Last weekend anti-vaccine demonstrators gathered outside a clinic in North Bay called One Kids Place and tried to intimidate a mother taking her 7-year-old son to get his first shot.
Abby Blaszczyk says she had to endure a torrent of abuse as she escorted her son Nolan, who had just become eligible for a COVID vaccine.
“They told me I … was murdering my son, I was committing genocide, stuff like that,” she told CBC News. “And then, just misinformation about the vaccine itself.”
Like the infection they are, the anti-vaxxers insist on spreading their benightedness.
... in Windsor last week anti-vaxxers picketed another clinic that was offering vaccines to kids between 5 and 11. They carried signs with slogans like, “It’s not a vaccine. It’s a bioweapon.”
Some may wonder why I have such an obvious and deep antipathy towards these people. Part of the reason, of course is that, as a teacher for 30 years, my career revolved around critical thinking. To see that abandoned so wholeheartedly by some is disheartening. But my larger contempt is for the motivation of these people, their insistence that they are right, and the damage they seek to do to their fellow citizens by their obdurate refusal to think of society as a whole and get vaccinated to afford the best protection possible for all.
Parse it any way you want, but their egocentric selfishness more than merits society's widespread condemnation.
UPDATE: Just in time for the season of giving, Pastor Kent Christmas shares the gift of his 'thoughts':
Ego trumps brains these days, Lorne. Those of us who taught know that the size of the ego affects one's ability to think critically.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct, Owen. The age of reasoned discussion seems to have passed. Everything now is about making one's own voice heard. The medium is the message.
Delete"Doesn't that make you wonder?" It should except that Pastor Christmas uses that to transmit a lie. He could say, vaccination works, masks work, sensible changes to how we live and work - work. No, it's a plot. All those billionaires are fine because Covid is something inflicted upon good, God-fearing, Christian radicals.
ReplyDeleteThese people are a public menace but we seem powerless to stop them. Maybe Omicron will cull the herd. If it does it will take a lot of good people with it.
The fact that they are a public menace seems to elude some, Mound. "My body, my choice" rings pretty hollow when contemplating all of the collateral damage.
DeleteBy the way, I saw on Twitter that DELTA OMICRON is an anagram for MEDIA CONTROL. Renewed oxygen for the stupid eh?
.. In the ‘here & now’ & almost two years into the Covid Pandemic, I await a more common public, political & Healthcare awareness / acceptance of reality
ReplyDeleteHere’s my current ‘take’ (proviso - its a North American / Toronto viewpoint)
Covid is mutating in different regions. We have seemingly miraculous & rapid scientific testing to analyze the various mutation characteristics
We have amazing & evolving vaccine options reasonably accessible.
These vaccines do mitigate to an individually varying & limited extent, transmission of the virus. The real value currently, is mitigating the various consequences of infection. in short, the vaccines can most likely keep you out of the hospital, or even worse, the ICU, or realistically- the morgue. PS - it does help to not have underlying co-morbid health issues !
It seems we must accept ‘Ignorance, petulant contraryism, partisan distortion, fear’ as underlying issues.. just the same as obesity, cardiac, respiratory etc
And here we are.. Media of course is in their glory - daily news reports 7th heaven. Political parasites though, are weaponizing Covid for their own purposes. The vast majority ‘of us’ will sail on from here without tragic or chronic personal consequence, but all the social & economic consequences of Covid will hit this same vast cohort.
I recognize that ‘viral load’ .. or even ‘loading’ as we are constantly or incrementally exposed is really what we need to avoid. Thus all the protective measures, separation, masks, disinfecting etc. So what better than an evangelistic congregation of Covid deniers, all ages of course & myriad occupations, cheek to jowl enclosed in a church or theatre to share viral loading if there is a single infected person sharing the space ? That does not seem like ‘having god on your side’ .. hmm !?
Thankfully, Sal, in Canada the anti-vaxxers, though vocal and disruptive, carry none of the weight they seem to have in the U.S. I was reading today, for example, that only six states now have mask mandates, masks apparently being a real affront to their love' of 'freedom.'
Delete"It seems we must accept ‘Ignorance, petulant contraryism, partisan distortion, fear’ as underlying issues.. just the same as obesity, cardiac, respiratory etc." Your observation is particularly apt for both Canada and the U.S., of course.