Deplatform Disease

Welcome to my personal blog, which I use primarily to discuss vaccination, COVID-19, evidence-based medicine, and occasionally other related subjects. I’m Edward, aspiring physician.

I also have a blog on https://edwardnirenberg.medium.com/ which publishes the same content but puts it behind a paywall after you read more than a certain number of posts (I have no control over that). Here you can see the same content paywall-free (I pay to keep the site up; no free lunches and all that).

I titled it Deplatform Disease because that’s how I think about vaccination- it takes away a platform for pathogens to cause harm. Infectious diseases account for incalculable suffering and deaths, and they are uniquely preventable through both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. What’s more, when handled improperly, epidemics can wreak havoc on the structure of our society and cause profound change to daily life as COVID-19 has demonstrated. And COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic.

Vaccination is a subject that is fraught with complexities, as it lies at the intersection of a myriad other subjects. Vaccinology is its own specialized field but it involves immunology, virology, bacteriology, toxicology, pharmacology, genetics and genomics, mycology, ethics, sociology, anthropology, and scores more fields. These considerations can quickly become overwhelming for the average parent, in particular the hard science parts. Malicious actors, as well as well intentioned but misinformed individuals, frequently present information that is false or misleading, with potentially (and sometimes not just potentially) disastrous consequences. I attempt here to present a clear and accurate account of these things so that readers are not misled.

I hope the information here is helpful to you.

Note: Nothing on this site should be treated as medical advice. All medical inquiries should be answered by a qualified professional familiar with the patient in question’s specific medical history and nothing on this site is an appropriate substitute.

Contribution Policy

Outside contributions to this blog are welcome. If you wish to make one, reach out to me via the contact tab. Understand however that:

1. All content you wish to contribute will be subject to fact-checking by me (or someone knowledgeable in the subject that I will ask very nicely).

2. You will receive full credit for any contributions you make, OR you may request that they be shared anonymously. If you do this, I will ask for a de-identified summary of your biography to inform that you are a reliable source of expertise (but I am willing to consider contributions from anyone. I care much more about the quality of the content than who wrote it).

3. The subject of the contribution should have some relevance to vaccination.

Additionally, please always be cognizant of the audience you are writing for.