I speak Vaxx
Did you read part one? Did your friends and or loved ones respond with tears in their eyes and a much stronger appreciation for you? Oh well, I guess just add it to the list of all the things NOT to bring up at Thanksgiving. Like Granddad’s new toupee.
This post is about some of the memes that demonstrate the thinking of the anti-vaxxer.
And this is by no “memes” all of them. You see, it’s interesting, the internet. It’s very much “give people what it thinks they want.” Like government giving subsidies for meat, GMO corn, coal, fracking, mercenary defense contractors, and billionaires. Oops, what was I saying? The internet. The internet serves me a lot of what it thinks I like, based on my past searches, my social feed, and who knows what else, so it was actually hard to find these memes.
I also want to heartily thank all the people who have already done a lot of work and research into how to visualize, represent, make analogies, and otherwise explain why the official recommendation is always to go ahead with the COVID-19 vaccine. There are too many to name, but if you’re inclined, I really enjoyed Prof Tracy Ruscetti @scitimewithtracy on Twitter and TikTok.
Without further ado, our first meme.
This meme has layers. One, our immune system is able to repel microbes the way Neo repels bullets with his mind. Two, we are trapped in the matrix, which is a system of control.
An immune system protects our body from infection and makes vaccines redundant. In support of this, some people point to the fact that a body that has had COVID-19 has higher levels of anti-bodies (a key component of the immune system, which the body has made specifically to fight a specific pathogen, or germ) than a body that has only had the vaccine. The message is also that no additional lines of defense are necessary, or that vaccines come with unnecessary risk. There is also an underlying acceptance that there are germs all around us and that some of us will inevitably get sick.
Response
Vaccinated bodies recognize and kill germs more quickly and more effectively than unvaccinated ones. This chart below from @DrKatEpi on Twitter leaves no room for doubt when it comes to COVID-19. The rate of infection is so much lower.
This chart does not include the people who were exposed but not infected.
Additionally, many other diseases have already been successfully controlled, or eliminated, through vaccines.
More reading about the difference between being infected, and being infected after being vaccinated, here: https://twitter.com/DearPandemic/status/1434996430003974155?s=20
Even though The Matrix is a fictional story, it resonates with some of us. Some believe there is a system of control, and that we need to be red-pilled in order to see the system and how much of a hold it has.
The deeper truth is that people give up their power when they can’t be bothered to get involved in decision making at the local, state, and federal levels. Hard decisions like mask mandates and mandatory vaccines are just one of the many thousands of decisions being made all around us. What sorts of decisions are being made about gambling, or toy safety, or building standards? When you think about how decision making works, it’s a lot, and it’s complex, but also it’s possible to get involved. You can attend most meetings, and find out what the issues are. You can even zero in on the issues that are most important to you.
It is also important to note that no politician, newsperson, salesperson, or religious leader is responsible for the discovery of what we understand to be the immune system. We throw this concept around, but the people who best understand what it is and how it works are immunologists. Without scientists like immunologists, we would still have straw puppets under our beds and talismans on our door jambs, and amulets around our necks, to ward against the evil eye.
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Next meme
This one isn’t exactly meme-y, but the view is that vaccines could be poison, or have side effects. This is also related to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) giving provisional approval (now full approval), in a very rushed, and not fully trustworthy process.
Even the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and numerous other agencies in other countries, confirm that there are side effects, and that there are deaths after being vaccinated, and there are possible health problems from the vaccines themselves. Possible side effects are officially listed here, and a page discussing serious side effects and deaths after being vaccinated, here.
In the article about deaths, this statement gives a specific number in the United States: from December 14, 2020, through September 13, 2021, VAERS received 7,653 reports of death (0.0020%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccine is also accused of causing
- infertility
This comes from a circulated email, about an article, about a letter, sent by a former Pfizer employee Michael Yeadon, and German physician Wolfgang Wodarg, addressed to the European Medicines Agency. The letter says that the Pfizer vaccine blocks a protein that is key in the formation of the placenta in mammals. Claims are taken further in that vaccinated women are unable to conceive. For the anti-vax population who are religious, or concerned about human reproduction, this is a very serious issue.
- disrupted menstrual cycles
This article from npr.com describes the situation where thousands of people have reported that their menstrual cycles were disrupted after have the COVID-19 vaccine. Again, this is cause for alarm.
- re-written DNA
Due to having heard that the COVID-19 vaccines are based on messenger RNA (mRNA) it is possible to believe that what the vaccine does is re-write a person’s DNA. Just the idea of having one’s DNA re-written conjures up fears of further side effects or illness or even death. Taken to another extreme, this idea could also feed into the fear of being controlled.
There could be more, please do let me know in the comments.
