So Many COVID Vaccine Questions

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen
Edited 9-03-2021

When riding into town for supplies, it did not take long for me to catch on that the fastest way to have someone ready to slap leather is to start discussing SARS-CoV-2. The Rona. COVID-19.

This child has long believed in having a passel of information available, but sometimes there is too much. Especially when part of it is false or misleading. Delving into social(ist) media, we see people outraged over mask mandates and the need for vaccinations. Indeed, there are demonstrations in many countries where people object to draconian rules.

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I'm going to say some things that many people know, but others may not. When I get to the material that gets you angry with me, I'd be much obliged if you'd read on to the end and think about what I'm saying. No, I am not going to tell anyone what to do. I also have questions and need answers.

A singularly unpleasant fellow made a point of telling me that COVID is fake, and gave reasons that any rational person would reject. I made some comment that was only slightly related (refraining from asking about people who had died or been sick from it, as well as their friends and families) because I wanted him to shut up and go away.

From the way the Rona (I'm using the Australian word) is portrayed, there has never been a coronavirus before, but that is false. The common cold (HCoV-OC43) is a coronavirus, and there are several others. (Someone sent my wife a video that angered me. It shows someone opening a medical book and pointing to where it lists "coronavirus" and "common cold". Lack of context! Also, when was that book written?) How many people have hard of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1? Many of these have mild effects, but the Rona is SARS: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Sensationalistic reports come from famous and also lesser-known (even suspicious) sources. While someone with a weblog can have useful information, if it pretends to have exclusive material or "truth they don't want you to know", suspicion is advised. We have to use discernment, since apparently there are people making money from Rona resistance.

Politicization

One of the key words associated with the virus is novel, and medical professionals as well as political leaders are making efforts to deal with and contain it. Although leftists claim otherwise, it is clear that President Donald Trump was active early on in dealing with the Rona. This included travel bans. In the early days of the outbreak, Democrats were encouraging people to have a good time. We don't need masks.

Many people object to mandatory masks, and they interfere with our God-given breathing apparatus. There is debate about the efficacy of masks. "Slow the spread, flatten the curve" and similar things were said. The "just a little while" rhetoric was brushed aside and mask mandates were put into place for increasingly-extended periods.

Lockdowns were common, and some still exist. In fact, they are increasingly severe in some areas like parts of Australia. The state interfered with the church in the US. Dr. John MacArthur wasn't having it.

Big questions — and fair ones, at that — were raised about a virus that initially was only dangerous to a small percentage of people. It has had a high survivability rate; some people have no symptoms, others simply are immune (or less vulnerable). B. Hussein Obama and his Vice President Joe Biden were in power during the H1N1 flu scare. This flu affected a wider range of people and had a high fatality rate, so people wonder why that had little impact on government responses.

People are rebelling against the threat of vaccine passports. Show your papers to the local MVD, and don't use a fake vaccine card.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered that renters could not be evicted, a move that hurt both good and bad landlords. I have seen for myself how some people took advantage of that order. I didn't vote for the CDC. Courts sometimes let something unlawful continue, but when Joe Biden tried to extend the eviction law, the US Supreme Court hollered, "Whoa!"

Reversals, Inconsistency, Confusion

Dr. Anthony Fauci said masks are not really necessary. As we all know, that was reversed and escalated. He is known for repeatedly changing his views.

If you take the vaccination, masks will no longer be necessary and you can do business in a store. Now people who are vaccinated still must wear masks. This is not being consistently enforced.

COVID-19 deaths are being misrepresented and inflated, which makes it difficult to believe the 4-1/2 million deaths worldwide number is accurate. Even so, there is no denying that millions have died from it.

Medical people in masks and scrubs have released literal song-and-dance videos (some say to keep up people's spirits). I thought they were overwhelmed and had no time for that. Related to this, news reports showed people lined up outside hospitals, which were being overwhelmed. I saw videos made by citizen journalists the next day. There were no lines, now crowded hospitals. The whole thing seems staged. There's something I'm missing here.

This paragraph is a toss-up because it is both politicization and a reversal. President Trump advocated testing hydroxychloroquine, a drug that had been used for decades. Since leftists and some fake Republicans reflexively oppose whatever Trump says, they mocked him. When he got the virus, he took that drug. After Donald was out of office, suddenly HCQ seemed like a good idea.

