Virus

The amount of disinformation that people are putting out about Covid vaccines should in my opinion be considered a crime. If a person is willingly and knowingly spreading disinformation that can result in serious illness or death of a person, then they should be charged with reckless endangerment or similar at a minimum. I am more than sick of this virus. I hate hearing it on the news, I hate the politicization of it, I hate the economic effects now and long term. Quite frankly this pisses me off that people are propagating anti-vaccination as it drags the virus on and on and on…..when I and everyone I know wants it dead!!!

I don’t even know why any of these antivaxxers say what they say other than to promote their own products and profit from this. Two prominent antivaxxers are Joseph Mercola and Sayer Ji, both of whom continue to claim that supplements and a natural medicine is the way to prevent Covid. Surprising both have businesses that market these supplements and natural medicines to their audience as the only true protection from Covid. Mercola has been a guest of famous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on InfoWars, promoting his anti vaccination theories and shilling his products. He made the claim that more people will die from the vaccine than the disease.

So let’s address that bit of misinformation that more people will die from the vaccine than the disease. In Canada as of the end of April approximately 24,000 Canadians had died out of 1.2 million cases of Covid-19 and 50 people had died of an adverse reaction to the vaccine out over 16 million people who had received the vaccine. Of people vaccinated 4,300 have had adverse reactions and in 750 of those cases the reaction was serious. These are statistically low numbers but it is not an absolute. Life has risks associated with it, taking flying for example. It is very safe statistically, however, it is not an absolute and sometimes planes crash but we all still fly and take the risk, including all the antivaxxers I know that love Mexican vacations.

Every business and economics article that I have read says the key to going forward is to vaccinate everyone in order to kill the virus. The business and financial sector knows this and need this to get back to business at full speed. Business and the markets hate the idea of another round of shutdowns and for many small businesses that have managed to endure this, they may not if shuttered again. Forbes magazine to combat mistruth about mRNA vaccines altering ones DNA and why it cannot happen published this article. (January 11, 2021, Victoria Foster: Covid-19 Vaccines Can’t Alter Your DNA, Here’s Why).

In simplistic form, mRNA stands for Messenger Ribonucleic Acid, and is the way our DNA, which stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid, gives instructions to our cells as to the proteins to make to protect us from a virus. DNA is two long chains intertwined where as mRNA is a single strand of a small part of DNA. The mRNA is made in the nucleus of a cell where DNA resides. The mRNA then travels to the main part of the cell to give it the instructions. Hence the m in mRNA is messenger, relaying the instructions of our DNA, not the other way around.

So what an mRNA vaccine does is give instructions to the cells that make up our bodies to make these proteins to defend against the Covid-19 virus. The mRNA vaccines have been very effective at over 80 % plus effective against the new Delta Variant and reducing serious illness if infected with Covid by 96%. According to the US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, 99.5% of those dying in hospital from Covid are unvaccinated. Reports from the CDC have shown 97% of those in hospital due to Covid are unvaccinated. Mortality rates appear to be similar as to other variants, around 2%, helped with improved treatments and medications, since the start of the pandemic.

So let’s now turn to the Delta Variant. When science refers to a variant, this is a mutation of the virus from its previous form. In the case of Covid-19 the main variants are Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, with the latter the most prevalent. The Delta variant is over 50% more transmissible than the Alpha variant and one study identified that those who are unvaccinated and infected with the Delta variant are twice as likely to need hospitalization, than those infected with the Alpha variant. The Delta is approximately 400% more transmissible amongst people than the original virus in Wuhan China. This according to data in a July 8, 2021 article in Fortune Magazine discussing increased transmissibility with each mutation.

The virus does not care for whom you are, your religion or your political views. It only wants to survive and so to do that more efficiently it mutates in order to gain a better hand on the human body and immune system. Having an mRNA vaccine is like in Star Trek when Kirk gives an order to get the shields up to protect the Enterprise before the Klingons fire. Same with the mRNA, it tells the cells to produce the proteins to protect the body and immune system before the Virus attacks.

Mutations are the reason we need the world vaccinated or what will happen is the virus will continue to mutate to survive and that could mean a lot of different things. If it becomes more transmissible and greater numbers of people are infected around the world deaths may increase, especially in developing countries. A new mutation could occur that current vaccines cannot protect against putting the entire world back to square one again. F@$#@ NO! is my answer to that, I have had enough of Covid.

This brings me to antivaxxers who believe it is their right to choose to be vaccinated or not and no one is going to tell them what to do with their bodies. Wow does that not echo what women have said about their rights and abortion…..but that is a different blog …..someday…..maybe….

I agree, everyone has a right to choose, but when you choose there should be a consequence for the wrong decision. I was discussing this with someone I know who is not getting vaccinated. He felt it was his right not to be vaccinated. Ok, fair enough and I took this point. So if you don’t get vaccinated and end up in the hospital, will you pay the cost of your care because I don’t think as a taxpayer I should be funding tens of thousands in care and treatment when you could have prevented it by taking a shot?

His response was that this is Canada and it will never occur because we don’t penalize people about choices. Look at smokers, we don’t make them pay if they get lung cancer. He was right, but here is the difference, smokers pay an enormous amount of tax on cigarettes every year. Depending on the area a person could be paying $10 or more per package of cigarettes in tax. If a person smokes one pack a day, every year they are paying over $3,600 in additional taxes for their sin of smoking. Various governments have also sued cigarette makers and have been successful in recouping billions for misleading the public about the dangers of smoking. So to say smokers don’t pay in our system is technically wrong.

My point about this is as a Canadian citizen I believe in a persons rights to choose. I as a Canadian Taxpayer do not believe that I should be financially responsible to help pay a persons medical bills when a shot is available that would have prevented it. I think it is almost hypocritical of people who chant the mantra the state is not going to tell them what to do, but if they get Covid they will expect the state to step in and save them, WTF?

Social media is rife with misinformation designed around providing a narrative that proliferates a fear and mistrust of individuals, government, political parties, corporations and alike. These narratives, that are Anti – Vaccination, play directly at the public’s fears as too why they do not have to get vaccinated, like the vaccine will alter your DNA, when science has demonstrated this cannot happen. Further what we see attached too much of the Anti Vaccination propaganda is designed with a profit motive like in the cases of Joseph Mercola and Sayer Ji.

I am sick and tired of Covid. I hate it on the news, I hate how it has affected my community, and I hate how it has affected my life. I too want all my personal freedoms back. The only way that is going to happen is if we reach herd immunity and the only way to get there quickly and effectively is by vaccinations. So suck it up buttercup, roll up that sleeve and get your vaccine!