Chris Faddis visits The BS Show to discuss the importance of getting a vaccine and the ongoing debate of their necessity. Read the interview or listen to the transcript below.

Bob Sansevere (00:00):

We are joined by Christopher Faddis, co-founder and president of the nonprofit healthcare sharing ministry, Solidarity HealthShare, which is an ethical, affordable alternative to traditional health insurance and is faithful to the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. Chris, there’s to me an alarming story out of Pennsylvania this week, and it has to do with two unvaccinated Pennsylvania residents have died from measles. The state health officials said, and it’s the first measles related deaths in the US this year. They come out of Lancaster County, west of Philadelphia. Lancaster County is where there’s a lot of Amish people. Now, they don’t identify who these people are initially, but it could be Amish and they’re not known for getting high vaccinations. My big concern though, because, and we’re going to get into some of the numbers, vaccination rates have been going down each year for kids, particularly in kindergarten where you should have your vaccinations done.

(00:55):

My concern, and I wanted to get your thoughts on it, is I think the whole COVID shot, the way that was shoved down our throats and pushed on us has made people wary in general of vaccinations, as has Robert Kennedy Jr. the head of health and human services. He’s anti-vax, but there are some vaccinations that to me, they’re vital to get. Like for instance, measles, mumps, rubella shots, they’re down from the previous year. The CDC reported that 92.4% of kindergartners got their required MMR shots, but that would mean that almost 8% didn’t and it was over 90%, 95% before COVID. Is this something we should be alarmed about or am I overreacting?

Chris Faddis (01:43):

I mean, I think that- here’s the problem. I think we have, as you said, we have a failure of trust, which is for good reason. I mean, there’s a lot of things that were done, not just with. Well, especially with the COVID vaccine that caused a lot of people to say, “Why would we trust the CDC on these things?” And the FDA. So there’s that. So that is a problem and I think hopefully is being over time restored, but I think there’s a lot of questions and more information’s coming out, Bob. So this trust isn’t being restored yet. And I think the other side of it is, yeah, there are some concerning facts with certain things like measles. At the same time, I don’t know if they were Amish or not.

Bob Sansevere (02:24):

No, we don’t know.

Chris Faddis (02:25):

We don’t know. But at the same time, the Amish actually have the lowest rates of some of these diseases even though they haven’t been vaccinated. So I think there’s certainly some factors at play, that question. Every year we get some measles in the states, especially in the border states from Mexico and whatever other countries people are coming in.

Bob Sansevere (02:46):

Sure, that

Chris Faddis (02:46):

Don’t have. Yeah. So you have that. At the same time, we have not seen an alarming increase of it. I think it gets a little scary each year where it gets a little worried and then it’s not a huge, huge issue. So I think it’s one of those, I think what I believe in several others is moving towards the informed choice where we’re saying we don’t need to force people into certain preventative measures, but we give people informed choice and we give them the ability to make those decisions. No one’s taken these vaccines off the market. They’re just saying we don’t need to force it on everyone. And a big thing I hope that is going to help a lot with getting the vaccines that are needed or are more likely to be needed, let’s say, is they’re reducing the vaccine schedule. It was 72 vaccinations before this administration and the science isn’t there for it.

(03:36):

It clearly is impacting children and it’s a lot of heavy dose stuff to give kids before they’re age three. So they’ve reduced it. I want to say they reduced it down to 11. Is that right? I don’t remember the

Bob Sansevere (03:48):

Exact number. No, I don’t know the number, but there are – But I

Chris Faddis (03:50):

Think the idea is, “Hey, major on the majors. Let’s encourage people to get these 11. Let’s focus on that because these are the things we need to be conserved.” I think measles is one of those. And I could be wrong, but I think those kind of things will help restore trust. I also will say what I have seen, I have paid attention to the vaccine stuff that’s going on in CDC and in the committees that approve all of that, and they are actually measuring the science and having good scientific debate around it. And in fact, Kennedy was insistent on making sure there were people who disagreed with them on vaccines on those committees. And so there is a real scientific process happening, which I don’t truly think was properly happening before. I think these pharmaceutical companies were running the table.

Bob Sansevere (04:36):

Yes. Oh, absolutely. And

Chris Faddis (04:38):

So I hope, Bob, my hope is that that will help restore trust. That will help over time for people to see, okay, we’re doing this and we’re not hiding it from the public. The public is going to know these things now. That’s going to be a Pandora’s box. That’s going to be a hard thing to undo. If another administration comes in and says, “No, we want to go back to the old way.” I mean, the public’s going to say, “Wait a minute, we used to get this data. Now we don’t. This isn’t okay.” So I hope that that’s going to help bring more, not just transparency, but accountability, which will restore trust for you and I and everyone else.