The FDA provisionally approved a number of vaccines for use in the US, and vaccinations went ahead. Many people are concerned because compared to many other drugs and vaccines, the one for COVID-19 was approved in less than a year. How is it possible that all the side effects were identified, vetted, and accounted for in that short of time? For those who do not trust the government, this rush to approve the various vaccines is suspect, and feeds into the belief that there may be harmful substances in it.
Response
The primary job of a vaccine is to prepare the body, and the immune system, against a possible germ / pathogen. If it does that job, then that is the first green light. The fact that it came out very quickly does need to be explained, and the explanations are available, such as on the Johns Hopkins website, here, about halfway down. The top bullet point from that link is
- The COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna were created with a method that has been in development for years, so the companies could start the vaccine development process early in the pandemic.
The CDC and related agencies in other countries have been fairly upfront about what those side effects there are. Scientists have the view that risks to benefits must be carefully weighed when making a recommendation. When something is too risky then it is not recommended. When something still has some residual risk, this risk is not covered over, it is clearly explained, and quantified, in order to make informed decisions.
The not too recent scare with the Astra Zeneca vaccine is a case in point. It was reported that some people were experiencing blood clots after taking having the AZ vaccine. The Australian government has a summary, here. The New York Times ran an article, here. This is by no means all the info available. Both articles contain some numbers, such as ‘European regulators said that as of March 22, they had carried out detailed reviews of 86 cases, 18 of which had been fatal.’ The scientists, and the people in government positions did not ignore the cases that occurred, but tried to quantify the risk. They concluded that the risk was low enough, compared to the risk of exposure to COVID-19, to continue to administer the vaccine to people over 60 years old.
There are zero immunologists who confirm that the vaccine changes a body’s DNA. This is because of their understanding of how mRNA vaccines work. A good explanation, from the CDC, is here. Adam Conover, who has a TV show called Adam Ruins Everything, and a podcast called Factually! came up with a good analogy: it’s like a restaurant, where the mRNA is the recipe for an item on the menu. A slew of orders orders are sent to the kitchen. The chef uses the recipe to make the item, and sends it out. The item itself is the ‘food’ that the white blood cells will attack.
Important note
This argument regarding side effects relates to the anti-vax movement prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. People who distrust vaccines in general may very well also distrust the COVID-19 vaccine. One of the persistent myths about vaccines is that the MMR vaccine causes autism in children. The belief persists despite the fact that the original paper has been retracted, the author has been disgraced, and no study has been able to replicate the results. These links talk about the movement and the person behind it.
- The MMR vaccine and autism: Sensation, refutation, retraction, and fraud
- The discredited doctor hailed by the anti-vaccine movement
There’s more
Saying that we don’t know what’s in it, don’t know what the side effects are, or that the FDA approval was rushed, all seems a bit silly when considering some of the ‘alternative’ remedies and medicines that anti-vax people and their allies prefer instead.
- hydroxychloroquine, a drug approved for treatment of malaria, and not FDA approved for use related to COVID-19. There is a study regarding the use of hydroxychloroquine for prevention of COVID-19, reported here. This drug was only promoted by one person, and The New York Times reports the Trump family trusts all have investments in a mutual fund whose largest holding is Sanofi, the manufacturer of Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.
- Ivermectin, a drug approved for treatment of parasites in domestic animals, and not FDA approved for use related to COVID-19. There is a paper published in Antiviral Research, with a long list of viruses this drug has been tested with. Granted scientists should definitely try things, however, scientists also need to be very clear about what the experimentation reveals and doesn’t reveal. This article, in the Sydney Morning Herald, spells it out.
- We also don’t know what’s in chicken nuggets, hot dogs, Coca-cola, and many other food products, so standing on this principle, in the face of all the evidence and recommendations of the vaccine’s safety, seems like clutching pearls.
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Next meme
This meme isn’t about science or facts, people using this meme simply wish to reinforce that they don’t agree with the new vaccine. It’s the opposite of a Maybelline commercial; if you get the vaccine you will look sick and ugly.
Response
This is puerile.
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Next meme
Vaccines are made of aborted human fetal tissue and therefore unethical and/or immoral. Taking the vaccine makes you complict in someone’s abortion. It also references someone named Dr. Stanley Plotkin.
Response
A quick google search confirms that aborted human fetal cells are used to make vaccines.
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has a summary
- Los Angeles County Public Health has written an explanation
- a website called VeryWell Health has also provided an explanation, including a statement from the Vatican (the Roman Catholic Church)
From what I read in the articles above, two legally aborted fetuses were donated to science in the 1960’s and cells from those fetuses are still in use. Additionally a fetus from 1985 was donated and its retinal cells were harvested for use.
But are human fetal cells or DNA still present in the vaccine when it is in final form? This article, from Reuters Fact Check says that the final product contains no fetal cells or DNA.
