I consider myself to be a kind, compassionate person, but I’ve reached my limit re: the folks who refuse to be vaccinated. I love the phrase ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’ as it accurately portrays the idiots who refuse to be vaccinated no matter what as if there were no consequences to the rest of us. Patriots you say? Selfish stubbornness and false pride is what I say. The press seems to be turning itself into pretzels trying to square its empathy with the stupidity of those standing in the way of a healthy polity. My mind is scrambled and exhausted by all this dangerous, ignorant nonsense and the lack of good sense, civic responsibility and integrity among the msm et al. Thanks, Eric, for another great piece.
The same religious wackos who whine that they have a right to choose when it comes to the vaccine turn around and say that a woman has no right to choose abortion.
Anti-vaxxers and the QAnon crowd feed off of each other because at the root of their nonsense is an illogical but unshakeable belief that a handful of conspirators literally run the world. These people cannot be convinced they are mistaken. My sister-in-law and her husband subscribe to this nonsense, and throw their votes away every 4 years because "there's no difference between the parties." But Eric is exactly right when he says that those folks are not driving the opposition to the Covid shots...the Former Guy so deeply rooted everything about CV-19 in politics that his followers cannot make themselves openly disavow him. They are anti-mask because HE is anti-mask, and they think CV-19 is "just like the flu" because that is what HE told them. Kay Ivy is correct - those people are a danger to all of us and should be called out and treated as such.
This is the slippery slope of postmodernism. It starts with "keep an open mind". It proceeds to "benefit of the doubt". It eventually becomes "innocent until proven guilty". All good in their proper context, all bad when used to maintain purposeful Socratic ignorance. Since people can't be persuaded unless they want to be persuaded, and you can't ever prove someone can't be persuaded (only that they haven't yet been persuaded), the advantage is always to the dishonest and unpersuadable. And the alternative is a press that is all too eager to claim that anyone who hasn't been persuaded (that abortion is wrong, say, or that taxing corporations will cause economic collapse, or that the election was stolen) is simply unpersuadable and should be ignored.
As long as you believe that "logic" can untangle such epistemic knots, you will be unable to improve your reasoning, or anyone else's.
I absolutely agree they won't be persuaded because for many, refusal is power. We know that they view themselves as victims of a changing America and feel powerless to stop it. That's why they rallied around the authoritarian figure of TFG. He gave their grievances a platform. By refusing not only are they "owning the libs," they are denying Biden a success. Remember how attendees applauded the country not reaching Biden's July 4 vaccination goal at CPAC. They're willing to risk their own health, as well as the health of parents, children and the rest of the public to cling to the power they get from refusing. It's a *slightly* more adult version of "Nyaah-nyaah, I'm not going to do it and nothing you can do about. What are you going to do, cry?"
I’m a lib who is owned and proud of it. If being owned means being fearful and furious at and by the behavior of the insurrectionists; the blockades of the ignorant .... choose your own descriptor.... anti 1/6, anti mask/vaccine, blah blah blah, it’s me. If that’s being owned, count me in. And Patrick, the word that came to my mind was ‘tantruming .’
How about stories about those 12 people on line who r peddling anti vaccination propaganda like Robert Kennedy the younger. I read an article this weekend about one of the 12, his name escapes me, but the writer uncovered lots of info about the guy. I’d love to see more of those 12 exposed, confronted and reported on.
Just heard Joe Scarborough ranting about misinformation causing people to refuse to get vaccinated and he wasn’t being polite about anti-vaxxers. However he then pivoted to putting the responsibility on Biden to fix things by demanding that Biden be brave and mandate that all health care workers and public school teachers be vaccinated.
As an ex-Congressman Scarborough surely knows that a president cannot doesn’t have the power to do that. Scarborough’s own network made it clear earlier this year that the states are the ones who control public schools and public health.
By spreading his own version of misinformation Scarborough is spreading the blame and making it likely that many people will blame Biden for new spikes and restrictions. He also is implying that Biden is not man enough to mandate vaccines.
Morning Joe also did segment this morning on the Times’s report that Dr. Joseph Mercola is the “most influential” spreader of anti-vaccination misinformation.
What wasn’t addressed is that PBS has given Mercola a platform to spread his snake oil. Frontline did do a show on the supplement and vitamin industry which sharply criticized Mercola but I think PBS needs to look hard at Mercola and other self-proclaimed health experts who are allowed to give dubious advice on their network.
Well, there's "can", and then there's "could". I believe the President has the legal authority to mandate vaccination for all federal employees (slightly different from "federal workers"). I don't believe SCOTUS will recognize that authority, and it is absolutely certain Republicons in Congress will not. Confounding the issue is that current vaccines are legally "experimental", because they have only Emergency Use Authorization rather than full FDA approval. That makes it much harder to justify such a mandate for a disease that, while highly contageous, has a single digit mortality rate.
SCOTUS gave up reasonable consideration long ago. They now use executive authority as an excuse for enabling Republicon and fascist policies, but never a justification for honest and necessary Democratic or emergency policies. I think that's the main issue in reality, though the EUA is the primary technical and legal stumbling block. All my personal opinion; I have no legal credentials or specific expertise.
These are the same people who demand their "rights" whenever they run into a commonwealth rule that doesn't fit with their self centered outlook. They text while driving, yammer on the phone (on speaker) in crowded public places, play with facebook while tailgating, cut in line, take up two parking spaces, play their sub-woofer equipped car stereos in traffic at volumes that are well above that which causes permanent ear damage, light up whatever they're smoking whenever and wherever they want, turn their screaming kids loose in the aisle on the airplane when they've had enough of the squirming on their lap, jaywalk in town (when the town retail center has more than plenty of well marked crosswalks that require pedestrian right-of-way), and generally flip the bird at anyone who has the audacity to give them the evil eye or, OMG, say something to them about their selfish, antisocial public behavior. And all this, not to mention the obvious already-in-place vaccination rules to travel overseas, join the military, send your kids to school, and on, and on, and on. I'm with you, Eric. Siddown on 'em.
There are many adjectives to describe today's Republican Party. One not used enough is "stupid". It amazes me how Republicans embrace the stupid in their voters but then again, without the stupid, they don't win. Charles Darwin turned biology upside down with his theory of evolution. I often think that his theory could be expanded to include stupid, in that the more stupid a person is, the less likely they will maintain the traits for survival. Anti-vaxxers are stupid for not getting the vaccine but their logic is stupid as well. They claim it violates their rights. Logically then, an anti-vaxxer should argue that stopping at a red light violates their rights as well. In doing so they are protecting others and themselves from being severely injured or killed at an intersection. In that scenario when the stoplight is red, even the anti-vaxxer stops (in most cases) without question. However, logic doesn't seem to work on these folks and with a vaccine readily available to keep them alive, they choose to be stupid and not get it. The press could do so much more to end this entire thing by simply calling out the stupid for what it is: stupid!