Bob Sansevere (05:12):

Well, the thing that you made the comment about the border states, that isn’t a concern with the number of people coming across the border that haven’t been vaccinated. Last year, the United States had 2,289 cases of measles, the worst year for measles in more than three decades. Earlier this summer, it broke that record already. We’re at 2,777 cases as of last week, according to CDC. That is an alarming thing. It’s going to go over 3,000. And here’s the thing that really is a concern to me. Vaccination rates also fell for polio and the combination shot for diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, and also the first dose for chicken pox. Now, if I were to call Solidarity, could I ask for someone to tell me, okay, I have a kid starting kindergarten, what shots should I absolutely get and which ones are not necessary? Can you tell people that?

Chris Faddis (06:10):

I don’t know that we do currently, but we do have a wellness schedule that people can look at and shows them what things we share in two at different ages all the way up to us adults. But yeah, I don’t know that we give that level. What I recommend is to look at when people ask or when. I know again, we allow people to make that choice, but I think some really good resources are people like Dr. Sears, who is a pediatrician, very well known over the many years. And he gives people options like delayed vaccine schedules or if you only want to get the five that you must have kind of thing. And very reasonable, not a one size fits all approach, not a anti-vax, not a pro-vax. He’s really helping parents make that informed choice. So that’s one of the resources I recommend to people.

(07:04):

It was very helpful when I was first having kids.

Bob Sansevere (07:06):

How does he spell it? How does Dr. Sears spell his last name?

Chris Faddis (07:09):

Sears like the brand.

Bob Sansevere (07:10):

Oh, like the brand. Okay.

Chris Faddis (07:11):

S-E-A-R-S.

Bob Sansevere (07:12):

Yeah.

Chris Faddis (07:12):

Dr. Sears is a good resource. And there’s others, but I think Sears is a good one because he’s sort of, I don’t know if in the middle is the right term, but you know what I mean? He’s not going to go one way or another.

Bob Sansevere (07:23):

Well, he is looking at it more objectively. The one thing, here’s my problem, the fact that the polio vaccine or vaccinations are down, people don’t realize how devastating polio once was to people in this country because I don’t think they know enough or care enough to learn about history. And the fact is it was eradicated. So I’m saying the polio vaccine is probably not a bad one to have, especially now that it started to come up

Chris Faddis (07:49):

Again. I’m trying to remember where that landed on the schedule. I think there’s a lot of that debate that still has to happen. I hope we’ve at least learned in our lesson that coming up with a vaccine in six to nine months without testing or properly giving people fair warning of what’s possible is not the way to go. So I think from the perspective of, “Hey, these things work, these things don’t.” And I would say Kennedy’s definitely not a pro-vax guy, but I do think he has some reasonable understanding of sometimes there’s a need for it. If you’re going to go to Africa on a mission trip, there’s certain vaccines you need.

Bob Sansevere (08:24):

Absolutely.

Chris Faddis (08:26):

But then the question I always had as a parent was, “Okay, but I’m not taking my kids to African mission trips, so some of these vaccines are unnecessary.” And that’s the question. What is that balance of saying, “What’s the real risk and what can I handle?” I mean, honestly, Bob, to me, the chickenpox vaccine is not necessary. It’s really not a big deal. All my kids had chickenpox except for our new baby.

Bob Sansevere (08:52):

I had as a kid and I think I had German measles. Measles is different than German measles.

Chris Faddis (08:55):

 And now there’s the higher increase of shingles because of the chickenpox vaccine. So you’ve got to find your balance. I’m going to be honest with you, I’d much rather have chickenpox when I’m 10 or 12 than having measles when I’m 70 or 80.

Bob Sansevere (09:09):

Yeah.

Chris Faddis (09:10):

Measles- Shingles, shingles, sorry. So I think there’s a balance there. So again, I think the informed choice thing is a big deal. I think people need to understand what’s in their vaccine and to understand that. And I do think it’s important that we slow down how much we’re vaccinating children. And this delayed vaccine schedule was decided on by a, I don’t think it’s the right term to say bipartisan, but by a group of scientists that were not all on the same page to come up with what is this, I think it’s a schedule of 11 childhood vaccines instead of 72.

Bob Sansevere (09:36):

Yeah-leaning.

Chris Faddis (09:44):

We are the highest number of vaccines of any country in the world, by the way, by far. I mean, it was astronomical. So it was definitely an anomaly to have that many vaccinations required at such a young age.

Bob Sansevere (09:57):

Well, pharmaceutical companies did their job.

Chris Faddis (09:59):

Yeah. Yeah, they did. So I think that’s a prudent move and I think we’ll see. I mean, the next few years we’ll tell how that pays off.

Bob Sansevere (10:05):

Well, Chris, I appreciate your thoughts on that. Chris Faddis, the co-founder and president of Solidarity HealthShare. You can find more information at solidarityhealthshare.org. Great alternative to traditional healthcare. My family and I have been members for a decade. So thank you, Chris. We’re going to take a quick break and The BS Show will be right back.