Reading the articles above confirmed that 1) I know very little about making vaccines, and 2) the science behind it must be mind blowing. I also appreciated the sensitivity in the explanations, because they do note that people have objections to the use of fetal cells on the basis of religious beliefs or ethical concerns.
The meme referenced Dr. Stanley Plotkin. I found this article, again on the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia website, which explained who he is, what the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology was, and some of the work during the late 1950s and 1960s. I found nothing insidious, only the fact that he and his colleagues decided to use human fetal cells.
On the moral issue, and whether it makes your flesh crawl to think of dead fetuses being injected into your body, this can be a difficult moral question. We have already established that there is no fetal remnant in the vaccine, the fetal cells are grown, used, and then removed. Two fetuses have provided scientists with enough cells for over 60 years. The fact that the Vatican has wrestled with this issue, and come to the conclusion that it is alright, gives me some confidence. I was not able to find a slippery slope into using human fetuses willy-nilly, nor into creating insatiable demand for human fetuses.
Important note
This distorted meme plays into existing revulsion concerning abortion. It’s no coincidence that while this pandemic continues, and people become increasingly polarized on the issue of vaccines, people continue to be polarized about the rights of a fetus. Some US states, most recently Texas, have gone backwards in women’s rights and made abortions more difficult and more punishable.
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Next meme
Much like the flu and the common cold, people have died from diseases throughout history. It’s nothing new, and of course it’s unfortunate, but there’s a natural law at work here. This meme compares COVID-19 to Spanish flu and Black Plague because they are relatively well known pandemics that appear in the history books. Essentially 10,000 people is not a lot, and they were probably on the verge of dying anyway.
Response
Let’s hope that this is an outdated meme and that no one has any question in their minds how many people this virus has killed.
A website called worldometer puts the death toll as of 9/17/2021 to be 4,683,970 worldwide.
Included in those deaths are the deaths of well known people, and people who are anti-vax.
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Next meme
Comorbidity may not have been taken into consideration, in the rush to justify masking, lockdowns, quarantines, and mandatory vaccines. Studies which analyze the death certificates of those who had COVID-19 at the time of death, have identified that the majority of deaths included comorbidities. This is in line with the belief that COVID-19 is just another type of flu.
From an article on upworthy.com in September 2020 (that was a year ago), CDC “quietly” added some data to their website to clarify that only 6% of COVID-19 deaths were a result of COVID alone, whereas 94% of them included other “serious illnesses” as causes of death.
Response
This may be an outdated meme.
This argument includes the callous view that a person who dies from COVID-19 probably would have died anyway. This view fails to take into account how long a person’s life would have been without COVID-19. The attitude that, ‘it’s just a flu,’ is increasingly difficult for anti-vaxxers to support, given the number of seemingly healthy people who have died to date. Such as famous news and radio hosts. There are pages and pages of people who were heartily against the vaccine who are now dead.
This is an emerging discussion, and there are opportunities to clarify which preexisting diseases or conditions are more deadly, and who is more at risk. Nature.com has an article that discusses and examines how comorbidities interact with COVID-19 in deceased patients.
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Next meme
This meme, and the first one, and the next few are somewhat related. The first meme was set in ‘The Matrix,’ a system of control. This meme speaks to the sense that the über-rich are using their money to control people, and as a result, become even more rich and controlling.
Response
There is as much support for this worry as there is for UFOs: statements out of context, grainy footage, blurry audio, and possible connections between seemingly unrelated events, names, or numbers. This is where the memes merge with conspiracy lore.
There is, at the heart of this belief, a contradiction: that those at the top of the food chain, defined by their financial net worth, and/or fame, have a right to be there; and the belief that they climbed to the top through hard work, good habits, and savvy decision making. Any of us can also get there, or partway there, if we just try hard enough.
How is it then, that regular folks can be upset when those same people at the top of the food chain use their own money in their own way? Are people as furious with John D. Rockefeller as they are with Bill Gates? Microsoft is clearly to the information age what Standard Oil was to the industrial age. I was unable to find whether Rockefeller was ever accused of trying to control the population, perhaps by sneaking trace substances into the oil and gas distribution. It might make a cool movie though.
There is also at the heart of this belief, unempowerment. People feel powerless to prevent their participation in the system of control. Much like bulimia and cutting oneself, people who feel they have no control over their lives start to exhibit self harm, not only physically by refusing the vaccine, but also socially, by continuing to vilify people who aren’t awake to the systems of control.
I can think of two antidotes.
One, right-size your importance to the system. You are important, and you do have power, but consider that YOU are not the person that THEY are interested in. They would be much better off controlling bankers, manufacturers, the energy grid, the water supply, the military, and other high impact infrastructure. And we already know that most of these people are vaccinated, and thus far they don’t seem to be behaving any differently.
