Tornado Alley (PROG)

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dropdeadfred, Dr. Ryan Cole is in favor of the vaccines you condemn.

Garden City doctor responds to critics of his statements made to lawmakers

"I am absolutely not in the Anti-Vax camp... I have been vaccinated. All of my children have been vaccinated."

VIDEO

Author: Brian Holmes
Published: 6:59 PM MDT March 17, 2021
Updated: 5:25 PM MDT March 18, 2021

BOISE, Idaho — On Tuesday, The 208 spoke with the chief medical officer at St Luke's, who reacted to and fact-checked several statements a Garden City doctor made during a recent presentation to state lawmakers.

Dr. Ryan Cole told lawmakers last week that, "We have stopped our society for something that is taking people that are already at that death risk age anyway." He added that an anti-parasite medication for horses could be used to treat COVID-19.

Cole owns and operates Cole Diagnostics, a testing lab in Garden City.

Dr. Jim Souza, the chief medical officer at St. Luke's, told The 208 on Tuesday in response to Cole's comments that "I'm afraid this is more from our anti-vax colleagues to stoke fear and misinformation instead of science."

The 208 reached out to Cole to better understand his claims and beliefs but he didn't respond for comment by the time the article was published.

By late Wednesday afternoon, Cole had sent a three-page long response about the statements he made to state lawmakers and the reaction from Souza.

"First of all, I want to apologize for seeming dismissive of the massive amount of death we have had due to the COVID virus," he wrote. "Every life is valued and important. My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones, regardless of their age or expected death. I am a physician first, with extensive background and training in pathology, in addition to many years I chose to spend caring for patients in the ER, family medicine and dermatology. I take very seriously the physician’s oath to 'First, do no harm.'”

Cole stated that he is not an anti-vaxxer and he believes that vaccines are a major medical advancement that has helped increase people's life spans for the last 50 years.

"I am absolutely not in the anti-vax camp, and I am concerned that these comments came across that way. I have been vaccinated. All of my children have been vaccinated," he wrote.

He also explained that he was under the impression that his presentation was for a small group of people invited by Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, adding that he is not affiliated with any political group and isn't aligned with the Idaho Freedom Foundation's agenda.

Cole said that he still stands by his statements about the safety of the vaccine.

"I am concerned about the lack of long term safety data, because this vaccine is simply too new," he wrote. "We have never tried an mRNA vaccine in humans before. I am concerned about the implications of injection of foreign, synthetic mRNA and the antibody reaction which cannot be reversed. It concerns me that large numbers of individuals are being essentially enrolled in a long term phase III clinical trial for the vaccine without being fully informed of this, with no ability for recompense if injured or in case of death. I am concerned by the number of adverse event and deaths that have been reported in correlation with this vaccine administration."

He went on to say that he still believes that the coronavirus pandemic in Idaho is reaching endemic levels. On Wednesday, the 14-day average of new cases reported grew to 310, with six new deaths reported.

"It may be that this virus will remain in circulation for some time, at an endemic level, as many viruses, including the common cold, and the flu do," Cole wrote in a statement sent to The 208. "We do not yet know the impact the new variants will have on the case rates. We should stay vigilant, but I would like to see us learn to live with the virus in our midst instead of living in constant fear of it."

https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/208/garden-city-doctor-reacts-fact-checking-his-statements-lawmakers/277-6d4ba8c6-3eb7-4334-bfe2-2052c57a7e0e