I have spent a lot of time over the last 18 months talking about COVID-19, and as many of my readers know, some of my views differ from the mainstream medical community or “official recommendations” (at least in some countries). The three biggest areas, based on current data, are these:

(i) People who have previously had COVID, and are currently demonstrating high titers of antibodies on laboratory tests—highly likely have a good degree of immunity, and do not need to be prioritized for vaccination.

(ii) Children (under 18s) are in a very low risk group for severe COVID infection, and barring a pre-existing condition, also do not need to be prioritized for vaccination. For this reason, most countries in the world, including the United Kingdom, are not rolling out mass vaccination campaigns in children, until more evidence of the potential risks are known, versus the benefits.

(iii) We know that human immunity is immensely complex and highly individual. I am stunned that there has been almost complete radio silence from the medical community on the topic of immune and metabolic health, especially in the under-65s, which we all have a degree of control over.

I know many physicians and scientists agree with the above, as do many studies. And I’m perfectly comfortable in a free country with open scientific debate (one would hope), in stating the above opinions, as of July 2021. Science and medicine are constantly evolving, and if I see any strong evidence to the contrary on the above issues, I will of course re-evaluate.

But the biggest thing I do stand firm on is this: COVID is a worldwide problem and there are hundreds of millions of vulnerable individuals in poorer countries who remain unvaccinated. Many of these are elderly with severe comorbidities. From a purely humanitarian standpoint, I believe history will judge us poorly for lining up that completely healthy 12-year old from suburban Connecticut to be vaccinated, and even debating vaccinating children as young as 5, when there are so many people across the world who may have to wait years for the opportunity to even be offered the vaccine. Similarly, seeing people who have recently recovered from COVID, within a couple of weeks, be told that they must be vaccinated by many authorities (we seriously haven’t thought some of these things through).

As COVID sweeps across the globe, a handful of rich western countries right now have hoarded up worldwide COVID-19 vaccine supplies. While we have so much of an abundance that we are vaccinating people who don’t need it urgently and are extremely low risk, plenty of other vulnerable people in the world are likely going to lose their lives when they could have been helped.

Suneel Dhand is a physician, writer, and YouTuber. He is Founder at MedStoic Lifestyle Medicine and DocsDox . Follow him on YouTube and Facebook.