How about huge liars? Years ago Karl Rove bragged about Republicans were creating their own reality but for some reason the media didn’t seem to think that was a problem.
My Republican relatives are absolutely convinced that JC and his Sonshine Band are going to turn on the Holy Hoover Vacuum Cleaner in a week or 2 that will rapture them to Heaven...
Personally I wish that were going to happen. I would love it if all of them got whooshed up into the sky. I know I would be one of the lucky ones left behind to enjoy a world without them. 😀
Have negative comments against you ever worked to motivate you in your life to do something you didn’t want to do? Please stop generalizing people by their political party.
My deepest condolences to you for your loss. I have 4 sons and can’t imagine losing any of them. I am a veteran, never deployed but strongly believed in serving my country and would have given my life to defend the freedom we have here in the US. I took that oath when I signed up as did your son and every other soldier who served or serves. It doesn’t make it any easier for those left behind, but it is the hard truth that an individual makes when signing up to serve. You are entitled to feel whatever you want but grouping people together whether by political viewpoint, race, religion etc is never a positive thing. You don’t have to love or like, just not label and group.
Listen, we aren't grouping Republicons together. Republicons group themselves together, by being Republicons. If you don't like people saying Republicons are liars, your beef is with Republicons who lie, because we are not mischaracterizing Republicons by saying that.
I'm a veteran too, and for what it is worth, the thing that worried me was not that I might be killed, but that I might be given a (possibly) unlawful order and have to rely on nothing but my own conscience in determining what my oath required me to do. Dying is easy compared to that.
I must have read a different article than this one bc all I saw was Republicans mentioned nothing about Democrats or any other political party. See posts from Theodore30, Lou, Joe Bacon. Only mentions hate and stupidity. I don’t want to go back and forth on this anymore, just want the hate and negativity to stop from everyone.
I think it’s important for u to enter the conversation. I too am of a certain age and miss the niceties of yore, but Mr. Trump has politicized everything he gets his hands on. He’s the big hater in the ‘GOP’ and many of his followers take their cues from him.
That's the typical line I hear from Republicans who say they were glad my son was killed. And I have heard that line from multiple flag waiving Republicans.
DEFINITELY not happy that your son was killed, so please do not put words in my mouth. Just as I don’t know you, you don’t know me. I wish you the best and hope you can find healing from loss.
No they haven't. But what will motivate these folks to do something they don't want to do? To help their fellow citizen in a crisis? Nope, that hasn't worked. Because the science proves the vaccine is safe and by taking it we can get back to normal soon and prevent variants from developing? No, that hasn't worked either. By attempting to educate them that those they follow politically are only using them to advance a political agenda that results in power for Republican leaders regardless of the harm it will do to them? No, once again, that hasn't worked either. So what will work? Please tell me. What other words of encouragement that have not already been said by intelligent folks who simply want to protect these people as well as everyone needs to be said? I'm at a loss and I'm frustrated, frustrated with a large percentage of the population that ignores science, the same science that has made their lives so much better living in the 21st century. By and large, these folks are Republican voters who listen to their Representatives, Senators and Trump over the facts. I'm exhausted with these people and therefore the only thing left is for me to point out the ignorance of this group who happen to be Republicans. Hurt feelings, too bad, people are dying.
My frustration with this article and most things said nowadays is the constant attacks, name calling, finger pointing etc just because someone doesn’t believe in the same thing ( political party) that you do. Without saying my age, I have been around for awhile and there have always been debates 2, 3, 4 sides beliefs in something that would cause debate/argument but there was a level of respect that existed and has been lost in today’s world. Agree to disagree, but stop with the generalizing, name calling, bullying of each other just bc you don’t agree with them. How can we expect to come together again as a country and make progress to “unite”when all we do is tear one another down?
No judgment, simply responding to a question and being honest about wanting people to stop playing the blame game and come up with some actual solid plans for a strong future for our country. Both sides keeping spinning their wheels without making true progress.
The bottom line for me is whether or not we share the same values and how we demonstrate what those values are. Hatred, lying and civility are not among them, on either side. I would argue it’s ugliest on the right.
To be fair, a significant number of those not vaccinated are Black or Latinx, and are thinking of long histories of an unfair medical system. So I might cut them a LITTLE slack. But basically, this is almost entirely selfish, stupid people being selfish and stupid.
Excellent point. I'm not sure it's all hard line right wing cultists that are driving this. There is a cohort of New Age/Yoga/Alternative Health practitioners who are influencing anti vaccination crowd as well. I'm not sure of their political affiliation or if they claim any. While I have benefitted from many types of alternative treatments I realize importance of protecting myself and others through vaccinations.
Remember he also is convinced some people figured out how to change the Ohio results in 2004. Of course, only in the presidential race and only there. Sounds a bit like the republikkkans who think Biden's election was illegitimate but theirs went just fine.
I am confused why Trump supporters are being blamed or grouped with “anti vaccinators”? Please remind me which president actually pushed so vigilantly to produce a vaccine.It truly bothers me that everyone nowadays can only bring politics into an argument and not just hold individuals accountable as individuals. It is truly getting old and unoriginal. I am a Republican, a Trump supporter, believe in the vaccine, my family and I were all vaccinated as soon as we were eligible and feel strongly that not getting vaccinated is having a major negative impact on the rest of the population.
Trump *could* have taken credit for vaccine but he’s failed to do so, over and over casting doubt. Just this weekend he claimed people aren’t getting the vaccine bc they think the election was stolen.
For one thing, trump chose to deny the threat because he feared it would hurt him politically. He refused to support masks & social distancing because he feared it would hurt him politically. He likely would have died from COVID if he'd bern an ordinary citizen because he wouldn't have had access to the treatments he was given Secondly, he wanted credit for the vaccine. (I feel compelled to note that Pfizer was not part of his Opetation Warp Speed while they were the first & remain the most effective vaccine.) However, he has never voiced actual support for vaccination.
You seem to either embrace the image trump projects if himself or you're willing to ignore who he is because of your politics.
And an entire staff of advisors on the National Security Council to remain vigilant, as well as a CDC representative in a certain virology lab in Wuhan to coordinate with and keep tabs on overseas developments...
The mRNA work was the only thing Don Treason wasn't able to dismantle. Every time I think about it I become more frustrated that pathetic Republicon fraud is not sitting in a prison cell awaiting a lengthy trial for mass murder.
Don't forget how Jared said that Covid would only impact the blue states and how Trump supporters gloated when New York was initially flooded with Covid cases.
Remember Pulpit Pimps cheering that it was God punishing evil liberals and how that was repeated by Christian Republicans!
Oh and Jared also deliberately withheld needed supplies from New York. Remember that?
Here's why: When Trump, while in office, was first asked about whether he was concerned about this novel virus that was causing widespread illness, he immediately politicized it by dismissing it as "the Democrat's newest hoax". He continued politicizing it throughout his disastrously incompetent handling of the pandemic, and continues to do so today. His only real action to "push so vigilantly" for vaccines was to sign an EO allowing Emergency Use Authorization, something any other person in that office would have done. "Operation Warp Speed!" had no real impact on either development or distribution at all.
