As if this thread needed more egregious examples of its premise, here’s another (NY Times, probably paywalled):
A New Zealand couple is refusing to allow their infant son to undergo lifesaving heart surgery using blood from people vaccinated against Covid-19, showing how vaccine misinformation continues to manifest in unexpected ways two years into global inoculation campaigns.
The 4-month-old is critically ill with a severe case of pulmonary valve stenosis, a heart valve disorder. The boy’s mother says she wants her son’s operation to take place without delay, but she has demanded that “safe blood” be used, with her lawyer saying that the family was concerned about blood containing traces of vaccines using new mRNA technology.
The case, and the family’s flawed scientific arguments, highlight the continuing dangers of online misinformation and conspiracist narratives, experts say. The dispute has “become a cause célèbre in the most toxic way,” prompting a spike in hate speech on fringe platforms where conspiracy theories run rife, said Sanjana Hattotuwa, a researcher at the Disinformation Project, a New Zealand monitoring group
Academics and New Zealand’s security services have pointed to ongoing concerns over violent extremism linked to conspiracist, anti-vaccine ideology. This month, a 62-year-old man was sentenced after being convicted of sabotage for plotting to bring down the country’s power grid to draw attention to his anti-vaccination beliefs.
Depending on how far down the QAnon rabbit hole they’ve gone, they may believe the options are, “Let the baby die and go to Jesus,” versus, “Give the baby an injection that will alter its DNA so fundamentally that God will no longer recognize it as human and refuse it entry into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
In cases such as this one, parents think that they can dodge “contaminated” blood by getting unvaccinated volunteers to donate blood “just in case”. There are problems with that idea, including risks of transmissible disease from people who aren’t really suitable donors but feel pressured to donate (pre-transfusion testing to identify disease organisms isn’t perfect). There are other problems as well.
And if you’re going to make exceptions for the “purebloods” on this score, what about people who don’t want blood from “inferior” ethnic groups or races?
There are literally people who say they’d refuse a transfusion no matter what the cost, like this guy who posted an online comment regarding the New Zealand case.
"I will not have a blood transfusion, I’ll die first.
I will not ride on a plane, all the pilots are jabbed and could clot and die anytime.
I will not get a shot in the Dr.s office, I don’t trust them to not slip the jab in.
I will not get tested for Covid, don’t trust them having me in their database
I will not do anything where a mask or jab is mandatory.”
Pretty weak god, must have gotten tired after all the smiting and genocide in the Old Testament. HIs protege Jesus, isn’t so hot either. Hasn’t inspired any Christians to actually follow his teachings.
Would it really be the worst thing if they did reject him? If they are unwilling to provide basic medical care for their child, I don’t think he’ll survive long with them.
The baby is reportedly doing well after heart surgery.
The lawyer representing the family in their effort to block surgery with the potential for “contaminated” transfusions, Sue Grey, has an interesting history.
She’s an antivaxer who has compared vaccination to rape and murder according to her Wikipedia profile, called extension of Covid-19 vaccination to 12 to 17-year-olds “government-mandated genocide” and also opposes 5G.
‘Oh you just wait! Seventy or eighty years from now ,when all those victims of teh Jab start dieing ,yule see we where right after all! A entire generashun murdered in the prime of there old age!’