There were competing claims in the news over the weekend saying that one of the mRNA vaccines is likely to be fully approve by September or January, but regardless, it’s going to happen soon-ish. Why it’s taking so long when Aduhelm was shoved through on the basis of far less data, I couldn’t tell you.
Regardless of the date, as soon as one or more of the mRNA vaccines is given full approval, we’ll see the anti-vaxxers who are trying to sound smart and/or reasonable deprived of one of their favorite explanations for their ‘hesitation’: that the vaccines only have emergency use approved at present so how could we possibly know (after over a billion vaccinations given) that this experimental treatment is safe?
Probably within a month of full approval they’ll get tired of people pointing out it is approved and move on to their next justification for both not taking it themselves but also doing their level best to sway others to their point of view.
It wouldn’t surprise me if some actually use Aduhelm as proof that the pharmaceutical companies are forcing through medicines that don’t work.
I saw some comment on one of the many YouTube COVID-19 news update videos, and someone said “Thank goodness for the Internet! If not for that, we might have actually gotten the vaccine!”
The most obvious antivax tactic would be to claim that the Pharma/Bill Gates/Biden cabal forced through FDA approval in the face of incontrovertible evidence* that Covid-19 vaccines have killed or will kill millions of people by seeding their bodies with toxic spike proteins, not to mention mind-controlling graphene nanoparticles.**
These people are experts in pivoting to one or more of their classic bullshit arguments as soon as one is shot down. They include vaccines being jam-packed with Toxins, natural immunity being better (there’s that pesky requirement to be sickened first) and there supposedly being oodles of cheap, entirely safe and wonderfully effective Covid-19 treatments that the Man is suppressing (vitamin D, oops, I mean hydroxychloroquine, never mind, ivermectin) so who needs a vaccine?
*if you’re a loon.
**I told you not to mention the graphene nanoparticles!
They are already misreading adverse effect reporting to say that the vaccine kills more people than the disease. They’ll just double down on that and decry the evil FDA. I mean they already gave it emergency approval specifically for population reduction purposes, why trust their new level of approval? (Add claims that it specifically kills your subgroup of people, who are also superior stock resistant to Corona, here.)
I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but it fits the question. As seen in a response to an announcement that my company will offer the vaccine on-site:: “CAN YOU TELL ME THAT THERE WON’T BE ANY TERRIBLE SIDE EFFECTS FROM THE VACCINE THREE YEARS FROM NOW?”
Wholly smoke: Can you tell me that there won’t be terrible three-year side effects from contracting the disease?
-It’s not FDA approved
-It was rushed through without adequate testing
-People are dying from the vaccine
-It causes blood clots
-People who are vaccinated are getting Covid anyway
-I already had (or assume I had) Covid so I’m immune
-I just don’t want it!
Now about 90% of the patients I see in the office are vaccinated. I try to explain that while it was approved quickly it did go through all usual testing and there is a year of data on effects on millions of people. I try to explain that the risks of dying are much higher from Covid and the risk of getting Covid and then getting a blood clot are higher than the risks of getting a blood clot from the vaccine but if they are worried to get the Pfizer or Moderna and not the J&J. For those who insist they have had Covid, I offer to test their antibodies and if positive advise them that they still may be susceptible to new variants but that the data is still preliminary; I recommend vaccination but advise them that they may have some protection. I believe I have a 0% rate of changing minds but I keep trying since studies show that a physician’s recommendation is the most effective way to change minds. (I have, however, been able to encourage a lot of people who “ just never got around to it” to be vaccinated).
“I try to be very non-judgmental when I’m getting a new COVID patient that’s unvaccinated, but I really just started asking them, ‘Why haven’t you gotten the vaccine?’ And I’ll just ask it point blank, in the least judgmental way possible,” she said. “And most of them, they’re very honest, they give me answers. ‘I talked to this person, I saw this thing on Facebook, I got this email, I saw this on the news,’ you know, these are all the reasons that I didn’t get vaccinated.
“And the one question that I always ask them is, did you make an appointment with your primary care doctor and ask them for their opinion on whether or not you should receive the vaccine? And so far, nobody has answered yes to that question.”
Doctors agree the vaccine is safe = doctors are part of the conspiracy.
A few nurse won;t have the vaccine = they are the brave ones who stand up to deep state.
Scientific research shows the virus is real = scientists are paid by deep state.
But science is peer reviewd and reporduced across the world = all in the pay of deep state.
But why would enemies of the USA agree that the virus is real? = absolute proof that deep state is taking over the world.
If you know for certain everything is a conspiracy, then everything supports your certainy.
Anything that doesn’t support your theory is proof of a conspiracy
Anything suspicious is proof of a conspiracy
Yesterday, many websites went down in the UK.
Websites down = proof the Great Reset is happening.
Websites up again = it was a test…which prooves the Great Reset is happening.
To be fair, I got the vaccine, and I can’t imagine doing that, either. In general I only go to the doctor when sick, and even that was cut down significantly due to the pandemic. It never would even occur to me to get an appointment to find out if a drug was okay unless I needed to get that drug prescribed from them.
What I would do if I were unsure about a medication is indeed to check online. However, I would only go to reputable sources, the ones I know that are backed up by medical science. If I’m checking if I can take an over-the-counter drug, I’ll use WebMD’s interaction checker. And then, if I see an interaction, I’ll call my doctor, expecting them to get back to me eventually. But never would I make an appointment.
In this case, I found reputable journals talking about the actual rates of side effects and such. I checked with reputable health organizations like the CDC. I actually had an issue where I was sick when my second dose was scheduled and looked up actual reputable hospital websites to find out what I should do.
I think the issue is just that people didn’t actually trust their doctors or the medical establishment on this. It’s the JFK thing again: any big enough crisis causes people to think there must be a conspiracy, as it makes the world make more sense. We’re biased towards thinking that big horrible outcomes must have big horrible causes.
What’s different this time is that there were people in the mainstream who took advantage of this conspiracy to political ends. But then they lost control of the situation. . Many are pushing for vaccination, but people won’t listen to them. Once you get people thinking conspiratorially, the fact that you seem to reverse yourself only means you are in on the conspiracy.
Nowhere in this is there really any room for calling your doctor about it. It’s not something most would have normally done anyways, and many were being told that the medical establishment isn’t trustworthy—on this medical issue.
I don’t really have a doctor I can call and ask a question. I can call my son’s pediatrician: that sort of relationship with pediatricians still seems to be the norm. But my GP? If I want an answer to a question, I feel like I have to pay for the time, which means a visit and $100 and time off work, and that’s very unlikely to happen.
Replace “deep state” with “Big Pharma,” and you’ve nailed what the anti-vaxxers I know are saying. They’re politically paranoid, too, but they see the government as having been corrupted by Big Pharma and it’s Big $$$. Anyone who’s not an anti-vaxxer is either getting paid off by Big Pharma or has been duped by Big Pharma.
The anti-vaxxers who are Woo DO ask their PCP’s. Their PCP’s are naturopaths, i.e., quacks, who tell them vaccines are full of toxins and bad for them.
I’ve also seen the “we don’t know there won’t be horrible side effects 10 years from now” argument.
Someone should spread rumors of positive side effects on FB. That could be fun.