Anti-Vaxxers a Steel-Trap of Misinformation

 

In an earlier post, I mused over a friend who was in contact with an ardent anti-vaxxer/masker person who had recently caught a mild case of coronavirus. This person was implying that their position of having refused the vaccine earlier, subsequently getting the virus, now put them in the position of having the kind of antibodies that would keep them safe from any repeat of the Covid-19. My friend did her best to lay out some scientific facts the denier would have none of.

Like, recent studies suggesting a mild case of coronavirus produced antibodies that lasted for only around three months. The reply was, your science is corrupted and experts like Dr. Fauci are afraid to tell us the truth. You cannot, or, at least, it is useless, to argue with the acuteness this kind of person protects their beliefs. When they search deep down inside, however, they must know they are wrong. If not, you have to question the level of their mentality when the facts are

staring them in the face.

Apparently this group of way-out-withholders skipped the discipline of science in the first 12 grades where factual data proved a point and was generally accepted. A both commonplace and specific questioning of science today comes at a time when the need to respect credible research and development has become imminent due to the fact that over 700,000 Americans have so far died from Covid-19. This need to believe transcends the petty convictions held by these anti-science groupies.

Watch...Having Covid-19 v. getting vaccine

Well, all you rabid deniers, your justifications for delaying, denying, denying, whatever you want to call it could kill you...and other innocent family, friends or just someone you come in contact with. A Yale Univ./Univ. No. Carolina says...

“Reinfection can reasonably happen in three months or less,” explains lead study author Jeffrey Townsend, the Elihu Professor of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health, in a university release. “Therefore, those who have been naturally infected should get vaccinated. Previous infection alone can offer very little long-term protection against subsequent infections.”

The key here is "long-term," a period not yet specifically determined by the scientific community, but known to be significantly better than the 3 months offered by a mild infection of coronavirus. Added to this are the unknowns centered around the fact that the Delta has not yet been fully vetted so it is impossible to predict where this virus will go. And, of course, there is always the possibility of a new mutation sneaking up from somewhere.

It isn't that Americans should live in constant fear of being infected; Dr. Fauci nor the CDC want that, nor is it recommended. But, in this time of crisis there are simple precautions known to prevent the spread of Covid-19: vaccinate; wear a mask; honor reasonable distancing; and stay away from misinformation. Re. the latter, in a recent The Guardian headline...

"Anti-vaccine chiropractors capitalizing on Covid and sowing misinformation"

That's like having a whole faction of the medical community propagating falsities

that could kill their patients and innocent outsiders. And here's an example of the political right that, God knows, those pathetic followers of the Republican Party will believe right to the death. Former rabid congressman, Allen West, unvaccinated and in the hospital with coronavirus related pneumonia and low oxygen, still rants on his Twitter account debasing the vaccine.  

So, does blogging like this do any good? Probably not for the die-hards. But there might be some of the on-the-fence Anti-All gang who take these facts and decide to get vaccinated, wear a mask, and observe the protocols from the CDC. If not, well, it's your life to kill.

Read more...

Fox News...Just How Fake is Fox Fake News?

 

The half I refer to, of course, is the word "News," with most of the legitimate broadcasting community calling it the "no news network." Their motto used to be "Fair and Balanced," now changed to, "Most Watched, Most Trusted," again, half right. They do have a large audience, which is accounted for by the fact this country suddenly has a large population of idiots. That's what it takes to watch a moron like Tucker Carlson who admitted on the air that he lies.

‘I really try not to..." [to lie] was his comment and my gut tells me that attracted even more of the double-digits that watch him. I worked in television in the early days of the

1950s, produced several news shows, and two of the goals most sought after were accuracy and integrity. Fox has neither. Here's more...

Carlson defended a teenage gunman involved in a shooting during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin and defending white nationalists involved in the storming of the Capitol building.

There are other news blunderers at Fox but no one else has the bold audacity and arrogance to go on the air, day after day, and make a complete fool of himself like Carlson does. Kinda indicates something loose somewhere. Here's a headline from Variety that sums it all up...

"It’s Time for Fox News to Stop Using the Misnomer ‘News’ in Its Channel Name"

I hear Rupert Murdoch is scared of Tucker Carlson? 

The agony of stupidity...Anti-vaxxer on Hollywood Blvd

 

I lived in Hollywood for a while several years ago and spent many hours on Hollywood Blvd. in restaurants and bars. It was much cleaner then and fewer homeless, although there were several would-be actors that would accost you displaying their talents hoping you might be a producer or director. I wasn't, but they didn't know that so the street-play went on as if I was. My favorite eatery was Musso & Frank Grill where they seemed to congregate in front.

Those were fun days for me but this post is about today, and it is a completely different Hollywood Blvd. Musso & Frank is still there but homeless people have now replaced the would-be actors. Added too are the anti-vaxxing idiots who display their stupid philosophy as if it was an ongoing TV series of morons. It was just this week that one of those deniers of science observed one of these displaced

folk and screamed...

“Do you see all of these homeless people around. Are they dead in the street from Covid? Hell no. Why?”

