This post started out as a potential comment on a Facebook thread in the local community group, which in turn was a result of someone posting an image which read “Please wait here until you realise your government is brainwashing you” (imitating street signs that encourage social distancing). It quickly degenerated from there, and it didn’t take long before various trigger phrases were used (MSM, etc).
For reasons of my own sanity (as I type this that thread is now over 250 messages long), I didn’t post a response there, but I felt it would be cathartic to post something here.
“Well, this appears to have gone full conspiracy theory with New World Order, David Icke, Katie Hopkins, Kate Shemirani, anti-vaxxers and a number of theories that can easily be dismissed by some short research on Snopes or FullFact etc (though I’m sure they are also all controlled by the same shadowy forces).
There is no point debating the statistics of cases, deaths, excess deaths and so on, as small discrepancies in how the statistics are collected and reported are presented as examples of how all the statistics are unreliable.
The easy-to-post memes later in the thread comparing face coverings with hazmat suits are missing out on the main point of face coverings. The point of full protective suits or large masks is to prevent any contaminant in the outside being inhaled. Face coverings are just designed to dissipate the air we exhale to reduce the density of virus in the air right in front of us — which could be heading to the checkout operator or person we are talking to. It’s risk reduction, not risk elimination.
Face coverings are for the protection of others, not the protection of ourselves.
Yes, COVID-19 is no longer defined as an HCID (which things like Ebola are), but that’s because we have geared up more to detecting, containing and treating it.
I’ll be getting a flu jab this year, and a COVID vaccination when it is tested and ready. It will not only help me, but stop me potentially carrying the virus to my more vulnerable parents and in-laws.
It’s true, that many vaccines use something called MRC-5 (and WI-38) which has content derived from an aborted foetus. The foetus in question dates from 1966, and a bit more on that is contained in this article. Those cells were used to start the cell strains and the original cells are not part of the vaccine that is administered. What I don’t know is whether the ‘flu and potential COVID-19 vaccines use MRC-5 or WI-38, and I’m pretty sure the conspiracy theorists don’t know that either.
By all means describe yourselves as ‘free thinkers,’ but the rest of us rational thinkers have used our own powers of critical thinking to decide that this is the lesser of two evils, and may even resent the fact that your actions risk dragging this out longer.
One last question — do you think the government is competent enough to carry off a deception on this scale? Or is their incompetence elsewhere yet another deliberate attempt to throw us off the scent?
One last comment, from a blog someone else pointed me at, Let’s go back to work…