pneumonia, different spots of the lung.”
“There was only one spot on his lung when we got to the ER.”
“I know. It’s become extensive pneumonia. I suspect the A-Fib onset as its basis.”
“What’s A-fib?”
“Atrial fibrillation. An abnormal heart rhythm. Rapid and irregular beating of the atrial
chambers of the heart.”
“I felt that.” Yuri perked up. It was the first doctor that talked to us about his current state. “I started feeling my heart flutter.”
“It often begins as short periods of abnormal beating. How long since you sensed a difference?”
“A month ago. After the first shot,” Yuri answered.
“It can become longer or continuous over time.”
“A flutter sounds harmless. How serious is this?” I could feel my heart beating faster.
“Serious enough that you get opinions like the one you received from Dr. Ciocci,” the doctor mused. “It starts as any other of numerous arrhythmias, like an atrial flutter, then turns into an AFib.”
“What’s an arrhythmia? It sounds like one of Yuri’s rhythm sections he worked on.” I
wanted Yuri to smile, and he sighed. “Nevermind, I’ll look it up.”
Dr. Allegra turned to him, “I thought it would be resolved since your heart rate appeared normal again.”
“It hasn’t?”
“No, but it’s likely related to an infectious process, not malignancy.”
That made me breathe easier. I was invited to see pictures of Yuri’s lungs. Allegra escorted me to the bullpen, where staff nurses, interns, and residents collide in a cacophony of activity. The cardiologist gave me a look challenging my presence. Allegra pulled a seat beside me, pointing to the different views. As I surveyed the X-rays from the top to the sides at all angles, I stared at the milky white mucus-looking gunk spreading in Yuri’s lungs.
“Bilateral interstitial pneumonia. A severe infection. It can scar both lungs.”
Later, I looked it up. Interstitial means occupying, and bilateral interstitial pneumonia is one of many lung diseases. Like an occupying enemy force, it invades and affects the tissue around the lungs’ tiny air sacs. This type of pneumonia can come from getting Covid-19. “It looks like what pictures show Covid does to lungs.”
“Exactly,” Dr. Allegra agreed, “It’s just that he does not have Covid.”
Yuri never had Covid. He did have five out of ten adverse effects from the Pfizer shot.
The misdiagnosis of the smug cardiologists at Newton Medical Center left a false medical history that was detrimental to Yuri’s treatment. The hospital notes from Westchester Medical Center were copied and pasted. There were times when unnecessary procedures were in the works that could have been debilitating had I not stepped in and questioned them. I can’t remember how often I had to remind the residents and interns that Yuri’s medical history was wrong. They insisted that it was his medical history. I insisted they were wrong. Wrong about everything.
Sept. 2019: “SEC filing of BioNTech (its RNA technology is used in Pfizer vaccines) and EU, mRNA therapies have been classified as gene therapy medicinal products.” Covid vaccines are risky gene therapies acknowledged by Moderna and BioNTech. The shots from Pfizer and Moderna use messenger RNA (mRNA) to instruct the body to create a spike protein from the coronavirus, a modified form of the SARS-Cov2 spike protein where it alters the biological properties of living cells for therapeutic use “to treat or cure diseases.”
It backfired, causing Drug-Induced Vasculitis (DIV). Yuri was eventually diagnosed with, according to the head of ICU in Morristown Medical Center (2022), a no longer rare form of small and medium blood vessel vasculitis, Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis with multi-system involvement; acute hypoxemic respiratory failure; persistent atrial fibrillation with RVR; acute kidney injury; hypernatremia; intra-alveolar hemorrhage; volume overload, infections due to ESBL-producing Klebsiella pneumonia; sepsis; vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).
After two near-death experiences in critical care units, Yuri survives, remaining an anomaly in the medical world. In contrast, traditional medical care insists upon potent drugs as maintenance treatments (one drug for people who had organ transplants would have decimated Yuri’s immune system). We opt for a naturopathic approach. He is off steroids, blood thinners, and expensive drugs, replaced with natural foods and wellness therapies. The recovery continues; however, primitive and unconscious defense mechanisms against injury and infection in the brain and other parts of the body sometimes get disturbed.
“In the Brain, Timing Is Everything” by Victoria Tilney McDonough, “Most all human behavior involves a brain clock system to coordinate microsecond-based signals in the brain. Most of our brains’ daily actions, such as perceiving, speaking, and driving a car, require timing on the scale of tens to hundreds of milliseconds.” Neural tracks are off, and his brain “clock,” timing, is out of whack making playing violin extremely difficult. We’re working on his interactive metronome.
Adverse events have been reported on the government website Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Knowingly filing a false VAERS report violates Federal law (18 U.S. Code § 1001), punishable by fine and imprisonment. Over 1.4 million adverse effects have been reported on VAERS. Yet, on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, under their “What You Need to Know,” the statement remains that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and severe reactions after vaccination are rare. Yuri is a real case, not a rare case. Buyer beware.
After two years without paying gigs, we are feeling financial strain. Atlantic Health Systems billed Medicare for nearly a million dollars, yet a bill that Medicare declared as being double billed and refused to pay, so they are squeezing us for the money. The Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) responded to our request for benefits to help cover our medical and living costs. They said there was not enough evidence to support our claim. Denied. We will survive.
Meanwhile, Pfizer took in over 38 billion in 2021 and has profited immensely, earning a record $100 billion in 2022, including $37.8 billion for its COVID-19 shots and $18.9 billion for its antiviral drug Paxlovid. New ads with celebrities show Pfizer putting out big money for more advertising. A leading national Health Advocacy Organization is hiring a Director of Content and Storytelling. And so, the fairy tale continues. Not all will end happily ever after.
