Anti-vaxxers are in positions of authority, 7 June 2025
I was on The Letterhack Presents with Matt Strackbein to talk about why FAFO doesn’t matter because there's no Invisible Hand of the Market.
People are still being complacent about the anti-vaxxers in positions of authority.
I’m worried about people using this as a reason to “not worry about vaccine access” when “life hacks” and “one neat trick” for vaccine access is not an individualism solution to anything. The current regime’s revoking recommendations and proposing “studies” is a deliberate attempt to death spiral vaccines, and the less people get them the less effective the formula will be, the less updates, the less effective, the less it’s invested in, and then the less they’re available. Death spiral. It was never about personal choice that was always just right-wing propaganda. So I'm really worried about vaccine advocates adopting that phrase in some effort to meet the anti-vaxxers halfway to hell, when we've seen that these right-wingers never compromise, they always keep going.
I'm shocked at how many people just keep telling each other not to worry. My post on tumblr warning people how many things are considered risk conditions for and with covid went nearly viral with people re-posting it using it to claim don't worry about access to vaccines here's all these reasons you can claim. And that misses the point. Again, it's a death spiral. No new formulas, less uptake, eventually no vaccines at all. I've also heard stories about pharmacies turning people down on self-attestation or having their own lists of approved underlying conditions and some things excluded. One guy's out there assuring people that the anti-vaxxers will like and allow Novavax because it's not MRNA when we already know it's ALL vaccines they hate, it's not just covid vaccines and it's not just MRNA, and they've already restricted the Novavax completely from children, even high risk children.
Just stop that and start writing your representatives in government saying you want vaccines.
My letter to reps:
I want vaccines. I want research on effective vaccines funded, I want covid vaccines, I want vaccines covered by all insurance, and I want free vaccination available to the uninsured. I want you to make sure I’m able to get vaccinated and that we have effective vaccination campaigns.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
Dr. Kaitlin Sundling has a sample letter for talking points on vaccines…
Ask Congress to Reinstate Universal COVID Vaccine Access for All Ages Write your members of congress now to stop dangerous restrictions on COVID vaccines and support vaccine access for all ages; Mark your calendar for CDC public comment open 6/9 through 6/20 Kaitlin Sundling Jun 04, 2025 All of us must have regular access to updated COVID vaccines, which must be made available widely and must be covered by health insurance. Public health officials, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Martin Makary, Jay Bhattacharya, and Vinay Prasad, have severely restricted access to COVID vaccines. They have taken this action without the appropriate expert advisory committee input and without opportunities for public comment.
🗞️ In the news
CDC expert resigns from COVID vaccines advisory role, sources say By Julie Steenhuysen, Michael Erman and Dan Levine June 3, 2025 "My career in public health and vaccinology started with a deep-seated desire to help the most vulnerable members of our population, and that is not something I am able to continue doing in this role." The committee is scheduled to meet on June 25-27 and is expected to deliberate and vote on recommendations for use of COVID-19 vaccines, according to one of the sources who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Wisconsin Public Radio - Wisconsin kids have second-lowest measles vaccination rate in the nation - Declines of 20 percentage points in some counties between 2013 and 2023 as parents decline shots By Nick Rommel February 24, 2025 Updated February 25, 2025 at 10:42 am “These ‘old-fashioned diseases,’ as one parent said to me a couple weeks ago, just aren’t as concerning,” he said. “Because they’re considered diseases that affected all our parents, but they don’t see them as a current threat.” He said he believes the COVID-19 pandemic also made people feel more confident second-guessing what they’re told by health care providers. Conway said access is an issue, too. More health systems are prioritizing emergencies and care for already-sick people over preventive programs like vaccinations, he said.
Tickborne disease babesiosis becoming more prevalent in Maryland, study finds Babesiosis parasites first appear in rodents, spread to humans via ticks WBAL Updated: 5:45 PM EDT May 30, 2025 Mindy Basara "Unfortunately, this disease can be subclinical, and that means that people may donate blood, so we need to screen our blood supplies to ensure this parasite is really not in blood used for transfusions," Baumgarth told 11 News. In previous years, cases were mostly clustered in the Midwest and Northeast, but a recent study showed more infections are popping up in Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic. One reason for the spread may be the warming climate. Much like Lyme disease, babesiosis can be treated if caught early. Symptoms can include fever, body aches and fatigue — similar to the flu. If left untreated, it can cause anemia and potential organ failure.
I was on The Letterhack Presents with Matt Strackbein to talk about why FAFO doesn’t matter because there's no Invisible Hand of the Market.
DOES FAFO EVEN MATTER? - #MAGA REFUSES TO #LEARN W/ CHLOE HUMBERT! - The Letterhack
Among other aspects, we talked about how people didn't learn from the pandemic, and once you F around and find out unvaccinated, it's too late for the kids who died to "learn" anything from such an experience.
https://www.youtube.com/live/oCpnMFyV_Q8?si=q9j6LNEeaP5mKBAl
Why are more than 300 Americans still dying every week in the ongoing pandemic?
The reasons are obvious… People are still dying of covid because people just keep getting covid, people are not getting vaccinated, people are not wearing masks even where they're likely to spread viruses to vulnerable people like healthcare settings, and a lot of people are not testing even, so they don't' even know they're spreading covid, and also then not calling their doctor for treatment.
Why are more than 300 people in the US still dying from COVID every week? Experts say there is low vaccine uptake and people are not accessing treatments. ByMary Kekatos May 24, 2025, 5:02 AM More than five years after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in the United States, hundreds of people are still dying every week. Last month, an average of about 350 people died each week from COVID, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Podcasters and livestreamers are big culprits in the not testing category. "Oh I'm sick and I wonder what I have. Maybe it's a cold." Never understood the recklessness to get covid over and over of people who use their voice for a living and have no paid sick time, but there we are. So one would hope that more podcasters would be getting covid boosters, encouraging others to do so, and making a ruckus over restrictions on them.
I'll wait. If you know of any livestreamers or podcasters who are actually promoting vaccination, please let me know, send me clips or links, and I will make a point of letting people know who they are.
And I really wish podcasters would stop saying "during covid" already.
Anti-mRNA is Anti-Vax.
Make no mistake, people spreading fear of mRNA vaccines are spreading anti-vax misinformation. There are always rare incidents of allergic reactions, which is true of all medications ever made. There is no such thing as “mrna intolerance” but this term being used to hype up Novavax possibly for dubious reasons since it’s usually repeated by the same people who make other dubious claims.
Quote:
"Genocides do not take place in a vacuum. There is always a context and a build-up." — Michela Wrong, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad (2021)