And here was this retort from the homeless person in question...

A man pushing a trolley walked by and quipped: “Because I’m vaccinated you dumb f***.”

As usual, the anti-vaxxer ignored the reply as the man proceeded down the street. Even on the boulevard of the stars, the bumbling deniers of science are ridiculed. 

Covid-19 Mandates targeting Anti-Vaxxers are Coming...And Fast

 

There are gun nuts, and then there are anti-vax nuts. Right now it is the latter who are killing innocent American citizens. I feel sure all the fair-minded and lucid thinkers of the U.S. wholeheartedly welcome this headline from Daily Beast: "America’s Finally Telling the Anti-Vax Nuts Where They Can Go." Many of us bloggers have ideas of their potential destination and just today I have come up with, outer space, a location befitting their far-out beliefs. 

It is perhaps a coincidence that as I began to construct this post, a friend of mine received a phone call from an anti-vaxxer, anti-masker, anti-distancer and anti-anything else that is based in scientific fact. It was a long and frequently confrontational conversation because he is just as sure of his position in intelligence as the anti-everything on the other end. This person is a confirmed know-it-all with a perspective intensified by the defense of her position.

Here's a gaffe made by this person during the debate that throws the whole anti-bunch movement out of kilter. The talker doesn't believe in the science of vaccines but does believe in the fact that, by having had coronavirus, antibodies are created that protect her in the future. Isn't that science? My friend didn't press the point because the opposition throws up a shield for anything fact-based, saying the

people we follow are afraid to tell us the truth.

This individual is living with a built-in obstinance of logic. Science Daily says...

infants are capable of deductive problem solving as early as 10 months of age, a new study by psychologists at Emory University and Bucknell finds.

Is it possible there is a wire loose in the brains of the anti-science group and, if reconnected, it could solve the Covid-19 pandemic? If only it could be this simple, but, no doubt, there would be thousands of excuses to deny surgery. Sometimes I wonder if they enjoy this kind of independent beligerantism. Did I just coin a word? Here's another headline from The Daily Beast...

"One Thing Will Save Us From These Suicidal Lunatics—Mandates"

Here are some examples from New York city, which is supposed to be somewhat sophisticated,,,

 

One of the points this anti-science person made on the phone was that Covid-19 is no worse than the annual flu. I did some research and re. this she was so far off it is laughable. In the 2019-2020 flu season, according to the CDC, there were 20,000 flu-related deaths. Johns Hopkins Univ. reports there were 352,000 coronavirus deaths in 2020. And already in 2021 353,000 deaths from the virus. Logic would indicate it is downright foolish to compare the two.

The 1918 flu pandemic which killed 50 million was a wake-up call for the treatment of viruses. Covid is brand new with scientists facing a virus so far they aren't even sure where or what it came from. But did you know that misinformation spread during 1918, like in 2020, but at that time they didn't have platforms of social media that are available today. In my wife's discussion, the other side listed the hospital where she worked as her source. Today, misinformation is a business.

And the word is also being spread by politicians questioning the validity of the virus making it near impossible for the uneducated to know what to do. Here is a classic example...

GOP lawmaker says COVID deaths are a Vatican plot — and vaccines contain 'living organisms with tentacles'

This blithering idiot is from New Hampshire and is typical of what some GOP lawmakers in Congress come up with regularly.

Science will prevail, must prevail, if we are to survive this pandemic. One can only wonder if these lunatics will ever realize the truth.

Facebook Compared to Tobacco Cos. killing children

 

Speaking before Congress, whistleblower, Frances Haugen, did a number on Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. Described as "animated" at times by The Guardian, would indicate to me that she is overly enthusiastic to get facts before the public she believes are important and necessary. This is how she

described it on Vice...

“I’m here today because I believe Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy.”

This clearly puts the monkey on Zuckerberg's back, and should prompt some control on Facebook's wide open permission for the misinformation it spews regularly. One Senator called Haugen's statement, “the big tobacco jaw-dropping moment of truth.” Here's a statement that should get Congress moving...

“Facebook knows that they are leading young users to anorexia content,” she said in a voice of authority that may prove a tipping point in government efforts to curb the power of big tech.

Haugen says that the Facebook empire, which includes Instagram and WhatsApp, could be made "safer," but, in fact, FB chooses not to and instead focuses on profits. Haugen continues...

“The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but they won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed. They won’t solve this crisis without your help.”

If the reaction of Senators is any indication of how Congress views this issue--several joined Haugen in "scathing" criticism of Mark Zuckerberg--it would indicate that we might expect some action, and soon. Here's her ammunition...

A former product manager on Facebook’s civic misinformation team, she has come forward with tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company’s civic integrity unit.

This all seems to have surfaced from recent discoveries revealing that...

Facebook knew Instagram was deeply toxic for teenage girls, resisted changes to make its platform safer for fear of reducing engagement, and knew it was openly used by drug and human traffickers.

Frances Haugen was applauded by The Senators, and even Facebook has agreed that something should be done about the openness of the Internet. Now the monkey is on the back of Congress with the future of misinformation hanging in the balance. 

