Jenny McCarthy is a notorious antivaxer and was on Oprah promoting her own antivax views. Oprah even praised Google as a legitimate medical resource. And of course, her numerous embracing of folks who promote junk science (Hi Marianne Williamson!). Wakefield may have published his studies in the late 90s, but I don't remember hearing antivax until Jenny McCarthy went on Oprah in the late 2000s.
Let's be clear and agree on this: Christians do not get to determine what constitutes anti-Semitism. Whites do not get to determine what constitutes racism against people of color. Heterosexuals do not get to determine what constitutes homophobia. It was VERY homophobic and YOU doubled down on it. Contrary to what you wrote, neither gays nor bisexuals are to blame for heterosexual sex being the #1 way that HIV is spread.
Co-founder of Christian TV network that railed against vaccines dies of Covid-19 Marcus Lamb, 64, whose Daystar network reaches an estimated 2 billion viewers worldwide, had pushed alternative therapies. Under his leadership, Daystar aired repeated baseless anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and claims that vaccines were being used to take freedoms away from Christians. In July 2020, the network spent an hour of air time complaining about “censorship” around the pandemic and also gave an hour’s slot to Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has spread misinformation about the Covid vaccine.
GOP Governor here in FL blames the Biden Administration for not controlling the pandemic, while he has continuously undermined said admin's efforts to control it. It is malevolent. Many more have died than they should have.
After some speculation that Omicron would be less dangerous, (in terms of severity of disease even though it might be more transmissible), we now have this... Covid-19 variants may not evolve to be less dangerous, says Neil Ferguson Senior UK scientist says extent of threat posed by Omicron will not be clear until end of year People should not assume that Covid will evolve to become a milder disease, a senior scientist has warned, adding that the threat posed by the Omicron coronavirus variant will not be clear until the end of December. Prof Neil Ferguson, head of the disease outbreak analysis and modelling group at Imperial College London, told MPs on Wednesday that while evolution would drive Covid to spread more easily the virus might not become less dangerous. ... He said: “It’s too early to say whether Omicron is going to be more or less severe than previous variants, but what we have seen so far is, Alpha has been more severe than the previous strain, a little in terms of severe outcomes counterbalanced by the fact that we have treatments, and Delta was more severe again. “The trend we have seen so far is toward greater severity, not lesser severity, thankfully countered by better treatments … that mean people have a much better chance of surviving severe Covid today than they did at the outset of the pandemic.” Trust a British person to come along and make everyone miserable again Professor Neil GRINCH, (as I'm gonna call him from now on as he's stealing Christmas), goes on... Ferguson said it would probably take “three to four weeks” to get an indication of the transmission and real-world vaccine effectiveness. “We have to be patient. It is likely to be towards the end of this month, when we have a clearer picture.” So, just after Christmas then. That's just great!!! Hopefully he's just being super-cautious but we'll see I suppose.
BTW, I did ask this before and I think I only got a partial answer, (about HEPA filters IIRC)... Are we still allowing people to fly all over the world with NO checks before they take-off and when they arrive? I thought most countries were checking people at one point. Did that stop altogether? I'm guessing so as I keep reading about people who flew somewhere and then found out they'd travelled with covid. I've also read we're going to start checking people before they take off to come here, (or the states, europe, Asia, whatever). Anyway, that seems 'sub-optimal', shall we say Probably a bit bloody late now of course.
Nope, before I flew from Newark to London I had to provide proof of vaccination and a negative test. After arriving I needed to do a two day test. Before returning I have to get a negative test taken within 3 days of departure though this may change to 1 day. Apps like Verifly and Certifly are used by the airlines to ensure that you meet the requirements.
I'd amend this to say "mainstream" Republicans. It was more common on the left, for sure. Plenty of conservative religious communities that vote GOP have historically shied away from vaccination. Now it's become an acceptable position for the GOP brand.
I flew into Iceland and had to prove vaccination and have a negative test before flying out and to have a negative test before flying back.
Lefty Marin County, north of San Francisco, has plenty of longtime anti-vaxxers. Interestingly, it's now the county in California with the highest covid vaccination rate. But as this article points out, that may change now that younger children can be vaccinated: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/05/us/california-covid-vaccination.html
I reviewed some research that Facebook anti-vaxx groups were integral to the explosion of this stuff - this was pre-covid, but continues to this day. Many of them are now disguised as "health groups" As others have pointed out, there was a bit of a liberal thing back in those times to get the key vaccinations but not everything - sort of an unscientific middle road based on "common sense"
I've tried to stay away from this train wreck but seeing as I unintentionally caused it ... I posted a remembered discussion from the 80s to illustrate homophobia around AIDS at the time along the lines It was 100% homophobic. That is the reason why I posted it. The reason it was homophobic is it attributed the spread of AIDS to an entire minority group (gay men) rather than to the vector (unsafe sex prevalent amongst some gay lifestyles). The idea you couldn't get AIDS if you weren't gay or a junkie was common amongst straight adults in the 80s but as we were taught in school that was nonsense. I get why people might think the statement was "right" on some level - but it was also exactly the kind of reason ghey men faced so much prejudice in my hometown in the 80s Remember this was an era people were worried about infected toilet seats because a ghey might have sat there. Sorry for the train wreck.
Again this is where Longwell death spiral explains so much. GOP certainly didn't invent it, but Q etc became some a massive part of the constituency via organic growth that now it can't be ignored. That creates a feedback loop. Part of it is driven by grift in the media/influencer class, but for the political class, it is also the route to power. Remember Gaetz and his gas mask? The original trumpian denial just morphed into anti-masking and anti-vaxxing. And something worse will come after this believe me.
If 99% of COVID deaths are of the unvaccinated, and 99% of those are MAGA/Q, then there must really be a God. So, uh, good job, God.
About that, guess what changed? We can split the pandemic into roughly two halves centered around Biden's inauguration. The second half has been far more dangerous in places that didn't vote for him. https://t.co/7JzqSnJZhT pic.twitter.com/Uedyt8jUb2— Philip Bump (@pbump) December 2, 2021
This is so bonkers - even for Mango, this is insane It seems pretty clear Trump tested positive and very cleary was symptomatic with Covid and went around spreading it to everyone he met while the WH covered it up. Among many things, it's pretty clear he's sick when you look at the clips in here now.https://t.co/W5UJZ0LnPm— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) December 2, 2021
The irony is that Trump didn't care one iota if millions of Democrats died of Covid and Biden is trying to save the lives of Republicans.
Mmm. More complicated than that. A mix of religious conservatives, wacko libertarians, and far left pseudo-hippy-crunchy folks.
Agreed - I am seeing the same thing via acquaintances. Big group of religious types, especially evangelical where the Church often preaches against vaxx together with numerous other conspiracy theories - this area is ripe with grift Q and Q adjacent - lots of women in this group Normies who just lack faith in government, suspicious of professionals etc (likely to get it if you make them). Includes women with worries about pregnancy, young children etc - likely to get vaxxed if forced to. New age hippie crowd, fitness conscious people, sports types Young people (not my problem dude!) Rural types with low access Working poor who have low access to healthcare in the first place