When AIDS was new, I remember people saying that it was not being taken seriously. The most preventable disease was given a free pass because some people would be "offended". Gallop ahead to the here and now, and people are either militant and treating the Rona like the superflu in Stephen King's The Stand, or they are not acting like it's a real pandemic. In fact, I don't believe the militants are consistent, either.

Fear and Distrust

Earlier, I mentioned distrust of the government because leftists are using the Rona to their own advantage. (Many jobs were COVID fatalities, yet extended unemployment benefits continued.) There is a big push (primarily from leftists) to get vaccinated. Why? They pretend to care about us, but let's be blunt: the government doesn't give a rat's — uh, tail — if I live or die. I'll allow that Christians, scientists, Conservatives, Republicans, and President Trump are among people that I respect. They also encourage us to "get the jab". There has never been a tremendous push to get the flu shot. I wonder why.

What is happening is a threat to our freedoms, and we are expected to surrender them for the greater good. No, that's not happening. After all, we're all in this together — according to leftists. The same loving, cuddly people who say that we should pay for our own testing, or say that if the heretics who are unvaccinated should simply die.

I don't know anything about this doctor, but I agree with what he said here:

I don't recall ever speaking with so many people who are afraid they will lose their jobs if they say out loud what they are actually thinking. Or if they refuse to accept something that they firmly believe they should decline.

This is really not good for a free society.

— Aaron Kheriaty, MD (@akheriaty) September 1, 2021

Many Darwin doubters in science and academia know the feeling! By the way, Darwinist are using the Rona to push their evolutionary propaganda.

So Many Voices Confirming Biases

It is probably human nature to seek information that supports our views. Something frustrating to thinking people is the how people have preconceptions and seek material that agrees with them. People get emotionally involved, however, and tend to get less selective on their sources. (I have actually heard it said that Hillary Clinton and others were executed and replaced with clones, and the same sites and podcasters are also spinning yarns about the Rona and vaccinations.) To be honest with ourselves, we should be willing to abandon our preconceptions when contradicted by reliable sources. Discernment is always necessary.

We hear about death reports or adverse effects from the Rona vax. There are several reasons for this. Yes, out of hundreds of millions of doses given, some people will have problems. This happens with any vaccination or medication, but the death rate is 0.0020% for the Rona vax. Indeed, there are numerous positive reports of COVID vaccinations saving thousands of lives in the US alone. 

There are two immediate reasons that people live in fear (three, if we include the fact that many people have an intense dislike of shots). First, much of it is cause and effect. Someone's friend got the jab and then was sick for days or even weeks afterward. As already stated, there will be some problems for some people, but many times the problems are coincidental and the vaccination was incorrectly blamed. Other people had few side effects afterward.

Second, bad reports are hearsay. How often do they come from doctors or organizations making money on fear porn?

President Trump spearheaded Operation Warp Speed to get vaccines developed, but people say that it's "experimental". The counterclaim is that he cut through the red tape to make it available as quickly as possible. Here's something that I recently learned: science is not a new thing. What I mean is that while the Rona is new, scientific research on coronaviruses dates back to their discovery in the 1930s. Recent research is built on many years of similar research. Although I am suspicious of the left-leaning USA Today, this article passed my sniff test.

While biases can be "confirmed" for people who already have their minds made up that the vaccination is bad, vaccination supporters also have their sources. Note that the anti-vax sources often seem doubtful at best. I'll allow that I thoroughly distrust the World Health Organization because of their support of leftists, including the ChiComs.

Anti-Vaxxers are Using This Fear

I am on record as believing in vaccines in general. There are people opposed to any vaccination whatsoever, and others accept very few if they meet rigid personal criteria. (I showed this article to a scientist who thought the material it contained was dangerous because it contained selective and bad information.) Anti-vaxxers are some of the worst conspiracy theorists, exceeding Flat Earthers, geocentrists, and even the 9-11 truthers in uninformed zeal. They have the boogieman of "Big Pharma".

