Photo: AFP
The Tangled Web Of Misinformation With COVID-19 Vaccines
Bottom Line: One of my greatest frustrations in life is misinformation. Hence my chosen path in life. I’ve long kept myself sane by telling myself it’s my little place in the world to find the inequities in reporting and to identify/share stories that need to be told but are omitted. My firm belief is that most people if properly informed will make good decisions. The problem is the pervasiveness of misinformation and the volume of people who choose to believe it. During the pandemic there’s been no shortage of misinformation. Masks aren’t really effective; lockdowns are needed to stop the spread and the granddaddy of them all. The World Health Organization’s January 14th 2020 Tweet stating: Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China.
Well before the pandemic, in fact for the near entirety of my career, when the annual flu vaccines rolled around, I’ve talked of the importance of understanding what the flu vaccine is and isn’t. What it is and has been is a tool that may help protect you against infection and may minimize symptoms if you do get sick. What it isn’t and historically hasn’t been is effective at preventing infection for most people who get it with an average efficacy of only 43%. I firmly believe many of the issues with vaccine hesitancy exist today because of the medical establishment and federal government’s lack of willingness to have that conversation and treat Americans with honesty and respect, thus in turn allowing them to make informed decisions. What’s even worse than omitting important information from people while telling them to get vaccinated is to simply lie to them. That's what President Biden had the audacity to do in Wednesday’s townhall.
Quoting Biden: If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in the IC unit, and you’re not going to die. His lie was so big on that one that even the AP fact checkers called him out. Here are the facts regarding “breakthrough” hospitalizations and deaths from the CDC as of July 12:
- 4,429 breakthroughs resulting in hospitalization
- 1,063 breakthroughs resulting in death
Again, that’s nearly two weeks ago. With the summer spike the numbers in real-time are doubtless to be considerably higher. Also, it’s not exclusively seniors either. 25% of breakthroughs resulting in hospitalizations or death are under the age of 65. Not only is what Biden said regarding COVID-19 vaccine efficacy an outrageous lie, it’ll only further erode any remaining trust between the federal government and those who are informed but are vaccine hesitant. Many excuses are thrown around regarding vaccine hesitancy. The truth is the medical establishment and the Biden administration have no one to blame but themselves. Let the truth be told and let informed Americans make informed choices. That shouldn’t be too much to ask. Unfortunately, neither has respected us enough to do it.