Frigging anti-vaxxers...
May. 24th, 2021 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatUgh. Just spoke with Super, who came to fix the drain, he refuses to get vaccinated. He's convinced he's more likely to die or get sick from the vaccine than COVID.
I've been vaccinated and I did not get sick. My niece didn't get sick. My co-workers didn't get sick - and two of them did get sick from COVID, deathly ill from COVID, but not from the vaccine. My friends - the most that happened to them was a day or two of the flu. No one died.
Me: are you getting vaccinated?
Super: why should I get vaccinated?
Me: so you don't get COVID? I've been vaccinated.
Super: I'm not sick - so why do I need it? Besides do you know how many people died from the second dose?
Me: I don't know of anyone who died from the second dose. Who?
Super: Two people from my home country, one a teacher and one a doctor.
Me: My entire family - over twenty people, no deaths. We're fine.
Super: People in this building have. You only know 20 who haven't.
Me: I know millions who haven't. I have co-workers, etc. You have any idea of how many people have died of COVID?
Super: Lots of people die of cancer too.
ME: Fine, I get to not wear a mask, you have to. [I know, I know I should have handled that better, but my super annoys me. Every time he shows up, we argue about what he's responsibilities are, what should be done, etc. I get along better with his wife. We argued for ten minutes about the drain - he wanted me to use the mesh - which is useless, as opposed to a tub shroom which worked very well for three years. This is not helped by a language barrier - he doesn't really speak English, he's Polish, and English is the third language. He's fluent in Russian, but not English. ]
So this begs the question? Do I move? OR just hang tough here? I figure it won't matter, no matter where I go - I'll run into idiots.
When asked if he could mandate vaccines, the Governor explained it was not legal to mandate it - if the vaccine was provided under an emergency clause.
The line between the vaccinated and non-vaccinated seems to be whether you are intelligent, a critical thinker, and have education.
ETA: Found the culprit.
Anti-Vaccine Activists Peddle Theories That COVID Shots are Deadly Undermining Vaccination
Anti-vaccine groups are exploiting the suffering and death of people who happen to fall ill after receiving a covid shot, threatening to undermine the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history.
In some cases, anti-vaccine activists are fabricating stories of deaths that never occurred.
“This is exactly what anti-vaccine groups do,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious diseases specialist and author of “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.”
Anti-vaccine groups have falsely claimed for decades that childhood vaccines cause autism, weaving fantastic conspiracy theories involving government, Big Business and the media.
Now, the same groups are blaming patients’ coincidental medical problems on covid shots, even when it’s clear that age or underlying health conditions are to blame, Hotez said. “They will sensationalize anything that happens after someone gets a vaccine and attribute it to the vaccine,” Hotez said.
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Subscribe to KHN's free Weekly Edition.
As more seniors receive their first covid shots, many will inevitably suffer from unrelated heart attacks, strokes and other serious medical problems — not because of the vaccine but, rather, their age and declining health, said epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
For example, in a group of 10 million people — about the number of Americans who have been vaccinated so far — nearly 800 people ages 55 to 64 typically die of heart attacks or coronary disease in one week, Osterholm said. Public health officials “are not ready” for the onslaught of news and social media stories to come, he cautioned.
“The media will write a story that John Doe got his vaccine at 8 a.m. and at 4 p.m. he had a heart attack,” Osterholm said on his weekly podcast. “They will make assumptions that it’s cause and effect.”
Public health officials need to do a better job communicating the risks — real and imagined — from vaccines, said Osterholm, who has been advising President Joe Biden on the pandemic since his election.
“You get one chance to make a first impression,” Osterholm said. “Even if we come back later and say, “No, [the deaths] had nothing to do with vaccination, it was coronary artery disease,’ the damage has already been done.”
Anti-vaccine groups such as the National Vaccine Information Center and Children’s Health Defense, founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are already inflaming fears about a handful of deaths — mostly in Europe — that have followed the worldwide rollout of immunizations.
In a blog post, Kennedy scoffed at autopsy results that concluded a Portuguese woman’s death was unrelated to a vaccine. He cast doubt on statements by medical authorities in Denmark who said the deaths of two people there after vaccination were due to old age and chronic lung disease. In an interview, Kennedy said the post-vaccination deaths of some very frail and terminally ill nursing home patients in Norway are a danger sign. Norwegian officials have said the elderly patients died of their underlying illnesses, not from the vaccine.
“Coincidence is turning out to be quite lethal to COVID vaccine recipients,” Kennedy wrote. Kennedy described the deaths as suspicious, accusing medical officials of following an “all-too-familiar vaccine propaganda playbook” and “strategic chicanery.”