The reason the "dead enders" are being grouped with Trump supporters is that THEY ARE Trump supporters. Not all Trump supporters are dead enders. Not all dead enders are Trump supporters. But there is more than enough overlap in those categories to make your question something only a Trump supporter could be ignorant enough to ask. As I saw on Twitter recently "the Venn diagram of Republicans and anti-vaxxers is a perfect asshole."
Well said. I’m put off by those Republicans who publicly and shamelessly lie about the facts re:covid testing, vaccinations and the pandemic as a whole. It’s the irrational haters I can’t tolerate, not those of you who have taken responsibility for yourself and family, and gotten vaccinated.
Who is it, besides the anti-vaxxers, that has failed to condemn anti-vaxxers? Why would confusing the "vaccines cause autism" crowd, roundly mocked and dismissed for decades, with Republicons ignoring and lying about a pandemic for political reasons, be needed to increase anyone's credibility?
I came across many of the anti vaccine liberals trying to get their kids enrolled in school minus their shots. They were as unreasonably fervent as those other crazies on the right. Insufferable people who believe the world should revolve around them. They come in all political colors.
Thank you. I believe we all have a right to our political viewpoints, but if we keep negatively downing each other because of them no progress can be made on any issues. The focus needs to be on how do we get people to get vaccinated for the greater good of the population of the US and to prevent new strains of this awful virus to develop and negating the effectiveness of the current vaccines.
They are believers that natural things are good and that man made things are “unnatural”, i.e. bad for people. That is called magical thinking and is based in emotion, not logic. My grandfather lost 5 younger siblings to the natural disease diptheria. We don’t fact that threat because of the man made DPT vaccine.
These people are heavily into aggression because they have that authoritarian follower mind set: if you’re not with them you’re against them.
You are the enemy who is behind everything in their lives that they are angry about - and their leaders keep them angry all the time. When they are not wearing t-shirts that say “Fck your feelings” or punching out immune-compromised cancer patients for wearing masks, they’re passively aggressively complaining about how they’re the real victims and the media bends over backwards to be ‘fair’ to them.
The media inability to understand why these people engage in self-destructive behavior is because the media cannot allow itself to acknowledge that the Republican Party has become a right wing authoritarian cult.
The way the right is using religion for power differs from what Jim Jones or David Koresh did only in scale. Those ‘very fine people’ on the right trying to trigger a race war so they can ‘cleanse’ the nation are as much Charles Manson as Hitler, with the added sexual tension of the incels.
The only reason I care about the unvaccinated is because their selfishness is delaying any return to normalcy. It been two years since I’ve seen some family members. Some remind me of the October 31 undecided voter. Just looking for attention and wooing. Most though are just ignorant jerks and I don’t want to think about them. The sooner they’re gone the better
Just yesterday I replied to something on Twitter about the recent surge in Covid infections with a personal story of how I say in front of my computer in March refreshing the browser until I found my wife and I vaccine appointments. The anti-vaxxers came out of the woodwork to call me everything from the boilerplate about me being a "beta" to being told my organs were going to shut down any day now due to the vaccine. The level of anger from the anti-vaccine crowd is almost hard to believe. It's not that they don't want it for whatever reason - although I suspect that a lot of these people secretly got the vaccine. It's that the mere mention of how I got the vaccine upsets them so much. The vitriol from that crowd is incredible.
But you MUST be nice to them! The mainstream media has told us we must.
The mainstream media deserves a lot more blame than they are getting for helping set the stage for anti-vaccine beliefs. Serious anti-vax beliefs got started in the US well before COVID with the measles vax propaganda. The MSM could have helped put the kibosh on the anti-vax movement that was started by the UK conman Dr. Andrew Wakefield and pushed by the right wing tabloid The Daily Mail. Instead our media repeatedly gave a platform to sincere but completely unqualified people like Jenny McCarthy to spread Wakefield’s con to the US even though by 2004 Wakefield had been exposed as a fraud who stood to make money from discrediting the measles vaccine. The media also failed to make it clear that measles can be very dangerous. I had to explain this to my daughter-in-law who thought measles was a harmless childhood illness. She changed her mind after I told her about my schoolmate who had permanence brain damage from measles and that measles is the leading cause of childhood blindness in unvaccinated kids.
I accidentally posted this too soon. I want to add that now the media is underplaying the fact that younger people are the ones getting hospitalized. I have heard only one report that made this fact crystal clear. A reporter from SC described how all but one of the patients in a full South Carolina ICU were unvaccinated people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. The media does sometimes mention that younger people are now being hospitalized but they should make this fact much clearer and more dramatic. Many millennials were already vaccine hesitant as the result of the media attention to the debunked measles-autism fairytale. Many still think this disease is only a threat to older people. They need to be repeatedly shown the very real consequences not getting vaccinated could have on them and their families.
I understand why it seems to make sense, but I do not believe the anti-COVID-vaxx dead enders were or are at all dependent on, or even aided by, the RFK Jr/Jenny McCarthy bunch, apart from being natural allies in misinformation. Magattes would have been just as grievously and successfully against "the jab" if none of that had ever happened, and haven't been directly influenced by or benefitted from that older generation of non-political lunacy.
Like the thug Proud Babies who showed up at Cedars-Sinai last Friday harassing doctors, nurses and cancer patients with anti-vax nonsense? And as an an added bonus the Los Angeles County Sheriffs showed up...to side with the Proud Babies!
All right. I haven't been vaccinated and I have HAD ENOUGH OF THE SHAMING. Now I will tell you why I haven't been vaccinated.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a liberal Democrat from the progressive wing of the party. I am a local district leader for my party and I have a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology. I will also tell you what I am NOT. I'm not a "deplorable" Trump supporter that comes from the backwoods and totes guns. I'm from New York. And I made MY decision for MY BODY based on the assessed risks for ME. Yes. I am doing what is good for ME. Why? No one will take care of me but me. So that is my first responsibility. I am also poor and have pre-existing medical conditions.
I have lived the ball and chain of pre-existing conditions most of my life. Beyond being a health nightmare (I never know how long good health will last - it can turn on a dime). I was doing great before 9/11/2001. I was working in the Bronx and the dust from the cloud over lower Manhattan reached me. At least that was the theory. I was. in graduate school at the time and almost had to leave. 10 rounds of bronchitis, 9 rounds of antibiotics and 2 years later, the problem calmed down. But that's an example of what I live with. Over the years this has drained my financial resources and my ability to find good employment with good benefits. No one wants to hire someone who will raise the company premiums. I'm no deadbeat. I take work when I can get it. But half the time, I'm uninsured and living check to check in a gig economy. I make too much for subsidies and too little for insurance. Even if I could pay the premiums, the deductibles are so high that it would cost me thousands out-of-pocket before so much as a dime would kick in. For me, seeing a doctor is a luxury I can't afford. This means I have to be very, very careful.