Take the time to watch Frances Haugen testify in Congress TODAY...

READ MORE...

NEWS FLASH: Facebook down globally...Anti-vaxxer misinformation a cause?

 

Recently I googled "facebook anti vaxxer posts," and got almost 13 million hits. Considering it is specific to anti-vaxxers, it shows the activity on Facebook that is centered around the people who spread misinformation on Covid-19. Everything from pushing the drug Ivermectin, a medication for animals, to literally entering

ICU wards and attempting to talk the coronavirus sick into leaving the hospital. Not just misguided advocates, doctors have also joined this gang of imbeciles.

The big news, Facebook and its several apps are down globally.

Now you have to wonder at this point if some poor, fed-up family member who lost a loved one due to this stupid misinformation has somehow hacked into Facebook's internal workings and plunged the whole system into chaos. They are saying it is one of the longest outages for this social media site. All of its apps went down simultaneously provoking the possibility, if by design, it certainly was well planned. No one as yet has taken credit. 

Some experts are blaming it on DNS and BGP. Don't want to be responsible for a conspiracy theory, but the "haters" are just as vociferous on both sides of this issue. Some are exclaiming it is a "massive hack." And, Mark Zuckerberg, along with the Facebook properties, have been repeatedly under investigation by the feds, alluding to the fact that maybe some of the accusations could be correct. Could the recent 1.5 billion theft of FB files be connected? No one knows yet.

Well, Facebook is back up but its own engineers are still leery whether The DNS and BGP connection are solid. If this was a hack job, well, no one is talking about it yet. If the mishap wasn't malicious, then, does that mean FB's team of supposed technical pros were out to lunch when this happened. Or, has the company simply strung together too many apps, and this is what happens when they can't talk to each other anymore. Whatever, bet Zuckerberg won't sleep tonight.

Republicans continue to dissect the democratic process

 

Richard L. Hasen, is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law, and an expert in election law, according to the New York Times, and he is concerned that the GOP is quietly but effectively undermining the democratic voting process. You might recall a few years ago when the radical right, again, quietly and effectively, completely flummoxed DNC head, Debbie Wasserman Schultz in taking over Governors' offices and state legislatures, leading to won elections.

Hansen reminds us of the recent Jan. 6, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, basically for the purpose of denying the validity of the 2020 election, which 

The Donald Trump sneer

Donald Trump has continued in a number of ways by energizing his group of double-digit supporters. This, alone, carried into the 2024 election, would be enough to disrupt the democratic process. But, Hansen says the next coup attempt will be executed by “lawyers in fine suits.”

Here are the facts...

"Between January and June, Republican-controlled legislatures passed 24 laws across 14 states to increase their control over how elections are run, stripping secretaries of state of their power and making it easier to overturn results."

And there is, of course, the ever-present Moscow Mitch McConnell, known as the "Grim Reaper," since President Barack Obama he has decreed to block anything "Democrat." His most recent drive against our country is to block 
"Democrats’ effort to act responsibly and step up to the thankless task of raising the debt limit." Here's the Daily Beast's take...

There are lots of things you can say about Cocaine Mitch, but you can’t say he broke his vow to make stopping Biden “100 percent of his focus.” His willingness to imperil the full faith and credit of the United States to do so is more proof than the country can stand.

Here's a typical Republican quote for you by Sam Brodey: "Republicans Don't Want a Debt Default—Just Democratic Chaos."

But what we must never lose sight of is the fact that Trump supporters are just as

mentally unbalanced as the simpleton they follow. Here's a headline from Salon: "White terror: Millions of Americans say they'd support violence to restore Trump to power." That should scare the hell out of anyone who is in full command of his or her mental faculties. There has even been talk of another civil war like we experienced in 1861, with the Jan. 6, insurrection a preview.

A couple weeks ago the Trump goons held a "Justice for J6" rally, which pretty much fizzled with a very low turnout. Salon's reaction was...

Trump's Republican-fascists and their propagandists have elevated these hooligans, vandals and (in many cases) terrorists to the status of martyrs and patriots as a way of legitimizing their anti-democratic movement, creating sympathy among Trump's faithful that can be exploited for fundraising and, of course, recruiting and encouraging more extremists to the cause.

To underwrite this bizarre Trump movement, AlterNet reports there is a group, The Claremont Institute that will tell you...

that Republicans and Democrats aren't just members of competing political parties, but are, in effect, living in two separate countries. Describing Claremont as the "intellectual home of America's Trumpist right," Green notes that Claremont President Ryan Williams and his colleagues "believe that America has" become "two fundamentally different countries, not least because of the rise of secularism."

Can you imagine what Abraham Lincoln would have thought had he been confronted by a bunch of lunatics like this? Racists aren't the most mentally stable individuals, but at least the cause was simpler. The South favored slavery; the North did not. It is no longer simple, but still very similar to 1861, two very different groups that are determined to, each, have its way. Only one side can win, and it is that which will determine the future of democracy.