While the pharmaceutical industry has its share of profiteering weasels, it is detestable to impugn thousands of people and presume to know their motives. That is, "Big Pharma doesn't want cures, they want to keep you sick so they can keep selling you prescriptions". (I take several prescriptions, and most are generic forms. My costs are very low, so there's a hole in that argument.) There is a question of making money.

Why is making money wrong for them but not for other people who work for a living? This includes those who develop, invest, and so on? Big Pharma employs people who have advanced degrees that did not come cheaply. Then there's research and testing, which are time-consuming and costly. Did you anti-pharmacy people honestly think everything should be given away for free?

Yes, I went on a tangent and had to restrain some bad words. Deal with it. Anyway, anti-vaxxers will say they trust their "natural immunity" or use similar expressions, but natural immunity did not keep millions of people alive who contracted diseases. That's why vaccines were developed. You savvy that, pilgrim? Or perhaps you would rather watch your child die from something that could have been prevented because of your wrong opinions.

People who want to know more about vaccination should read, "CMI, vaccines, and vaccination", which should prove useful to everyone. The browser's search function can help people find specific information.

Fear and Loathing in Jobs

Vaccination proponents are surprised at the amount of resistance to getting the jab. Millions of people have questions and objections. Some employers are mandating that Comrade Worker gets vaccinated or will be fired. Sometimes that is being challenged as to its legality and human rights.

Again, people are asking why the insistence on vaccination for something that has a high survivability rate. The way we hear contradictions, face propaganda, endure passionate rhetoric, and sift through politicization does not help. Are the employers being political or getting rewarded somehow? Do they honestly care about their employees? Many had better think long and hard about mandating vaccinations. Some are losing employees as the threat looms, and others will quit when that occurs. The work will not get done, and the employers may essentially jab themselves in the foot because they had to close.

My Body, My Choice

Abortionists use that expression to justify murder (usually for convenience), and it's completely false because it's about ending a life in another body. Your choice, the baby's body. Those who are vax-skeptical or oppose it outright can more accurately use the "my body, my choice" thing. I'm not sure that this is a valid stance.

By the way, get rid of that fool notion that getting the vaccine means getting the Mark of the Beast. Can't happen. Do you people who think that even Bible?

What Have Vaccines Accomplished?

Many diseases that killed millions of people have been curtailed, especially in the formerly United States, because of vaccines. People who are too young to remember or have no interest in history are unaware of the fear and death from diseases of yesteryear. When I was very young, my mother told me that a woman we knew that walked funny had polio (probably from the epidemic of 1952). This disease crippled and killed thousands, but it's only used in reference nowadays.

Smallpox is a scourge that has been around for possibly a thousand years, resulting in hundreds of millions of deaths. Vaccinations made it disappear for the most part. 

Many diseases are controlled or eliminated by vaccines. Now we come back to COVID-19.

What's in it for Us?

Hospitals report that of patients hospitalized for the Rona, the overwhelming majority of them have not been vaccinated. Yes, it has a high survivability, but it's not like getting a bad cough and then you're done. It scars people on the inside, and some people have a long haul to reach full recovery — if they fully recover at all.

Half the people who get the jab will feel crummy for a few days. Evidence shows that even if vaccinated people get the Rona, it is far less severe than if they had not taken the vax at all.

There are speculations about possible treatments to reduce the severity of the Rona. Maybe they really do exist, and really do work. Does that mean your healthcare provider will use those treatments or opt for something else?

Someone cut to the chase on several points. Some people have bad reactions to the vaccine, but the ravages of COVID-19 are worse (including blood clots). Treatments may or may not work, but if you don't get the Rona, you won't need the treatments. The vaccination looks like the best course of action.

As a Christian, I want to give glory to God. I fail to see how getting vaccinated, or refusing, will do that. Also, I am not on "your side", whichever side that may be. If I continue to resist the vax, it's because of my choice and not to please others. But if I get the vax (and I'm leaning that way, especially since I'm in a high-risk category), it's also because of my choice. I don't know how either course of action glorifies God.

Yes, I have questions and misgivings. There are probably some things in this article that are wrong, but they're from my heart and mind. If someone is going to be angry or even hate me because of my decisions, then that person does not respect me or have my best interests at heart.