Facebook is a menace. COVID-19 is a menace. Conservatism is a cesspool. Together, those three ingredients have created a toxic stew of malevolent death and devastation. We can talk about all those things in the abstract, look at the numbers and statistics, and catch the occasional whiff of seditionist right-wing rhetoric. But I hadn’t really fully understood just how horrifying that combination of right-wing extremism, Facebook, and a killer virus was until I became a regular at the Herman Cain Awards subreddit. This series will document some of those stories, so we are aware of what the other side is doing to our country.
Today’s cautionary tale is “black.”
First, a note: The Herman Cain Awards subreddit is tweaking its rules to address people harassing these individuals and their families. One of those new rules is a prohibition on showing a person’s first name or the faces of anyone in any picture. Of course, anyone can still do a text search to find these accounts, which is how they’re found anyway. So the rules will likely be modified again at some point. But for now, some of these individuals will have to be referred to by the color of the strikeouts or other such markers. Furthermore, it should go without saying but I’ll say it anyway, don’t go looking for these accounts. Families have a right to grieve without malicious harassment.
The point of this series isn’t to pile on to these people’s misery, it’s 1) to show us the messaging they’re using in their disinformation campaigns and countering it when warranted, 2) to show us just how painful, gruesome, and lonely a COVID-19 death is so that we can all take this even more seriously than we were before, and 3) to show Facebook’s role in spreading this misery. Do not attempt to track down these accounts and certainly don’t message these pour souls, misguided as they might be.
“What’s going on with the audits.” Who knows what these people are sharing and telling each other. We get a glimpse of it with these memes, but it’s not everything. They are legitimately bombarded with misinformation online, on the radio, and on TV. As frustrated as we might get with them, let’s not forget that they’re also victims of a conservative movement that has lost all touch with reality.
I don’t think I’d seen any memes attacking White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki before, which is weird. She’s a natural partisan target. Remember how much fun we had with Trump’s spokesliars? Of course, Psaki isn’t in the business of lying for her boss, so perhaps that makes her a more difficult target.
The supplement industry isn’t regulated by the FDA, so they sell all sorts of pills and substances with unproven health claims. Some supplements are valuable. Others are snake oil.
This is what Durbin is trying to regulate here. It’s not even about making them prescription drugs, it’s about strengthening inadequate federal oversight of the industry.
She sees the CDC recommends six feet distancing, but three feet can be done while “layer[ing] multiple other prevention strategies.” This isn’t particularly difficult to understand.
Here’s the back story on Vladimir Zelenko. He was some guy who pushed hydroxychloroquine and zinc as a cure, went viral on social media, got elevated by Sean Hannity, and was praised by Rudy Giuliani on his podcast for “thinking of solutions, just like the president.”
And just like that, he became “the real expert.”
“I won’t take a vaccine proven to dramatically lessen the chance I die of COVID, but I’ll lie and say I have parasites to get an anti-parasite medication to treat a virus, despite any real evidence it works.”
Ironically, while it apparently works, ivermectin is not FDA-approved for head lice treatment. Suddenly, lack of FDA approval isn’t a barrier. Weird, huh?
“This is a virus can’t stop it.” Tell that to polio, hepatitis A and B, smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, HPV, and rotavirus.
FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine on August 23, so yes, it was approved.
But it’s weird that they put so much stock on the vaccine’s FDA approval while ignoring the FDA process for ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and all their other quack cures.
There is definitely research showing that a preponderance of serious COVID patients have certain deficiencies, such as vitamin C and vitamin D. There is evidence that melatonin and zinc also have roles to play. Turmeric is great for joint health, and ginger is great for the digestive system. Quercetin is an anti-oxidant similar to vitamin C. Antioxidants lower systemic inflammation, which strengthens the immune system.
But ultimately, supplements are just that: supplemental. They are meant to fill in nutritional deficiencies. Given the prevalence of obesity and other diet-related ailments with many of these people, it’s clear they’re not making the best dietary choices. So yes, some supplementation might help cover those gaps, as well as potentially tamp down some of that chronic systemic inflammation from high-sugar, high-fat, unhealthy diets. Fried foods and sugary drinks, for example, are brutal on your body, and yes, that weakens your immune system.
That said, they don’t prevent COVID-19. They are not a vaccine alternative. Far from it.
