Over the years I've written a few times about the anti-vaccination, or anti-vax, movement, mostly in conjunction with some of the Scamworld
hucksters who perpetually sound the (false) alarm about
vaccinations chiefly in the service of promoting their own
frauducts, flopportunities, and general quackery and
crackpottery. (Leonard Coldwell and Mike "The Health Ranger" Adams, I'm looking at y'all.)
For years the hero of the anti-vax movement was a disgraced
former doctor named Andrew Wakefield, an arrogant
Brit whose work regarding the dangers of vaccination has been
soundly debunked. To this day, however, fervent anti-jab
believers defend him and falsely claim that he has been
completely vindicated. In their eyes, he's nothing short of a
saint.
Well, move over, Wakefield: the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic
has injected fresh new triple-doses of crazy into the anti-vax
crusaders and conspiranoids, who are all over the Internet with
dire warnings about the deadly dangers of COVID vaccines. Among
these Covidiots are rising stars such as a right-wing
rabble-rouser named Bret Weinstein, and a veterinary virologist
named Vanden Bossche. One of my favorite journalists and
commentators, Jef Rouner, has taken aim at
this newest wave of dangerous anti-vax nonsense (link is in the
next paragraph). I first discovered Jef's work when I was writing a post about the fact-checking web site Snopes a few
years ago, and came across Jef's guide to arguing with Snopes deniers. I've been reading his work ever since.
What the hordes of anti-vax zealots apparently don’t realize
— and that Jef deftly documents in this June 29 article for the Houston Press — is that Saint Wakefield’s own anti-vax crusades
were motivated far more by money than by any genuine concern
about public health. And Jef makes a good case for the exact same
thing being true for today’s loudest voices in the fight
against COVID-19 vaccines, like the aforementioned Weinstein and
Bossche.
Whenever Jef writes just about anything, he gets a volcanic
mountain of responses from various types of crazies, and his
writings about COVID are apparently no exception.
Two months ago, I implored people to get vaccinated against COVID instead of taking horse dewormer, and my email has been a circus train of screwballs ever since. By far, the largest number of messages I get implore me to seek out the work of Bret Weinstein, a “professor in exile” and podcaster. I did just that, and I now believe the world is now in the beginning stages of Andrew Wakefield 2.0...
Following this, and for the benefit of those
unfamiliar with the history, Jef goes into the story of
Wakefield's folly, and then segues into the current darlings of
the anti-vax lunacy legions, Weinstein and Bossche.
It's pretty obvious that these alarmists all love attention,
which as I've often said is its own powerful form of currency,
particularly in today's shallow social-media-dominated
"culture." But like all hucksters and scammers, they
also love real money. Concludes Jef:
The people who claim that current vaccination efforts are harming us, such as Weinstein and Vanden Bossche, do not appear to be arguing in good faith. It looks like a con, an old one at that, and we fall for it at our peril.
Amen to that. Here's that link again.
Related on this Whirled:
- March 2020: Coronacrazy: COVID-19 virus brings out the conspiranoids & fraudsters -- I wrote this when the pandemic was still pretty new. Not a whole lot has changed, except for the millions of deaths from COVID-19 (worldwide) that have occurred since then.
- March 2020: The Lie-land of Dr. Trudeau: Kevin Trudeau joins the ranks of the corona-crapitalists -- Talk about someone who promotes "health" advice and conspiracy narratives solely in the service of lining his own pockets; serial scammer Kevin Trudeau has been the master of this art for decades (even from prison). Pretty early on, he jumped on the COVID crisis as an opportunity to once again market himself as a one-of-a-kind source for seekrit information that "they" don't want you to know, and that you could only get from him (and you could find out more if you joined the seekrit club he founded, GIN (the Global Information Network)). Never mind that everything he wrote was a repeat of various conspiranoid narratives that were growing wild on the banks of the online fever swamps. He took all of that crap and branded it as his own.
- April 2020: Lockdown, schlockdown -- Kevin Trudeau is still pooping out COVID-19 nuggets from Camp Cupcake -- More of the same corona-crapitalism. Through a proxy, Trudeau wrote quite a few of these missives -- although interestingly enough, he's been silent recently, about COVID and everything else, since he's been on "home release."
- April 2020: "Dr." C: the "C" is for Covidiot -- Cancer quack, fake doctor, faux-tivational speaker, right-wing nutcake and alleged predator Leonard Coldwell is one of the most hysterical voices among the anti-vaxxers. It's too bad for his sick and bloated ego that most of the world hasn't heard of him, but in any case, his Covidiocy (and general idiocy) are pretty typical of the science-denying, conspiracy-swallowing masses who are both amusing and dangerous.
- April 2020: Bless this mess with MMS: phony church (and possibly a phony president?) tout bleachy cure-nothing for COVID-19 -- More quackery, this time involving The Former Guy in the White House...
- August 2020: Oleandrin: Are Trump and cronies trying to
crapitalize on a new phony COVID-19 cure? -- And still more quackery, involving the same
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It's a pity that for someone I normally agree on with most things, your hatred and ignorance of right-wing information, is one of your biggest let downs to being taken seriously. However, you do give a good insight into the depravity of thinking processes from one so far on the left that it's mind-boggling that you can even write a piece of journalism without smirking!
