This is going to be super controversial, but I absolutely agree that if you do your part and get vaxxed you should have priority treatment from doctors.
If you don't get vaxxed because you don't trust science and medicine, then you probably don't trust the doctors anyway, right? https://t.co/BxXCNDkSd7
— The Darkest Timeline Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) August 19, 2021
Now let me be clear, I am not saying that the COVID vaccine will cause flipper babies.
What I am saying is that skepticism about a drug hailed as a miracle and pushed through testing quickly caused one of the worst medical disasters in modern medical history.
People have a right to be skeptical.
The vast majority of people who are hesitant about the COVID vaccine are vaccinated against a lot of other things.
When you ask them why they are hesitant about the COVID vaccine they will almost universally tell you that it was developed and approved very fast and they want to know what the long term effects are.
Which is an entirely reasonable position.
People want some clinical history to show that it’s safe.
The Left has deliberately mischaracterized COVID vaccine hesitancy as a total distrust of all vaccines and all modern medicine.
This is horseshit.
I could talk about how Fauci and most/all of the physicians in government and policy making have lied to us repeatedly.
I could talk about dancing doctors and nurses destroying their credibility on TikTok.
But in the end there is only one word that needs to be said: Thalidomide.
There is precedent that medicine with a lot of hype and no clinical history can go very, very wrong, and people being hesitant about that (especially pregnant women) should not be treated as second class citizens for their reticence.
Apart from thalidomide, is there a single medical innovation the FDA has blocked that subsequently was shown to be dangerous?
It’s very clear that the glacially slow FDA process has hurt and killed a substantial number of Americans. Come to think of it, even when they do a so-called “emergency” approval they move very slowly, witness the example of the Covid vaccine approvals where the review committee dallied for about a month before holding its approving meeting. Perhaps by DC standards that’s an emergency pace, but normal people would demand a meeting the next day, not next month.
So yes, the FDA likes to rest on that one laurel. Do they have any other laurels? I’m not aware of any.
Blocked, none that I can think of off the top of my head. Said “Yeah, this shit is good to go,” and then issued recalls years (sometimes decades) later because people got seriously fucked up from thei “approved” drugs? Lots. Accutane, Baycol, Bextra, Darvocet, Diethylstibestrol, Hismanal, Meridia, Rezulin, Vioxx . . . just to name a few.
First thing I thought of when the Vax Cultists started whinging “Trust the science!” Sort of dates me, doesn’t it.
Interestingly, when I bring up that example, even when speaking to “educated” civilians, I commonly get a blank look.
I am vaccinated. My choice. I am an overweight 60 year old and I think the benefits outweigh the risks.
If someone does not want to get vaxxed because of religious reasons, concerns about the long term safety of the vaccine, concerns about its effectiveness (Lambda Variant), or just because they are a contrary cuss, I am fine with that.
I would encourage them to get vaccinated, but they can make their own decisions for themselves AND their Family.
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO’S ‘WHO’S BEEN VACCINATED?’
Bud: ‘You can’t come in here!’
Lou: ‘Why not?’
Bud: ‘Well because you’re unvaccinated.’
Lou: ‘But I’m not sick.’
Bud: ‘It doesn’t matter.’
Lou: ‘Well, why does that guy get to go in?’
Bud: ‘Because he’s vaccinated.’
Lou: ‘But he’s sick!’
Bud: ‘It’s alright. Everyone in here is vaccinated.’
Lou: ‘Wait a minute. Are you saying everyone in there is vaccinated?’
Bud: ‘Yes.’
Lou: ‘So then why can’t I go in there if everyone is vaccinated?’
Bud: ‘Because you’ll make them sick.’
Lou: ‘How will I make them sick if I’m NOT sick and they’re vaccinated.’
Bud: ‘Because you’re unvaccinated.’
Lou: ‘But they’re vaccinated.’
Bud: ‘But they can still get sick.’
Lou: ‘So what the heck does the vaccine do?’
Bud: ‘It vaccinates.’
Lou: ‘So vaccinated people can’t spread covid?’
Bud: ‘Oh no. They can spread covid just as easily as an unvaccinated person.’
Lou: ‘I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore. Look. I’m not sick.
Bud: ‘Ok.’
Lou: ‘And the guy you let in IS sick.’
Bud: ‘That’s right.’
Lou: ‘And everybody in there can still get sick even though they’re vaccinated.’
Bud: ‘Certainly.’
Lou: ‘So why can’t I go in again?’
Bud: ‘Because you’re unvaccinated.’
Lou: ‘I’m not asking who’s vaccinated or not!’
Bud: ‘I’m just telling you how it is.’
Lou: ‘Nevermind. I’ll just put on my mask.’
Bud: ‘That’s fine.’
Lou: ‘Now I can go in?’