Now let's get to the vaccine. First of all, my training and the research that I have done tells me something that you people don't want to understand. There is something fundamentally wrong with the safety of these vaccines. I believe that problem lies in the spike protein. It is quite likely the source of the inflammatory dysfunction that makes some people so seriously ill following the infectious phase of COVID. I will not bore you with the details, but since inflammatory issues run the gamut with ALL the vaccines, and the one thing they all have in common is the spike protein, on that basis alone, this seems highly likely. It also comes from a few papers that I came across as well. After examining all the issues up and down, I realized that the risk was just too high.
Please remember one thing. My background and training as well as reactions I've seen from people I know with and without inflammatory issues, the VEARS data (though unfiltered) is screaming something that you don't want to hear. That is simply that these vaccines are not that safe and they are particularly not safe to someone with inflammatory issues which I have a very long history of. My mother - with whom I share half of my genotype died of an inflammatory disorder. I have no desire to kick the bucket yet and I have no desire to lose the roof over my head from generating medical bills. I also can STAY HOME. It's hard after almost 18 months of this. But I can do it.
Bottom line #1 - the RISK from the vaccines is shared by all, but it is not shared EQUALLY by all. I am in the cross-hairs for a bad reaction from a human EXPERIMENT and I am opting OUT of the experiment.
Bottom line #2 - If I have a bad reaction that lays me low for months and lose my job (and the high deductible insurance that it gives me) and I generate 6 figures in medical bills, what happens to me? This is not so implausible. Remember my 9/11 experience. The problem was basically inflammatory. The result was that I was crawling through my days for 2 years and I was 20 years younger back then.
What you are asking me to do is roll hand grenades and not dice. Most of you don't have to do that. Your risk is less than the median, mine is far greater. Then you are telling me that the financial consequences of what could happen are ON ME. Sorry. No can do. If I have to stay isolated for another year, so be it but I AM NOT TAKING THAT VACCINE. And I absolutely resent a government entity that wishes to force a poorly vetted, poorly planned and constructed vaccine on me and then put the entire financial liability for anything going wrong ON ME. That is an absolute non-starter for anyone with high-risk factors.
Is there a risk? A slight one. I probably am within six feet of someone for more than 10 minutes about once a month. 90% of contacts are casual, short and outdoors with me double masked. I am less of a risk to them than they are to me.
Now - I can't be that unique. There's about 40 million people with autoimmune disorders and probably another 10 million who are immunosuppressed at any given time. For the latter, the vaccine is likely to be of limited protection. There are plenty of us that deserve consideration and RESPECT for our decisions. I wish that I felt it was safe enough for me to take. But it isn't.
I respect your decision for having the vaccine. I have ZERO respect for your vicious vitriol towards people like me. I also, quite frankly, find the point nearly moot. Why all the hysteria about the unvaccinated when the vaccinated have now been shown to spread the virus asymptomatically? That's far more insidious than the unvaccinated who will have symptoms. Further, new studies are showing waning immunity from the vaccine. I will add that it is probably the vaccinated that create the environment where dangerous vaccine- resistant variants tend to take over the viral population. It's a simple concept called "selective pressure". I used it all the time in the lab. So get off your high horses and come down to earth.
Why would any thinking and health-conscious person get a vaccine for a virus that is preventable and curable? A vaccine that doesn't guarantee prevention nor transmission? These are the "selfish idiots" everyone speaks of with such vehemence and disdain? People who eat and live consciously? Most of those I know who have been vaccinated, know nothing about real health, nutrition, and prevention. They go to the doctor constantly and take meds for everything instead of finding natural, organic, and disciplined ways of living. They were paranoid and pathetic through the whole "pandemic" and watched mainstream news relentlessly, like the scared, pathetic fools that they are while sitting at home picking up a paycheck from hard-working taxpayers that the government doles out.
So much of the initial information on the virus including prevention and cure that was dismissed and mocked has proven to be accurate and effective. If one is obese, diabetic, generally unhealthy and has nothing to lose, go ahead and take whatever the government, (who of course has your best interest at heart), has got to give. Covid is NOT Small Pox or Polio and the vaccines are not FDA approved. The companies making the vaccines accept no responsibility for reactions including death.
I have 3 children - 1 daughter is an infectious disease researcher who has worked on several covid related clinical trials in the last 18 months and who shares information on IG, 1 daughter who is a nurse practitioner and spent months giving covid tests and watching her patients die, and a son who refuses to get vaccinated. I tried the soft approach for a long time but sadly have been reduced to switching between pleading with him and MomScreaming at him. Turns out, it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter what you say to someone who has no good reason for not getting vaccinated but is convinced they have lots of good reasons. You cannot guilt them, shame them or scare them to any effect. Occasionally when they are personally impacted by covid they change their mind but even then, there are stories of people who recover from a terrible case of covid complete with 6 figure medical bills, who still won't get vaccinated. I hate to be so defeatist about it but I'm comfortable that what I'm seeing is how it is :-(
PS - he isn't a QAnon guy. Doesn't think there are microchips or any of that. He just 'has an immune system' and 'doesn't trust it' and that sort of thing.
The tide is turning, finally. Governments are starting to mandate vaccines. The VA is the first at the federal level. The dead-enders will be forced to take covid tests every few days if they fail to comply. This is the start of a trend. Businesses, especially in the healthcare industry, are doing the same. The current situation isn't sustainable for our health and the economy.
I consider myself to be a kind, compassionate person, but I’ve reached my limit re: the folks who refuse to be vaccinated. I love the phrase ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’ as it accurately portrays the idiots who refuse to be vaccinated no matter what as if there were no consequences to the rest of us. Patriots you say? Selfish stubbornness and false pride is what I say. The press seems to be turning itself into pretzels trying to square its empathy with the stupidity of those standing in the way of a healthy polity. My mind is scrambled and exhausted by all this dangerous, ignorant nonsense and the lack of good sense, civic responsibility and integrity among the msm et al. Thanks, Eric, for another great piece.
I think 8 months is more than enough time to extend compassion. the remaining vaccine dead-enders don’t really deserve it any more
Then you are neither kind NOR compassionate. Have a nice day.
An angry and frustrated rant does not negate compassion, kindness. All can be the same at once. Have a nice day.
The same religious wackos who whine that they have a right to choose when it comes to the vaccine turn around and say that a woman has no right to choose abortion.
it’s maddening, for sure
Anti-vaxxers and the QAnon crowd feed off of each other because at the root of their nonsense is an illogical but unshakeable belief that a handful of conspirators literally run the world. These people cannot be convinced they are mistaken. My sister-in-law and her husband subscribe to this nonsense, and throw their votes away every 4 years because "there's no difference between the parties." But Eric is exactly right when he says that those folks are not driving the opposition to the Covid shots...the Former Guy so deeply rooted everything about CV-19 in politics that his followers cannot make themselves openly disavow him. They are anti-mask because HE is anti-mask, and they think CV-19 is "just like the flu" because that is what HE told them. Kay Ivy is correct - those people are a danger to all of us and should be called out and treated as such.
