111 Comments

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 :-(

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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.

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