Bud: ‘Absolutely not?’
Lou: ‘But I have a mask!’
Bud: ‘Doesn’t matter.’
Lou: ‘I was able to come in here yesterday with a mask.’
Bud: ‘I know.’
Lou: So why can’t I come in here today with a mask? ….If you say ‘because I’m unvaccinated’ again, I’ll break your arm.’
Bud: ‘Take it easy buddy.’
Lou: ‘So the mask is no good anymore.’
Bud: ‘No, it’s still good.’
Lou: ‘But I can’t come in?’
Bud: ‘Correct.’
Lou: ‘Why not?’
Bud: ‘Because you’re unvaccinated.’
Lou: ‘But the mask prevents the germs from getting out.’
Bud: ‘Yes, but people can still catch your germs.’
Lou: ‘But they’re all vaccinated.’
Bud: ‘Yes, but they can still get sick.’
Lou: ‘But I’m not sick!!’
Bud: ‘You can still get them sick.’
Lou: ‘So then masks don’t work!’
Bud: ‘Masks work quite well.’
Lou: ‘So how in the heck can I get vaccinated people sick if I’m not sick and masks work?’
Bud: ‘Third base.’
And…scene…
I had a very similar conversation on FB w/ a relative who kept showing all the CDC graphs of how safer masks/vax has made us but kept changing the subject when I brought up the fact of the ever moving goalposts.
Safetyism run amok will be the end of Western Civilization. We had a good run: Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Plutarch, Diogenes, Maimonides, Hobbes, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, The Mythbusters…
But, hey, fuck that whole “rational thought” and “logical processes” bullshit. It make me bellyfeel doubleplus ungood.
I blame safetyism on the lawyers. They’re the ones on TV every day saying if you get injured in any way, up to the Right Kinds of Cancer, Sue the Bastards! “You could be entitled to substantial compensation!!”
Obvious conclusion: there’s no risk in life. All you gotta do is get the majority of a jury to agree. Not “beyond a reasonable doubt,” just “50% plus a smidge.”
It’s not (entirely) the lawyer’s fault. Even the most frivolous of lawsuits requires the plaintiff demonstrate that some sort of actual harm or damages did occur… Safetyism run amok is mostly a result of risk averse bureaucrats and “educators” that cannot stomach the thought of anyone ever “feeling unsafe.”
A lawsuit doesn’t require demonstrating anything, it only requires an allegation. Winning the suit should require a demonstration of actual harm, yes. Given the gullibility of juries the reality may differ.
But the big problem is that lawsuits in most cases aren’t handled by courts, but by insurance companies, who settle as a matter of normal business practice rather than contest even the feeblest of lawsuits. This is why some companies are explicitly “The Uninsured XYZ Company” and that practice should be used much more widely. For example, I can’t imagine any good reason for a firearms company of any kind to carry liability insurance; it only serves as a lever for insurance companies to inflict major damage on the business. See the recent case with Remington for an example.
While being uninsured to deter lawsuits is an interesting corporate business practice, I can almost assuredly guarantee you that such an enterprise would be unable to secure loans or issue bonds, and perhaps even find willing buyers of commercial paper due to underwriters requiring insurance.
Interesting. So perhaps it’s only workable for smaller companies. But I do know for a fact that there is a very well known and very successful company (one of the world’s leading makers of parachutes and parachuting gear) who has been explicitly uninsured for as long as I can remember — certainly 30 years and possibly quite a lot longer.
As my user name suggests I’ve spent my working career in nuclear power. I am always amused when people complain about how dangerous and evil nuclear power is. When I point out that in the United States, your chances of dying from a nuclear accident is several orders of magnitude less than dying in an automobile accident, yet you voluntarily take that risk every day, the looks I get are priceless. Apparently dying from a nuclear accident is so much worse than being crushed to death by a vehicle driven by a drunk driver.
Ma B tells me I’m alive because her prenatal care doctor was skeptical about thalidomide.
Its called FREEDOM and personal RESPONSABILITY….gubmint does again what they did last year people will go bugfuk
“The Left has deliberately mischaracterized COVID vaccine hesitancy as a total distrust of all vaccines and all modern medicine”
Leftists do that with everything. Don’t think pre-teens should take puberty blockers? You hate all LGBTQWERTY people.
Think that someone should earn their pay, and not get promoted because of their skin color? You HATE all people of color.
If you question Fauxi you hate science.
There is never a mod ground with leftists. Either you agree totally with them, or you are a hater
Which is true, I hate leftists.
It’s not a ‘vaccine’ by strict definition: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/vaccine
‘They’ have already admitted that it does NOT confer immunity from infection, nor prevent transmission, nor even the possibility of symptoms in those who do get infected.
Ergo: NOT a ‘vaccine’.