Exactly, they’re completely not persuadable, which press refuses to acknowledge
This is the slippery slope of postmodernism. It starts with "keep an open mind". It proceeds to "benefit of the doubt". It eventually becomes "innocent until proven guilty". All good in their proper context, all bad when used to maintain purposeful Socratic ignorance. Since people can't be persuaded unless they want to be persuaded, and you can't ever prove someone can't be persuaded (only that they haven't yet been persuaded), the advantage is always to the dishonest and unpersuadable. And the alternative is a press that is all too eager to claim that anyone who hasn't been persuaded (that abortion is wrong, say, or that taxing corporations will cause economic collapse, or that the election was stolen) is simply unpersuadable and should be ignored.
As long as you believe that "logic" can untangle such epistemic knots, you will be unable to improve your reasoning, or anyone else's.
I absolutely agree they won't be persuaded because for many, refusal is power. We know that they view themselves as victims of a changing America and feel powerless to stop it. That's why they rallied around the authoritarian figure of TFG. He gave their grievances a platform. By refusing not only are they "owning the libs," they are denying Biden a success. Remember how attendees applauded the country not reaching Biden's July 4 vaccination goal at CPAC. They're willing to risk their own health, as well as the health of parents, children and the rest of the public to cling to the power they get from refusing. It's a *slightly* more adult version of "Nyaah-nyaah, I'm not going to do it and nothing you can do about. What are you going to do, cry?"
I’m a lib who is owned and proud of it. If being owned means being fearful and furious at and by the behavior of the insurrectionists; the blockades of the ignorant .... choose your own descriptor.... anti 1/6, anti mask/vaccine, blah blah blah, it’s me. If that’s being owned, count me in. And Patrick, the word that came to my mind was ‘tantruming .’
How about stories about those 12 people on line who r peddling anti vaccination propaganda like Robert Kennedy the younger. I read an article this weekend about one of the 12, his name escapes me, but the writer uncovered lots of info about the guy. I’d love to see more of those 12 exposed, confronted and reported on.
Just heard Joe Scarborough ranting about misinformation causing people to refuse to get vaccinated and he wasn’t being polite about anti-vaxxers. However he then pivoted to putting the responsibility on Biden to fix things by demanding that Biden be brave and mandate that all health care workers and public school teachers be vaccinated.
As an ex-Congressman Scarborough surely knows that a president cannot doesn’t have the power to do that. Scarborough’s own network made it clear earlier this year that the states are the ones who control public schools and public health.
By spreading his own version of misinformation Scarborough is spreading the blame and making it likely that many people will blame Biden for new spikes and restrictions. He also is implying that Biden is not man enough to mandate vaccines.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/why-president-biden-can-t-make-states-vaccinate-teachers-or-n1258565
Morning Joe also did segment this morning on the Times’s report that Dr. Joseph Mercola is the “most influential” spreader of anti-vaccination misinformation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/technology/joseph-mercola-coronavirus-misinformation-online.html
What wasn’t addressed is that PBS has given Mercola a platform to spread his snake oil. Frontline did do a show on the supplement and vitamin industry which sharply criticized Mercola but I think PBS needs to look hard at Mercola and other self-proclaimed health experts who are allowed to give dubious advice on their network.
this has been an unfortunate part of the coverage for sure, trying to pin the blame on Biden for GOP dead-enders
I think Biden can mandate vaccinations for all federal workers? That would be great. Correct me if I’m wrong, anyone.
Well, there's "can", and then there's "could". I believe the President has the legal authority to mandate vaccination for all federal employees (slightly different from "federal workers"). I don't believe SCOTUS will recognize that authority, and it is absolutely certain Republicons in Congress will not. Confounding the issue is that current vaccines are legally "experimental", because they have only Emergency Use Authorization rather than full FDA approval. That makes it much harder to justify such a mandate for a disease that, while highly contageous, has a single digit mortality rate.
SCOTUS gave up reasonable consideration long ago. They now use executive authority as an excuse for enabling Republicon and fascist policies, but never a justification for honest and necessary Democratic or emergency policies. I think that's the main issue in reality, though the EUA is the primary technical and legal stumbling block. All my personal opinion; I have no legal credentials or specific expertise.
Great points about EUA and SCOTUS. I hadn’t considered long term political next steps. Thx T. Max
I agree but he’ll be killed by media, folks on the right.
Wray isn't responsible for the lack of followup on the tips about Kavanaugh. https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1418303773940854786?s=19
These are the same people who demand their "rights" whenever they run into a commonwealth rule that doesn't fit with their self centered outlook. They text while driving, yammer on the phone (on speaker) in crowded public places, play with facebook while tailgating, cut in line, take up two parking spaces, play their sub-woofer equipped car stereos in traffic at volumes that are well above that which causes permanent ear damage, light up whatever they're smoking whenever and wherever they want, turn their screaming kids loose in the aisle on the airplane when they've had enough of the squirming on their lap, jaywalk in town (when the town retail center has more than plenty of well marked crosswalks that require pedestrian right-of-way), and generally flip the bird at anyone who has the audacity to give them the evil eye or, OMG, say something to them about their selfish, antisocial public behavior. And all this, not to mention the obvious already-in-place vaccination rules to travel overseas, join the military, send your kids to school, and on, and on, and on. I'm with you, Eric. Siddown on 'em.
also, most of these people never care abt vaccines until this year
Sounds right to me. They're welcome to kill each other off, but leave the rest of us out of it, plz.
Correct. Anti vaxxers got sucked into the QAnon vortex and became useful idiots in a broader anti-government movement.
And are anti choice when it comes to telling women what to do with our bodies. HELLO?!
Don't overlook the irony of the self proclaimed "pro life" crowd opposing a life saving vaccine.
There are many adjectives to describe today's Republican Party. One not used enough is "stupid". It amazes me how Republicans embrace the stupid in their voters but then again, without the stupid, they don't win. Charles Darwin turned biology upside down with his theory of evolution. I often think that his theory could be expanded to include stupid, in that the more stupid a person is, the less likely they will maintain the traits for survival. Anti-vaxxers are stupid for not getting the vaccine but their logic is stupid as well. They claim it violates their rights. Logically then, an anti-vaxxer should argue that stopping at a red light violates their rights as well. In doing so they are protecting others and themselves from being severely injured or killed at an intersection. In that scenario when the stoplight is red, even the anti-vaxxer stops (in most cases) without question. However, logic doesn't seem to work on these folks and with a vaccine readily available to keep them alive, they choose to be stupid and not get it. The press could do so much more to end this entire thing by simply calling out the stupid for what it is: stupid!
oh gosh DC press would never use accurate words like “stupid” for GOP
How about moronic, ignorant, dull-witted, simpleminded, empty-headed? Guess not. :)
How about huge liars? Years ago Karl Rove bragged about Republicans were creating their own reality but for some reason the media didn’t seem to think that was a problem.
