Philadelphia Medicine Summer 2021 - 8

COVER STORY
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'I took an industrial arts program, which was kind of a preengineering curriculum.
In my junior year, I was already getting bored with technology, and so I was looking for a
profession in which I would never get bored. Medicine - because of the uniqueness of every
individual - would be a profession that would maintain my interest throughout my career.'
- Dr. Stephen Permut
Draft legislation
Permut's work in organized medicine and with the legislature to
try to educate lawmakers about these issues helped to draft legislation
to look at these problems, he said.
" I worked with a number of legislators on drafting health care
legislation, " he said. " One legislator and I worked together intensively
to rewrite the medical practice act for the state of Delaware, the
medical licensing act for the state. We worked on scope-of-practice
issues in terms of practice privileges for nurse practitioners and
physician assistants, looked at some issues around vaccines and
the myth that vaccines could cause autism, dealing with legislators'
fears around that, trying to get some reasonable legislation in place
to allay those fears. "
research.
" The vaccine bill was very interesting in that there was basically this
bogus research done, with literature that appeared to be scientifically
sound that linked mercury with autism, " Permut said.
For those vaccines, particularly childhood vaccines, mercury was
used as a preservative and stabilizer.
" So one of the bills we dealt with was an attempt by the Delaware
legislature to eliminate Thiomersal, a mercury preservative, from all
vaccines, " he said.
That sounded reasonable on the surface, except that, particularly
with flu vaccines, many of which are in multi-dose vials, Thiomersal
is needed as a preservative.
In working with the state legislators, Permut noted that an
agreement was reached " that Delaware should make an attempt to
have all vaccines mercury-free by a given year, I forget what year, "
Permut said. " But it was not foreseeable that mercury could be
removed from being a preservative for flu vaccine. So we worked out
an amendment, where if at any time a vaccine was only available in
a multi-dose vial, which required a mercury preservative, then that
was still legal in the state of Delaware. That's probably at least 15 or
20 years ago, and as far as I know, every year it has been necessary
8 Philadelphia Medicine : Summer 2021
to provide that waiver for some vaccine that required mercury as
a preservative. "
The COVID-19 vaccine, Permut said, is not an attenuated virus
such as flu vaccines, but it is a messenger RNA vaccine, " a totally
unique kind of vaccine, " he said. " I'm not sure about the Moderna
vaccine, but the Pfizer vaccine can only be used for about five hours
after it's defrosted. So it probably does not require Thiomersal, because
of the very short shelf life on the defrosted dosages. That's why they
are having some wasted doses. "
Permut himself was fully vaccinated by mid-January with the
Pfizer product.
One fear was persistent, based upon what Permut calls unreliable Challenges in career
Permut noted some challenges along the way, including obtaining
his medical credentials.
He was a product of Philadelphia public schools and graduated
from Olney High School. And at Olney, Permut said he did not
take a standard academic program.
" I took an industrial arts program, which was kind of a preengineering
curriculum, " he said. " In my junior year, I was already getting
bored with technology, and so I was looking for a profession in which
I would never get bored. Medicine - because of the uniqueness of
every individual - would be a profession that would maintain my
interest throughout my career. "
That's when and why Permut decided to pursue a medical career.
He had some important role models along the way.
" Our family doctor, who was actually a Temple graduate, was a
one-of-a-kind role model, " he said.
That medical professional was Dr. Irvin Singer, who practiced
in Philadelphia.

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