ReplyDeleteThere is and there are, plenty of evidence and countless qualified health professionals, that advocate for NOT taking the latest experimental covid vaccines. The way you dismiss them with reference to nothing more than left-wing ideology and the opinions of left-wingers, is evidence enough that you don't care about facts.
With more than 4,000 deaths and 100's of thousands of adverse reactions, all to a vaccine that has less than a years' worth of data, it is obvious that the vaccine doesn't work. Even more so when you consider the number of people who are vaccinated, and yet are still catching Covid. Any good pharmacist will tell you that a vaccine requires a minimum of 5 years of study before being certified for general useage. The current vaccines do not have such a correlation of data and at this stage, it is nothing more than a hit n miss effort by governments to control the populus through scaremongering.
But please, keep quoting folks who have no real standing in the modern situation. Folks who lack the empathy to view all sides and are only interested in brown-nosing the rear-end of higher ups, without question.
Stick to blogging about your favorite serial scammer, KT - at least that topic doesn't require you to be blinded by Liberal rhetoric.
Hello there, “Anonymous.” If you’re who I suspect you are… oh, my friend, I thought that you and I essentially had an agreement, made in the interests of preserving a friendship/alliance based on our common dislike of certain scammers, to simply “agree to disagree” about politics -- and yes, vaccination HAS become a political issue, though it never should have been. Frankly I’m a little disappointed in you – not disappointed that you would call my “liberal/left-wing” thinking “depraved” (since I am very well aware of your hyper-partisan right-wing views) – but that you would post anonymously on my blog. But I’m sure you had your reasons.
ReplyDeleteBefore I go any further with my response I’ll remind you that my blog was never intended to be straight journalism/reporting but is chiefly an opinion blog, though I have posted links to countless journalistic sources in the 15 years (!) that this blog has been in operation. Although “real” journalists from both mainstream and “alternative” outlets have consulted me numerous times over the years, I have never pretended that Whirled Musings is a serious journalistic endeavor. It’s a hobby blog, and frankly I don’t care if people take me seriously or not. If you are confused about my purpose and intent, please refer to Whirled Musings’ “About” page:
https://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_5.html
And now to the issue of vaccines. To my knowledge you are not a qualified health expert yourself, unless you’ve picked up some new credentials since we were in regular communication (again, assuming you’re who I think you are). Nevertheless I’ll take your word for it that you have a source, or sources, that back your statement about there being “plenty of evidence and countless qualified health professionals, that advocate for NOT taking the latest experimental covid vaccines.” If you would be so kind as to respond here with some of those links, or at least the names of some of those countless qualified health professionals, I’m sure it would enhance the discussion, and the three or four regular readers I have would welcome the education.
Please also share links that back up your statement that there have been more than 4,000 deaths attributed to the COVID vaccine.
I’m clearly no health expert either, but I have at least a rudimentary understanding of what’s going on, and believe it or not, I don’t rely on politically partisan sources for all of that info. While it’s true that the provisional emergency approval of the COVID-19 vaccines is unusual, and it’s certainly legitimate for people to be concerned and have questions about this, it’s a gross distortion to present the shots as “experimental.” In fact the vaccines are based upon research that has been ongoing for at least a decade. Here’s a link, though it may not meet your approval since it doesn’t mention the depravity of liberals, or Joe Biden’s alleged “dementia.”
https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/05/basic-research-paved-way-for-warp-speed-covid-19-vaccines/
Bottom line is: there’s a pandemic that’s killing millions, and a sufficient body of existing research to justify emergency approval of a science-based way to help stop that pandemic. Could the vaccines have unintended consequences? Sure… but not nearly on the scale that the army of anti-vax/COVID-is-a-hoax/pearl-clutching “freedom fighters” imply.
[continued on next comment, due to Blogger’s annoying character limit per comment]
[continued from previous comment]
ReplyDeleteAs for people getting COVID even though fully vaccinated, that number is really quite low – much lower than you implied in your comment. NO vaccine is 100 percent effective, particularly against a pathogen that is continually mutating, and none of the medical experts or even the pharm companies themselves have claimed 100 percent effectiveness. Similarly, no vaccine or any other drug/treatment/preventative/remedy is 100 percent risk-free, whether it’s the product of a big pharm company or is a “natural cure.” But the effectiveness of the existing COVID vaccines is apparently being compromised by the millions of people who are refusing to get vaccinated, giving new variants the opportunity to take hold.
And if you’re referring to Jef Rouner when you accuse me of quoting “folks who have no real standing in the modern situation,” I cited Jef’s piece because I think it gives good insights into the current COVID vax controversy. Though Jef doesn’t pretend to be a medical expert either, and though he and I do actually see eye to eye on political and social matters, he also provides links to credible (non-political) sources about the issue. Moreover, if you truly believe that the ultra-right-wing sources you seem to prefer are in any way objective, you are, with all due respect, just plain wrong.