What exactly IS it then?
Let’s see, now: does not prevent infection, does not prevent transmission (see: Texas Fleebaggers, O’s birthday party), but does prevent serious symptoms.
Ergo, it’s a way of turning stay-at-home sickies into roaming asymptomatic carriers. Which we must all become, For The Good Of Society.
Um, what? By “immunity” do you mean “100% immunity”? Vaccines don’t do that (with perhaps one or two exceptions). If that’s not what you mean, what did you mean, and could you cite sources for what you’re saying?
Depopulation Agent?
“Either you agree totally with them, or you are a hater”
To quote that noted Moral Philosopher, Emperor Palpitine: “Excellent! Embrace the hate!”
My skillset(s) are rare in the age of IT. I actually work on things that keep buildings alive. The high-rises, hospitals, and factories I work on require people like me to keep them habitable and to keep their pretty little server farms online. Those servers really don’t like to overheat. They tend to go offline.
If I company or agency discriminates against me, then I discriminate against them. If I cannot go to a doctor, I will not work on a hospital. I have already refused to work on certain social media companies cooling towers. I simply will not do it. Many of my colleagues are the same.
I know for a fact a certain social media company in the Seattle area had 50% of its HVAC contractor staff walk out the door last night. I know a school district in this area lost half its maintenance people, and is having contractors drop them left and right.
There is a nationwide shortage of people like us. We can find work. We may find out soon how long the self righteous can keep the lights on. Or the toilets flushing. Or the computer systems running without cooling. Or the MRI online. Or the power lines up.
Feels to me like the perfumed princes and princesses need us a whole lot more than we need them. I understand that not everyone will walk like me….but how many have to make life really suck?
Been “vaccinated?” I won’t come to your home/business to fix anything.
It’s funny. I had a family member call me and launch into a big spiel about me getting vaccinated.
I brought up two things. The first was the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 and the corresponding National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (another great one to go with the Hughes Amendment, thanks Reagan . . . ya fuck) and how that act basically made it so that vaccine manufacturers couldn’t be sued for a product that really fucked someone up or killed them. Additionally that the federal government gave all of the current players in this Covid jab game have been immunity from any claims against them until 2024 under provisions under the PREP Act.
The second was exactly what J.kb mentioned, Thalidomide. How it was safe, it was a wonder drug, etc. etc. . . . and then it wasn’t. Turns out that people in the family (distant) had been given that medication and were subsequently fucked up from it.
A call that started with “Why won’t you do this…” ended with “You’ve given me a lot of questions that I need to think about.”
Best hour I’ve spent on the phone in a while.
We talk about violence as a light switch for us and a dimmer switch for them.
In the same way, they seem to be unable to see shades of gray in so many different aspects of life. It is off or on, yes or no.
I don’t believe that we should cripple our economy, send our money to the people that want to destroy us to fight “climate change”. There are other reasons, but that’s a start point. I’m accused of being a “Science Denier” or told I don’t believe in climate change or a host of other things just because I am not 100% onboard with with they want to do.
If I was 100% onboard with them, I would have been trying to get the government to launch carbon dispersal systems onto the arctic ice caps in the 70’s.
I don’t want any child to have life altering surgery because “gender dysphoria”. I don’t want them given drugs that have major side affects, because “gender things”. This does not mean I’m hateful of gays or transgendered people or any of the rest of them. It certainly doesn’t mean I wish any harm on them. It means I don’t want them doing something irreversible.
My daughter wants a tattoo. We’ve said no. She’s informed her that as soon as she turns 18, she’s getting it. If I’m willing to say “no” to a tattoo, why can’t I say “no” to her wanting to have her breasts removed?
The same is happening with wu-flu jabs. Having any questions about the wu-flu, how deadly it is, how contagious it is, what the co-factors in morbidity and spread are can get you social banned. Asking questions about a medical treatment that has no long term studies doesn’t make me an idiot or an “anti-vaxer”
My favorite anti-vax video is done by Penn and Teller: https://youtu.be/RfdZTZQvuCo
They show that bad things do happen to those that get vaccinated, but they also show that lots more are injured when they don’t get vaccinated.
At issue with the wu-flu is that we don’t know what the injury rate is, we don’t know what the death rate is, we don’t know. And trying to get real numbers is nearly impossible. When you start looking for them, people start shaming and blaming you.
Ragnar,
I am amazed they had an open mind. So few do anymore. please Keep the lines of communication open. If they can be open minded, they are salvageable.
Rumor is the Lambda Variant is immune to the vaccines? I don’t know, and this sounds like more Mass Media Fear!, Uncertainty!, and Doubt! (FUD). If so, go back to the old reliables, Zinc, Vitamins B, C and D, lots of rest, and maybe add Quercetin, Ivermectin, or HCQ.