This is supposed to be a “gotcha,” as if Pfizer was trying to hide the well-known and celebrated fact that their vaccine is mRNA-based.
Comirnaty is a stupid name. Who cares. It saves lives.
I will never, ever, ever, ever understand the obsession with finding alternate “cures” to COVID when we have a fully functioning vaccine already taken by billions of people.
Remember, a blood O2 reading below 80 is brain-damage territory. Turns out that turmeric, ginger, and quercetin weren’t a vaccine alternative. Given all the ivermectin talk, she presumably took that as well.
There’s a reason those aren’t FDA-approved alternatives.
If satan had any role in this process, it was whispering in her ear, “The vaccine is deadly. Take quercetin and turmeric instead.”
Black recovered enough to start posting on Facebook again, and what did she do? Started asking for snake oil cures. Oregano oil has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal benefits. Unfortunately, COVID is neither of those two things.
Yet some ghoul was eager to sell it to her.
I do wonder how many of these patients might’ve been saved if there were beds available to treat them. In a perfect world, we’d have a small number of breakthrough cases, all of which the medical system would be able to handle and treat with the best protocols and treatments. Instead, Black sat on a “transfer list” and never made it out.
Not going to lie, this update hit me hard—multiple young children including a special needs child. This disinformation bubble is so strong that it is convincing parents to act against the interests of their own children. They are refusing to take life-saving vaccines. They are fighting against mask mandates, even in schools. They are so thoroughly brainwashed that they’ve been stripped of their parental instincts.
I do everything I can for my kids; I live a healthy lifestyle, I have life insurance, I quit dangerous activities (like bombing descents at 60 mph on a bicycle), I have health insurance. Yes, I get that many of these individuals have sorry economic circumstances, but they vote for Republicans who guarantee they’ll continue to have poor access to medical insurance and care. You know, because socialism.
I was also vaccinated. Not just against this disease, but against everything else that can be prevented with a vaccine. Because yeah, I want to stay alive, but more importantly, I want to be there for my kids for as long as I’m given the chance to do so.
By all indications, Black was a lovely person. Taking daily care of a special needs child takes herculean effort, endless patience, and kindness. There were no racist, homophobic, or otherwise hateful memes. Yes, she was anti-Biden, but her motivating issue was this vaccine.
It’s easy to understand why this person died of COVID-19. This isn’t a great mystery. There is a way to prevent all this from happening, and it isn’t a big mystery. It’s also free and easily available.
Her poor kids, her poor special needs child who depended on her every single day. All of that gone, and for what? And what’s worse, is that this story repeats itself thousands of times a day. It is a train wreck in slow motion.
Today’s cautionary tale is “black.”
First, a note: The Herman Cain Awards subreddit is tweaking its rules to address people harassing these individuals and their families. One of those new rules is a prohibition on showing a person’s first name or the faces of anyone in any picture. Of course, anyone can still do a text search to find these accounts, which is how they’re found anyway. So the rules will likely be modified again at some point. But for now, some of these individuals will have to be referred to by the color of the strikeouts or other such markers. Furthermore, it should go without saying but I’ll say it anyway, don’t go looking for these accounts. Families have a right to grieve without malicious harassment.
The point of this series isn’t to pile on to these people’s misery, it’s 1) to show us the messaging they’re using in their disinformation campaigns and countering it when warranted, 2) to show us just how painful, gruesome, and lonely a COVID-19 death is so that we can all take this even more seriously than we were before, and 3) to show Facebook’s role in spreading this misery. Do not attempt to track down these accounts and certainly don’t message these pour souls, misguided as they might be.
“What’s going on with the audits.” Who knows what these people are sharing and telling each other. We get a glimpse of it with these memes, but it’s not everything. They are legitimately bombarded with misinformation online, on the radio, and on TV. As frustrated as we might get with them, let’s not forget that they’re also victims of a conservative movement that has lost all touch with reality.
I don’t think I’d seen any memes attacking White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki before, which is weird. She’s a natural partisan target. Remember how much fun we had with Trump’s spokesliars? Of course, Psaki isn’t in the business of lying for her boss, so perhaps that makes her a more difficult target.
The supplement industry isn’t regulated by the FDA, so they sell all sorts of pills and substances with unproven health claims. Some supplements are valuable. Others are snake oil.
