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I agree wholeheartedly with Garry Gamble’s quote from Jonathan Swift, that “Falsehood flies and truth comes limping after it…” Allow me to limp in one of the directions that Garry went flying.
His statement about the COVID-19 vaccine is sorely lacking in accurate information, and to use another of his liberally smattered quotes, “Information can be the difference between life and death.”
One issue that he doesn’t mention is that there are several vaccines, and though they result in similar positive results, there are differences ‘under the hood’. I’ll come back to that metaphor in a moment. But let us assume that he’s referring to the Moderna vaccine – the one that a majority of us in Cook County have been fortunate to receive.
Yes, Garry, it is a vaccine, in that “MRNA vaccines teach our cells how to make a protein— or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies.” That’s from the CDC website, another good source for information that can be the difference between life and death. This is NOT gene therapy as you suggested. It does NOT turn Garry, or anybody else, into a Body Snatcher (to use his April 16 opinion piece’s main motif). But let’s turn to the invasion of Mind Snatching.
I can easily imagine Garry writing an eloquent opinion column about the modern state of automobiles, and providing us with information that Teslas, while they transport people to and fro, are certainly NOT automobiles. Because if you look under the hood, you’ll not find an internal combustion engine. Anyone born in the era of Body Snatchers most certainly knows as a matter of settled truth, that something without an internal combustion engine simply cannot be an automobile.
But, as most people understand, at least those who seek truth rather than opinionated gobbledygook, a Tesla IS an automobile. Some may choose not to buy one or ride in one for any number of reasons. That personal decision is fine – it has no direct impact on your neighbors.
But a decision to NOT get vaccinated and worse, to spread opinionated gobbledygook has the potential for a much greater negative impact on our fellow citizens and neighbors. So, I would ask Garry to apply his plentiful research skills to dig for the truth, and to advocate for things that are beneficial to our public health — and democracy.
Let’s go back to one of the sources that Garry mentioned in his opinion piece: Freedom House. Here’s a quote from their thoughtful analysis of the United States in terms of its “flourishing freedom”:
“In recent years [the United States] democratic institutions have suffered erosion, as reflected in partisan pressure on the electoral process, bias and dysfunction in the criminal justice system, harmful policies on immigration and asylum seekers, and growing disparities in wealth, economic opportunity, and political influence.” And later: “The government response [to COVID-19] was seriously compromised by politicized misinformation from President Donald Trump and related attempts within the administration to manipulate or control health information.”
Now THAT would make for an interesting “Do You Know?”.
Stephen Green,
Grand Marais
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