Here in the U.S., vaccine opponents have pounced on the tragedy of Dr. Gregory Michael, a 56-year-old Florida obstetrician-gynecologist, to sow doubts about vaccine safety and government oversight. Michael died Jan. 5 after suffering a catastrophic drop in platelets — elements in the blood that control bleeding — suggesting he may have developed immune thrombocytopenia..
According to a Facebook post by his wife, Heidi Neckelmann, doctors tried a variety of treatments to save her husband, but none worked.
A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency is investigating Michael’s death, as it does for all suspected vaccine-related health problems. California authorities have recommended pausing vaccinations with a particular batch of covid vaccines made by Moderna because of a high rate of allergic reactions.
“We’re going to see these events happen, and we have to follow up on every one of these cases,” Osterholm said. “I don’t want people to think that we’re sweeping them under the rug.”
Many Americans were already nervous about covid vaccines, with 27% saying they “probably or definitely” would not get a shot, even if the shots were free and deemed safe by scientists, according to a December survey by KFF. (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.)
These people may be particularly susceptible to vaccine misinformation, said Rory Smith, an investigator at First Draft News, a nonprofit that reports on misinformation online.
***
Anti-vaccine groups often build fables around “a tiny, tiny grain of truth,” Smith said. “This is why misinformation, specifically vaccine misinformation, can be so convincing. … But this information is almost always taken completely out of context, creating claims that are either misleading or outright false.”
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity twisted a news story about the deaths of 24 people at an upstate New York nursing home, incorrectly blaming their deaths on covid vaccinations. The original article noted, however, that a covid outbreak at the nursing home began in late December, before residents received any vaccines. Covid vaccines, which require two doses for full protection, did not arrive in time to save the residents’ lives.
Kennedy repeated the misinformation — again incorrectly blaming the residents’ deaths on vaccines — in his blog, although he linked to a local news station that reported the information correctly.
I've been vaccinated and I did not get sick. My niece didn't get sick. My co-workers didn't get sick - and two of them did get sick from COVID, deathly ill from COVID, but not from the vaccine. My friends - the most that happened to them was a day or two of the flu. No one died.
Me: are you getting vaccinated?
Super: why should I get vaccinated?
Me: so you don't get COVID? I've been vaccinated.
Super: I'm not sick - so why do I need it? Besides do you know how many people died from the second dose?
Me: I don't know of anyone who died from the second dose. Who?
Super: Two people from my home country, one a teacher and one a doctor.
Me: My entire family - over twenty people, no deaths. We're fine.
Super: People in this building have. You only know 20 who haven't.
Me: I know millions who haven't. I have co-workers, etc. You have any idea of how many people have died of COVID?
Super: Lots of people die of cancer too.
ME: Fine, I get to not wear a mask, you have to. [I know, I know I should have handled that better, but my super annoys me. Every time he shows up, we argue about what he's responsibilities are, what should be done, etc. I get along better with his wife. We argued for ten minutes about the drain - he wanted me to use the mesh - which is useless, as opposed to a tub shroom which worked very well for three years. This is not helped by a language barrier - he doesn't really speak English, he's Polish, and English is the third language. He's fluent in Russian, but not English. ]
So this begs the question? Do I move? OR just hang tough here? I figure it won't matter, no matter where I go - I'll run into idiots.
When asked if he could mandate vaccines, the Governor explained it was not legal to mandate it - if the vaccine was provided under an emergency clause.
The line between the vaccinated and non-vaccinated seems to be whether you are intelligent, a critical thinker, and have education.
ETA: Found the culprit.
Anti-Vaccine Activists Peddle Theories That COVID Shots are Deadly Undermining Vaccination
Anti-vaccine groups are exploiting the suffering and death of people who happen to fall ill after receiving a covid shot, threatening to undermine the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history.
In some cases, anti-vaccine activists are fabricating stories of deaths that never occurred.
“This is exactly what anti-vaccine groups do,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious diseases specialist and author of “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.”
Anti-vaccine groups have falsely claimed for decades that childhood vaccines cause autism, weaving fantastic conspiracy theories involving government, Big Business and the media.
Now, the same groups are blaming patients’ coincidental medical problems on covid shots, even when it’s clear that age or underlying health conditions are to blame, Hotez said. “They will sensationalize anything that happens after someone gets a vaccine and attribute it to the vaccine,” Hotez said.
Email Sign-Up
Subscribe to KHN's free Weekly Edition.
As more seniors receive their first covid shots, many will inevitably suffer from unrelated heart attacks, strokes and other serious medical problems — not because of the vaccine but, rather, their age and declining health, said epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
For example, in a group of 10 million people — about the number of Americans who have been vaccinated so far — nearly 800 people ages 55 to 64 typically die of heart attacks or coronary disease in one week, Osterholm said. Public health officials “are not ready” for the onslaught of news and social media stories to come, he cautioned.