Yes, the Republican Party are huge liars. The Republican voters are stupid!
My Republican relatives are absolutely convinced that JC and his Sonshine Band are going to turn on the Holy Hoover Vacuum Cleaner in a week or 2 that will rapture them to Heaven...
Personally I wish that were going to happen. I would love it if all of them got whooshed up into the sky. I know I would be one of the lucky ones left behind to enjoy a world without them. 😀
Have negative comments against you ever worked to motivate you in your life to do something you didn’t want to do? Please stop generalizing people by their political party.
I have no love for Republicans who lied us into war with Iraq...a war that killed my son.
My deepest condolences to you for your loss. I have 4 sons and can’t imagine losing any of them. I am a veteran, never deployed but strongly believed in serving my country and would have given my life to defend the freedom we have here in the US. I took that oath when I signed up as did your son and every other soldier who served or serves. It doesn’t make it any easier for those left behind, but it is the hard truth that an individual makes when signing up to serve. You are entitled to feel whatever you want but grouping people together whether by political viewpoint, race, religion etc is never a positive thing. You don’t have to love or like, just not label and group.
Listen, we aren't grouping Republicons together. Republicons group themselves together, by being Republicons. If you don't like people saying Republicons are liars, your beef is with Republicons who lie, because we are not mischaracterizing Republicons by saying that.
I'm a veteran too, and for what it is worth, the thing that worried me was not that I might be killed, but that I might be given a (possibly) unlawful order and have to rely on nothing but my own conscience in determining what my oath required me to do. Dying is easy compared to that.
I must have read a different article than this one bc all I saw was Republicans mentioned nothing about Democrats or any other political party. See posts from Theodore30, Lou, Joe Bacon. Only mentions hate and stupidity. I don’t want to go back and forth on this anymore, just want the hate and negativity to stop from everyone.
There is no both-sides here.
I think it’s important for u to enter the conversation. I too am of a certain age and miss the niceties of yore, but Mr. Trump has politicized everything he gets his hands on. He’s the big hater in the ‘GOP’ and many of his followers take their cues from him.
That's the typical line I hear from Republicans who say they were glad my son was killed. And I have heard that line from multiple flag waiving Republicans.
Which I will NEVER forgive them for saying.
DEFINITELY not happy that your son was killed, so please do not put words in my mouth. Just as I don’t know you, you don’t know me. I wish you the best and hope you can find healing from loss.
Last comment on this--I put no words in your mouth.
No they haven't. But what will motivate these folks to do something they don't want to do? To help their fellow citizen in a crisis? Nope, that hasn't worked. Because the science proves the vaccine is safe and by taking it we can get back to normal soon and prevent variants from developing? No, that hasn't worked either. By attempting to educate them that those they follow politically are only using them to advance a political agenda that results in power for Republican leaders regardless of the harm it will do to them? No, once again, that hasn't worked either. So what will work? Please tell me. What other words of encouragement that have not already been said by intelligent folks who simply want to protect these people as well as everyone needs to be said? I'm at a loss and I'm frustrated, frustrated with a large percentage of the population that ignores science, the same science that has made their lives so much better living in the 21st century. By and large, these folks are Republican voters who listen to their Representatives, Senators and Trump over the facts. I'm exhausted with these people and therefore the only thing left is for me to point out the ignorance of this group who happen to be Republicans. Hurt feelings, too bad, people are dying.
Are you supportive of the euphemistic approach of the media that this article is criticizing?
My frustration with this article and most things said nowadays is the constant attacks, name calling, finger pointing etc just because someone doesn’t believe in the same thing ( political party) that you do. Without saying my age, I have been around for awhile and there have always been debates 2, 3, 4 sides beliefs in something that would cause debate/argument but there was a level of respect that existed and has been lost in today’s world. Agree to disagree, but stop with the generalizing, name calling, bullying of each other just bc you don’t agree with them. How can we expect to come together again as a country and make progress to “unite”when all we do is tear one another down?
Sorry but I'm not the judgmental one in this conversation. You've got a very broad brush in your hand.
No judgment, simply responding to a question and being honest about wanting people to stop playing the blame game and come up with some actual solid plans for a strong future for our country. Both sides keeping spinning their wheels without making true progress.
*keep spinning
The bottom line for me is whether or not we share the same values and how we demonstrate what those values are. Hatred, lying and civility are not among them, on either side. I would argue it’s ugliest on the right.
I agree.
Oops. In civility.
Or prevent others from doing what they have the right to do like voting easily and w/o jumping thru made up hoops. But, I digress ....
To be fair, a significant number of those not vaccinated are Black or Latinx, and are thinking of long histories of an unfair medical system. So I might cut them a LITTLE slack. But basically, this is almost entirely selfish, stupid people being selfish and stupid.
I agree absolutely with this.
Really good point, poor white rural folks too
Excellent point. I'm not sure it's all hard line right wing cultists that are driving this. There is a cohort of New Age/Yoga/Alternative Health practitioners who are influencing anti vaccination crowd as well. I'm not sure of their political affiliation or if they claim any. While I have benefitted from many types of alternative treatments I realize importance of protecting myself and others through vaccinations.
I immediately thought of RFK, Jr., who is the only Kennedy I am aware of who is from another planet.
He's been on this for decades. I don't get it.
Remember he also is convinced some people figured out how to change the Ohio results in 2004. Of course, only in the presidential race and only there. Sounds a bit like the republikkkans who think Biden's election was illegitimate but theirs went just fine.
Well, I'm in Ohio and I have to admit I still have doubts about Ohio results in 2004.
I might have had more doubts if Voinovich hadn't won so big and Ohio hadn't been going republikkkan.
Truth telling is not bashing except to the liar who is thwarted. I couldn't help but insert more than Carlin's 7 words as I read this measured piece.
I am confused why Trump supporters are being blamed or grouped with “anti vaccinators”? Please remind me which president actually pushed so vigilantly to produce a vaccine.It truly bothers me that everyone nowadays can only bring politics into an argument and not just hold individuals accountable as individuals. It is truly getting old and unoriginal. I am a Republican, a Trump supporter, believe in the vaccine, my family and I were all vaccinated as soon as we were eligible and feel strongly that not getting vaccinated is having a major negative impact on the rest of the population.
Trump *could* have taken credit for vaccine but he’s failed to do so, over and over casting doubt. Just this weekend he claimed people aren’t getting the vaccine bc they think the election was stolen.
Exactly. And he told them to get the vaccine or not (with his smirk and should shrug).
For one thing, trump chose to deny the threat because he feared it would hurt him politically. He refused to support masks & social distancing because he feared it would hurt him politically. He likely would have died from COVID if he'd bern an ordinary citizen because he wouldn't have had access to the treatments he was given Secondly, he wanted credit for the vaccine. (I feel compelled to note that Pfizer was not part of his Opetation Warp Speed while they were the first & remain the most effective vaccine.) However, he has never voiced actual support for vaccination.