Two, excerise your power in your sphere of influence. Get involved at the local level. Yes there are very rich and very powerful people out there, but imagine going toe-to-toe with your mayor, or city councilman, or arranging a meeting with your state representative. These people are on a much smaller hill, and they care about you because they care about their town. Find out what issues they are wrestling with, such as police, water, waste management, education, homelessness, the arts, and so much more. Chances are you will become passionate about problems, solutions, and projects that you can actually dive into and make a difference.
Gaining some perspective and taking your power back will lessen the importance of multinational corporations and federal government agencies. Taking your eye off of the huge unseen, and fighting real issues in your own backyard is much more rewarding.
And who knows, you might find someone to help you switch from Microsoft to Linux if it’s that important to you.
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Next meme
This item is broken out separately, even though it is related to the meme above. The 5G network, antecessor to the 4G network remains a frightening mystery for some, who have heard that it is being pushed, rushed, or rolled out despite security concerns. As with anything new, some people are naturally resistant and fear change. One persistent rumor is that 5G makes a person more susceptible to COVID-19, and possibly even transmits the virus into people’s bodies.
There is research, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, that experimented with quantum dots that might remain in a body. To date we are only told that rats were used in the experiements. We are not told if the experimentation continued in secret and nor whether the technology is now in use.
It’s unknown whether anti-vaxxers actually believe that 5G chips or nanobots or something is being injected into people, to be activated later, but the argument is that the vaccine, and the ‘plandemic’ below, are part of a larger program to round up people, and either sterilize them (as discussed above) or cause harm, disruption, or death.
Response
A quick google search provides some very good articles about the conspiracy theory surrounding 5G and how it folds into the current pandemic.
- From npr.org: Anatomy of a COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory
- From the US National Institute of Health: ‘Corona? 5G? or both?’: the dynamics of COVID-19/5G conspiracy theories on Facebook
- From The New Yorker: The Dangerous Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories Targeting 5G Technology, Bill Gates, and a World of Fear
- From the BBC: Coronavirus: 5G and microchip conspiracies around the world
Consider that 5G is a bit like when the telegraph system was upgraded for telephone use, then the telephone lines were upgraded for data use, and then the first wireless cellular phones came out. There have been misconceptions and strange theories all along the way. Believing that this is the first time that new technology has been rolled out with a nefarious purpose is the same as believing that nobody ever thought of ways to be nefarious with new technology until now.
It’s also hard to believe that everyone who believes this theory has also eschewed all tracking technology. Not wanting to be tracked and controlled would lead one to getting rid of the smart phone, smart watch, electronics, and start wearing foil to disrupt the signals being transmitted to your brain.
I couldn’t resist just one counter-meme.
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Next meme
The vaccine has also become a civil liberties issue. This is a direct experience. Of all the theories out there, having your right to choose taken away is real and is alarming. From there, it’s possible that more civil liberties will be taken away. These emotions are real.
This could very well be the visceral core of the resistance to the vaccine.
For some, this has been a worry for a long time, and has become more so with the advent of the spread of COVID-19. It is the ongoing work, and perhaps the most successful plan yet, of those who conspire against us regular folks.
For most, this is their first pandemic, and the limitations on freedom, and the government mandates are all very new and very worrisome. Calling this a ‘plandemic’ means that the release of a virus was intentional, and that there is a larger system at work, intent on control and subjugation.
This ties into the worry that the rich are in control, and that we are being asked to inject ‘something’ into our bodies, possibly something poisonous or something technological and certainly something diabolical. Decisions in government take on an ominous tone. It is no longer someone doing the best job they can with the responsibility they have been given, it is people in positions of power being being actively evil at the higher levels, and going along with the program at the lower levels.
These worries are hard to disprove, and harder to dispel, because in order for someone to become convinced of the slippery slope into subjugation, they will have already spent time doing research and learning about the seemingly coincidental words, phrases, news, and actions of key people. The research is woven with a narrative that ‘they don’t want you to know,’ and the narrative that it is hidden from most people on purpose, so of course most people don’t know any better.
One more important point regarding people who have had the vaccine, but still preach against it. They were forced into it by their faceless masters. They aren’t being hypocrites, they are trying to save others from the same fate.
Response
Stop believing that the preachers, and the newscasters, and the people who are vaccinated are victims. There is no poison in their body, even they don’t think so.
Forced vaccination is absolutely an infringement on civil liberties, it’s true. It is also true that we live together, and as a result we have to consider that trade off between our individual rights and our duty of care to others.
There are many things that we are forced to do, for example:
- vaccinate school aged children
- buy car insurance
- adhere to safety requirements (at work especially)
- respect private property
- wear clothing
And there are many things we do voluntarily because we care about others:
- hold the door for someone
- join the PTA
- jury duty
- church service
I’m sure you can think of more examples. None of these are a slippery slope into subjugation.