Is it possible that when you accuse me or the people I quote of “lacking in empathy to see all sides,” you are in fact lecturing yourself? At any rate, accusing those with whom you disagree politically of “brown-nosing” is odd, coming from a stalwart Trump defender (I guess that would be “orange-nosing”). I wish Trumpsters who claim to hate scammers could see that Trump himself is a scammer on a far larger and more dangerous scale than any of the scammers normally targeted on blogs like this.
Which brings me to my final point (and again, assuming you’re who I think you are)…
You offer me the advice to stick to blogging about Kevin Trudeau (condescension duly noted!), but I could offer you the same advice, since your own blog seems to have morphed into a forum for right-wing rants that, alas, would make the likes of Mocktor Leonard Coldwell and his handmaiden Sarah very proud. But, in keeping with our agree-to-disagree-and-still-remain-friends pact, I have zero desire to come onto your forum and argue against those very biased rants, anonymously or not. In any case, as it happens, I’m sorry to inform you that you’re wrong about the topic of KT being divorced from politics – quite the contrary, since KT and apparently most of his fans are Trumpists/right-wingers themselves. I went into some detail about this matter in a February 2020 post.
https://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2020/02/department-of-just-us-and-screw.html
Thank you for participating in the conversation.
A couple more points concerning the suggestion that I limit the scope of my blog to Kevin Trudeau and similar topics...
ReplyDeleteFor years I was getting the opposite "advice." People who were supporters/defenders of various scammers such as Kevin Trudeau, Joe Vitale, and a host of minor Scamworld gurus helpfully offered suggestions, some with more than a tinge of hostility, that my focus on these people was a waste of time and my talent. They said that I should be focusing instead on larger, more important issues such as government corruption, corporate malfeasance, politics, etc. For instance, when I was frenemies with Peter Wink (former shill for Joe Vitale, then for Kevin Trudeau, then for Leonard Coldwell, but now apparently retired from the shilling-for-scammers biz), Peter suggested to me more than once that I really needed to turn my attention away from KT and on to larger and more relevant topics. Not surprisingly, this was when Peter was working for Trudeau; later he very publicly turned against his former boss, and even helped various government agencies with their criminal and civil investigations of KT.
To all of those who advised me to focus on important matters, I would respond with some variation of my opinion that in blogging as in life, you have to pick your battles. And in the case of blogging, it's a good idea to narrow your beat. For years I mostly resisted political posts, because there were (and are) already so many political blogs and other forums online. And from 2009 on, Kevin Trudeau was certainly one of my favored targets (I had known for years that he was/is a scammer, but 2009 saw the launching of GIN and the alliance of Trudeau with some of my other favored targets, e.g., Joe Vitale).
Then Trump waddled his way to the front lines of American politix... and for me it finally sank in that Trump was like the worst of the Scamworld scum, writ large. One of my initial posts about that topic was this one, from March 2016:
https://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-devils-at-crossroads-of-politix-and.html
That was far from the first time I'd written about Trump, but that was the first post to really focus on the unholy marriage between American politix and Scamworld.
The point is that it looks like I've come full circle, and am now being advised by people who defend Trump and far-right-wing ideologies to abandon political subjects and focus on the likes of Kevin Trudeau. But I'll continue to blog about the matters that interest me and that I think are important.
Easy to understand why I blocked this brave keyboard warrior years ago. I would encourage him NOT to be vaccinated. It would be a rare but increasingly common case of NOT being vaccinated serving to eliminate a disease.
ReplyDeleteIt has been nearly 3 weeks since I asked my "Anonymous" commenter of July 4 to share some sources for the claims that (1) there have been more than 4,000 deaths attributed to the COVID vaccine; and (2) that there exist “plenty of evidence and countless qualified health professionals, that advocate for NOT taking the latest experimental covid vaccines.”
ReplyDeleteBut so far there has been no response to my request. Of course I understand that people are busy. After all, there's work and family, not to mention the need to post furious -- and spurious -- screeds about the so-called "election fraud" in America in 2020 that resulted in Biden "stealing" the election from TFG. Well, to each his or her own blog, I guess.
In response to RevRon's Rants above, I can only say that I don't wish anyone, vaccinated or un-vaccinated, to get COVID or any other illness, no matter how wrongheaded that person's opinions may be. OTOH, if the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers were only harming themselves, it might be tempting for a true cynic to shrug it off and say that they made that choice. Unfortunately, of course, they are hurting others besides themselves.
Just in case anyone is interested and too lazy to Google, the claim about 4,000-plus deaths is most likely based on data from Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) -- data seriously taken out of context by right-wingnuts/anti-vaxxers. This Forbes piece is from May (when the number was closer to 3,000 than 4,000) but it explains the context.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2021/05/12/the-truth-behind-tucker-carlsons-claims-about-covid-19-vaccine-deaths-and-the-governments-vaers-database/?sh=4ed78bc3a9ad
As for the "countless qualified health professionals" to which my Anon commenter referred, well, one can only guess. But here are some possibilities... Lots of familiar names on the list in this report, including some of "Dr." Loony Coldwell's heroes.
https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_b7cedc0553604720b7137f8663366ee5.pdf