“The media will write a story that John Doe got his vaccine at 8 a.m. and at 4 p.m. he had a heart attack,” Osterholm said on his weekly podcast. “They will make assumptions that it’s cause and effect.”
Public health officials need to do a better job communicating the risks — real and imagined — from vaccines, said Osterholm, who has been advising President Joe Biden on the pandemic since his election.
“You get one chance to make a first impression,” Osterholm said. “Even if we come back later and say, “No, [the deaths] had nothing to do with vaccination, it was coronary artery disease,’ the damage has already been done.”
Anti-vaccine groups such as the National Vaccine Information Center and Children’s Health Defense, founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are already inflaming fears about a handful of deaths — mostly in Europe — that have followed the worldwide rollout of immunizations.
In a blog post, Kennedy scoffed at autopsy results that concluded a Portuguese woman’s death was unrelated to a vaccine. He cast doubt on statements by medical authorities in Denmark who said the deaths of two people there after vaccination were due to old age and chronic lung disease. In an interview, Kennedy said the post-vaccination deaths of some very frail and terminally ill nursing home patients in Norway are a danger sign. Norwegian officials have said the elderly patients died of their underlying illnesses, not from the vaccine.
“Coincidence is turning out to be quite lethal to COVID vaccine recipients,” Kennedy wrote. Kennedy described the deaths as suspicious, accusing medical officials of following an “all-too-familiar vaccine propaganda playbook” and “strategic chicanery.”
Here in the U.S., vaccine opponents have pounced on the tragedy of Dr. Gregory Michael, a 56-year-old Florida obstetrician-gynecologist, to sow doubts about vaccine safety and government oversight. Michael died Jan. 5 after suffering a catastrophic drop in platelets — elements in the blood that control bleeding — suggesting he may have developed immune thrombocytopenia..
According to a Facebook post by his wife, Heidi Neckelmann, doctors tried a variety of treatments to save her husband, but none worked.
A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency is investigating Michael’s death, as it does for all suspected vaccine-related health problems. California authorities have recommended pausing vaccinations with a particular batch of covid vaccines made by Moderna because of a high rate of allergic reactions.
“We’re going to see these events happen, and we have to follow up on every one of these cases,” Osterholm said. “I don’t want people to think that we’re sweeping them under the rug.”
Many Americans were already nervous about covid vaccines, with 27% saying they “probably or definitely” would not get a shot, even if the shots were free and deemed safe by scientists, according to a December survey by KFF. (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.)
These people may be particularly susceptible to vaccine misinformation, said Rory Smith, an investigator at First Draft News, a nonprofit that reports on misinformation online.
***
Anti-vaccine groups often build fables around “a tiny, tiny grain of truth,” Smith said. “This is why misinformation, specifically vaccine misinformation, can be so convincing. … But this information is almost always taken completely out of context, creating claims that are either misleading or outright false.”
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity twisted a news story about the deaths of 24 people at an upstate New York nursing home, incorrectly blaming their deaths on covid vaccinations. The original article noted, however, that a covid outbreak at the nursing home began in late December, before residents received any vaccines. Covid vaccines, which require two doses for full protection, did not arrive in time to save the residents’ lives.
Kennedy repeated the misinformation — again incorrectly blaming the residents’ deaths on vaccines — in his blog, although he linked to a local news station that reported the information correctly.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-25 01:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-25 01:43 am (UTC)Anti-Vaccine Activists Peddle Theories That COVID Shots are Deadly Undermining the Vaccines
Lack of education, misinformation, and a tendency to not ask questions and dig deeper. He's working class Polish immigrant, who can barely speak or read English. The irony is most of the immigrants are conservative - and support those who would deport them. They are also racist. And watch the conservative media.
My super is asthmatic and he's scared of the vaccine. He doesn't know that many people who got the disease, and he hasn't, or if he did - he was asymptomatic, so he figures why is it an issue? Under-educated people, who aren't critical thinkers - tend to go by what they see with their own two eyes.
And won't believe anything else.
Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-25 02:26 am (UTC)He must have some idea of how many people in NYC died of COVID and how few people in NYC (as in none) died of the vaccine. A lot of people are afraid of shots pure and simple. Then they convince themselves with rumors from bad sources like in the article you found.
One of my nieces was reluctant to get vaccinated though her husband did. Definitely fear of shots. She happened to be very near a site where they were giving out Johnson & Johnson shots without waiting in line. The stars aligned, she said to herself why not, and got it. You could hear in her voice on the phone how happy she was that she was vaccinated.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-25 02:59 am (UTC)