You seem to either embrace the image trump projects if himself or you're willing to ignore who he is because of your politics.
I feel compelled to add that President Obama deserves credit for funding development of mRNA vaccine technology.
Yes indeed. And he left a solid plan for managing a pandemic...
And an entire staff of advisors on the National Security Council to remain vigilant, as well as a CDC representative in a certain virology lab in Wuhan to coordinate with and keep tabs on overseas developments...
The mRNA work was the only thing Don Treason wasn't able to dismantle. Every time I think about it I become more frustrated that pathetic Republicon fraud is not sitting in a prison cell awaiting a lengthy trial for mass murder.
Agree to disagree.
Don't forget how Jared said that Covid would only impact the blue states and how Trump supporters gloated when New York was initially flooded with Covid cases.
Remember Pulpit Pimps cheering that it was God punishing evil liberals and how that was repeated by Christian Republicans!
Oh and Jared also deliberately withheld needed supplies from New York. Remember that?
Here's why: When Trump, while in office, was first asked about whether he was concerned about this novel virus that was causing widespread illness, he immediately politicized it by dismissing it as "the Democrat's newest hoax". He continued politicizing it throughout his disastrously incompetent handling of the pandemic, and continues to do so today. His only real action to "push so vigilantly" for vaccines was to sign an EO allowing Emergency Use Authorization, something any other person in that office would have done. "Operation Warp Speed!" had no real impact on either development or distribution at all.
The reason the "dead enders" are being grouped with Trump supporters is that THEY ARE Trump supporters. Not all Trump supporters are dead enders. Not all dead enders are Trump supporters. But there is more than enough overlap in those categories to make your question something only a Trump supporter could be ignorant enough to ask. As I saw on Twitter recently "the Venn diagram of Republicans and anti-vaxxers is a perfect asshole."
LOL
Well said. I’m put off by those Republicans who publicly and shamelessly lie about the facts re:covid testing, vaccinations and the pandemic as a whole. It’s the irrational haters I can’t tolerate, not those of you who have taken responsibility for yourself and family, and gotten vaccinated.
Who is it, besides the anti-vaxxers, that has failed to condemn anti-vaxxers? Why would confusing the "vaccines cause autism" crowd, roundly mocked and dismissed for decades, with Republicons ignoring and lying about a pandemic for political reasons, be needed to increase anyone's credibility?
Are you forgetting that hard core Republican Joe Mercola who is the #1 spreader of vaccine disinformation?
I came across many of the anti vaccine liberals trying to get their kids enrolled in school minus their shots. They were as unreasonably fervent as those other crazies on the right. Insufferable people who believe the world should revolve around them. They come in all political colors.
I agree.
Thank you. I believe we all have a right to our political viewpoints, but if we keep negatively downing each other because of them no progress can be made on any issues. The focus needs to be on how do we get people to get vaccinated for the greater good of the population of the US and to prevent new strains of this awful virus to develop and negating the effectiveness of the current vaccines.
They are believers that natural things are good and that man made things are “unnatural”, i.e. bad for people. That is called magical thinking and is based in emotion, not logic. My grandfather lost 5 younger siblings to the natural disease diptheria. We don’t fact that threat because of the man made DPT vaccine.
These people are heavily into aggression because they have that authoritarian follower mind set: if you’re not with them you’re against them.
You are the enemy who is behind everything in their lives that they are angry about - and their leaders keep them angry all the time. When they are not wearing t-shirts that say “Fck your feelings” or punching out immune-compromised cancer patients for wearing masks, they’re passively aggressively complaining about how they’re the real victims and the media bends over backwards to be ‘fair’ to them.
The media inability to understand why these people engage in self-destructive behavior is because the media cannot allow itself to acknowledge that the Republican Party has become a right wing authoritarian cult.
The way the right is using religion for power differs from what Jim Jones or David Koresh did only in scale. Those ‘very fine people’ on the right trying to trigger a race war so they can ‘cleanse’ the nation are as much Charles Manson as Hitler, with the added sexual tension of the incels.
it’s cultish behavior, for sure
The only reason I care about the unvaccinated is because their selfishness is delaying any return to normalcy. It been two years since I’ve seen some family members. Some remind me of the October 31 undecided voter. Just looking for attention and wooing. Most though are just ignorant jerks and I don’t want to think about them. The sooner they’re gone the better
Just yesterday I replied to something on Twitter about the recent surge in Covid infections with a personal story of how I say in front of my computer in March refreshing the browser until I found my wife and I vaccine appointments. The anti-vaxxers came out of the woodwork to call me everything from the boilerplate about me being a "beta" to being told my organs were going to shut down any day now due to the vaccine. The level of anger from the anti-vaccine crowd is almost hard to believe. It's not that they don't want it for whatever reason - although I suspect that a lot of these people secretly got the vaccine. It's that the mere mention of how I got the vaccine upsets them so much. The vitriol from that crowd is incredible.
But you MUST be nice to them! The mainstream media has told us we must.
The mainstream media deserves a lot more blame than they are getting for helping set the stage for anti-vaccine beliefs. Serious anti-vax beliefs got started in the US well before COVID with the measles vax propaganda. The MSM could have helped put the kibosh on the anti-vax movement that was started by the UK conman Dr. Andrew Wakefield and pushed by the right wing tabloid The Daily Mail. Instead our media repeatedly gave a platform to sincere but completely unqualified people like Jenny McCarthy to spread Wakefield’s con to the US even though by 2004 Wakefield had been exposed as a fraud who stood to make money from discrediting the measles vaccine. The media also failed to make it clear that measles can be very dangerous. I had to explain this to my daughter-in-law who thought measles was a harmless childhood illness. She changed her mind after I told her about my schoolmate who had permanence brain damage from measles and that measles is the leading cause of childhood blindness in unvaccinated kids.
I accidentally posted this too soon. I want to add that now the media is underplaying the fact that younger people are the ones getting hospitalized. I have heard only one report that made this fact crystal clear. A reporter from SC described how all but one of the patients in a full South Carolina ICU were unvaccinated people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. The media does sometimes mention that younger people are now being hospitalized but they should make this fact much clearer and more dramatic. Many millennials were already vaccine hesitant as the result of the media attention to the debunked measles-autism fairytale. Many still think this disease is only a threat to older people. They need to be repeatedly shown the very real consequences not getting vaccinated could have on them and their families.
I understand why it seems to make sense, but I do not believe the anti-COVID-vaxx dead enders were or are at all dependent on, or even aided by, the RFK Jr/Jenny McCarthy bunch, apart from being natural allies in misinformation. Magattes would have been just as grievously and successfully against "the jab" if none of that had ever happened, and haven't been directly influenced by or benefitted from that older generation of non-political lunacy.
Like the thug Proud Babies who showed up at Cedars-Sinai last Friday harassing doctors, nurses and cancer patients with anti-vax nonsense? And as an an added bonus the Los Angeles County Sheriffs showed up...to side with the Proud Babies!
All right. I haven't been vaccinated and I have HAD ENOUGH OF THE SHAMING. Now I will tell you why I haven't been vaccinated.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a liberal Democrat from the progressive wing of the party. I am a local district leader for my party and I have a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology. I will also tell you what I am NOT. I'm not a "deplorable" Trump supporter that comes from the backwoods and totes guns. I'm from New York. And I made MY decision for MY BODY based on the assessed risks for ME. Yes. I am doing what is good for ME. Why? No one will take care of me but me. So that is my first responsibility. I am also poor and have pre-existing medical conditions.
I have lived the ball and chain of pre-existing conditions most of my life. Beyond being a health nightmare (I never know how long good health will last - it can turn on a dime). I was doing great before 9/11/2001. I was working in the Bronx and the dust from the cloud over lower Manhattan reached me. At least that was the theory. I was. in graduate school at the time and almost had to leave. 10 rounds of bronchitis, 9 rounds of antibiotics and 2 years later, the problem calmed down. But that's an example of what I live with. Over the years this has drained my financial resources and my ability to find good employment with good benefits. No one wants to hire someone who will raise the company premiums. I'm no deadbeat. I take work when I can get it. But half the time, I'm uninsured and living check to check in a gig economy. I make too much for subsidies and too little for insurance. Even if I could pay the premiums, the deductibles are so high that it would cost me thousands out-of-pocket before so much as a dime would kick in. For me, seeing a doctor is a luxury I can't afford. This means I have to be very, very careful.
Now let's get to the vaccine. First of all, my training and the research that I have done tells me something that you people don't want to understand. There is something fundamentally wrong with the safety of these vaccines. I believe that problem lies in the spike protein. It is quite likely the source of the inflammatory dysfunction that makes some people so seriously ill following the infectious phase of COVID. I will not bore you with the details, but since inflammatory issues run the gamut with ALL the vaccines, and the one thing they all have in common is the spike protein, on that basis alone, this seems highly likely. It also comes from a few papers that I came across as well. After examining all the issues up and down, I realized that the risk was just too high.
Please remember one thing. My background and training as well as reactions I've seen from people I know with and without inflammatory issues, the VEARS data (though unfiltered) is screaming something that you don't want to hear. That is simply that these vaccines are not that safe and they are particularly not safe to someone with inflammatory issues which I have a very long history of. My mother - with whom I share half of my genotype died of an inflammatory disorder. I have no desire to kick the bucket yet and I have no desire to lose the roof over my head from generating medical bills. I also can STAY HOME. It's hard after almost 18 months of this. But I can do it.
Bottom line #1 - the RISK from the vaccines is shared by all, but it is not shared EQUALLY by all. I am in the cross-hairs for a bad reaction from a human EXPERIMENT and I am opting OUT of the experiment.
Bottom line #2 - If I have a bad reaction that lays me low for months and lose my job (and the high deductible insurance that it gives me) and I generate 6 figures in medical bills, what happens to me? This is not so implausible. Remember my 9/11 experience. The problem was basically inflammatory. The result was that I was crawling through my days for 2 years and I was 20 years younger back then.
What you are asking me to do is roll hand grenades and not dice. Most of you don't have to do that. Your risk is less than the median, mine is far greater. Then you are telling me that the financial consequences of what could happen are ON ME. Sorry. No can do. If I have to stay isolated for another year, so be it but I AM NOT TAKING THAT VACCINE. And I absolutely resent a government entity that wishes to force a poorly vetted, poorly planned and constructed vaccine on me and then put the entire financial liability for anything going wrong ON ME. That is an absolute non-starter for anyone with high-risk factors.
Is there a risk? A slight one. I probably am within six feet of someone for more than 10 minutes about once a month. 90% of contacts are casual, short and outdoors with me double masked. I am less of a risk to them than they are to me.
Now - I can't be that unique. There's about 40 million people with autoimmune disorders and probably another 10 million who are immunosuppressed at any given time. For the latter, the vaccine is likely to be of limited protection. There are plenty of us that deserve consideration and RESPECT for our decisions. I wish that I felt it was safe enough for me to take. But it isn't.
I respect your decision for having the vaccine. I have ZERO respect for your vicious vitriol towards people like me. I also, quite frankly, find the point nearly moot. Why all the hysteria about the unvaccinated when the vaccinated have now been shown to spread the virus asymptomatically? That's far more insidious than the unvaccinated who will have symptoms. Further, new studies are showing waning immunity from the vaccine. I will add that it is probably the vaccinated that create the environment where dangerous vaccine- resistant variants tend to take over the viral population. It's a simple concept called "selective pressure". I used it all the time in the lab. So get off your high horses and come down to earth.
Don't give a shit. Go away.
Why would any thinking and health-conscious person get a vaccine for a virus that is preventable and curable? A vaccine that doesn't guarantee prevention nor transmission? These are the "selfish idiots" everyone speaks of with such vehemence and disdain? People who eat and live consciously? Most of those I know who have been vaccinated, know nothing about real health, nutrition, and prevention. They go to the doctor constantly and take meds for everything instead of finding natural, organic, and disciplined ways of living. They were paranoid and pathetic through the whole "pandemic" and watched mainstream news relentlessly, like the scared, pathetic fools that they are while sitting at home picking up a paycheck from hard-working taxpayers that the government doles out.
So much of the initial information on the virus including prevention and cure that was dismissed and mocked has proven to be accurate and effective. If one is obese, diabetic, generally unhealthy and has nothing to lose, go ahead and take whatever the government, (who of course has your best interest at heart), has got to give. Covid is NOT Small Pox or Polio and the vaccines are not FDA approved. The companies making the vaccines accept no responsibility for reactions including death.
I have 3 children - 1 daughter is an infectious disease researcher who has worked on several covid related clinical trials in the last 18 months and who shares information on IG, 1 daughter who is a nurse practitioner and spent months giving covid tests and watching her patients die, and a son who refuses to get vaccinated. I tried the soft approach for a long time but sadly have been reduced to switching between pleading with him and MomScreaming at him. Turns out, it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter what you say to someone who has no good reason for not getting vaccinated but is convinced they have lots of good reasons. You cannot guilt them, shame them or scare them to any effect. Occasionally when they are personally impacted by covid they change their mind but even then, there are stories of people who recover from a terrible case of covid complete with 6 figure medical bills, who still won't get vaccinated. I hate to be so defeatist about it but I'm comfortable that what I'm seeing is how it is :-(
PS - he isn't a QAnon guy. Doesn't think there are microchips or any of that. He just 'has an immune system' and 'doesn't trust it' and that sort of thing.
The tide is turning, finally. Governments are starting to mandate vaccines. The VA is the first at the federal level. The dead-enders will be forced to take covid tests every few days if they fail to comply. This is the start of a trend. Businesses, especially in the healthcare industry, are doing the same. The current situation isn't sustainable for our health and the economy.