This is what Durbin is trying to regulate here. It’s not even about making them prescription drugs, it’s about strengthening inadequate federal oversight of the industry.
She sees the CDC recommends six feet distancing, but three feet can be done while “layer[ing] multiple other prevention strategies.” This isn’t particularly difficult to understand.
Here’s the back story on Vladimir Zelenko. He was some guy who pushed hydroxychloroquine and zinc as a cure, went viral on social media, got elevated by Sean Hannity, and was praised by Rudy Giuliani on his podcast for “thinking of solutions, just like the president.”
And just like that, he became “the real expert.”
“I won’t take a vaccine proven to dramatically lessen the chance I die of COVID, but I’ll lie and say I have parasites to get an anti-parasite medication to treat a virus, despite any real evidence it works.”
Ironically, while it apparently works, ivermectin is not FDA-approved for head lice treatment. Suddenly, lack of FDA approval isn’t a barrier. Weird, huh?
“This is a virus can’t stop it.” Tell that to polio, hepatitis A and B, smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, HPV, and rotavirus.
FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine on August 23, so yes, it was approved.
But it’s weird that they put so much stock on the vaccine’s FDA approval while ignoring the FDA process for ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and all their other quack cures.
There is definitely research showing that a preponderance of serious COVID patients have certain deficiencies, such as vitamin C and vitamin D. There is evidence that melatonin and zinc also have roles to play. Turmeric is great for joint health, and ginger is great for the digestive system. Quercetin is an anti-oxidant similar to vitamin C. Antioxidants lower systemic inflammation, which strengthens the immune system.
But ultimately, supplements are just that: supplemental. They are meant to fill in nutritional deficiencies. Given the prevalence of obesity and other diet-related ailments with many of these people, it’s clear they’re not making the best dietary choices. So yes, some supplementation might help cover those gaps, as well as potentially tamp down some of that chronic systemic inflammation from high-sugar, high-fat, unhealthy diets. Fried foods and sugary drinks, for example, are brutal on your body, and yes, that weakens your immune system.
That said, they don’t prevent COVID-19. They are not a vaccine alternative. Far from it.
This is supposed to be a “gotcha,” as if Pfizer was trying to hide the well-known and celebrated fact that their vaccine is mRNA-based.
Comirnaty is a stupid name. Who cares. It saves lives.
I will never, ever, ever, ever understand the obsession with finding alternate “cures” to COVID when we have a fully functioning vaccine already taken by billions of people.
Remember, a blood O2 reading below 80 is brain-damage territory. Turns out that turmeric, ginger, and quercetin weren’t a vaccine alternative. Given all the ivermectin talk, she presumably took that as well.
There’s a reason those aren’t FDA-approved alternatives.
If satan had any role in this process, it was whispering in her ear, “The vaccine is deadly. Take quercetin and turmeric instead.”
Black recovered enough to start posting on Facebook again, and what did she do? Started asking for snake oil cures. Oregano oil has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal benefits. Unfortunately, COVID is neither of those two things.
Yet some ghoul was eager to sell it to her.
I do wonder how many of these patients might’ve been saved if there were beds available to treat them. In a perfect world, we’d have a small number of breakthrough cases, all of which the medical system would be able to handle and treat with the best protocols and treatments. Instead, Black sat on a “transfer list” and never made it out.
Not going to lie, this update hit me hard—multiple young children including a special needs child. This disinformation bubble is so strong that it is convincing parents to act against the interests of their own children. They are refusing to take life-saving vaccines. They are fighting against mask mandates, even in schools. They are so thoroughly brainwashed that they’ve been stripped of their parental instincts.
I do everything I can for my kids; I live a healthy lifestyle, I have life insurance, I quit dangerous activities (like bombing descents at 60 mph on a bicycle), I have health insurance. Yes, I get that many of these individuals have sorry economic circumstances, but they vote for Republicans who guarantee they’ll continue to have poor access to medical insurance and care. You know, because socialism.
I was also vaccinated. Not just against this disease, but against everything else that can be prevented with a vaccine. Because yeah, I want to stay alive, but more importantly, I want to be there for my kids for as long as I’m given the chance to do so.
By all indications, Black was a lovely person. Taking daily care of a special needs child takes herculean effort, endless patience, and kindness. There were no racist, homophobic, or otherwise hateful memes. Yes, she was anti-Biden, but her motivating issue was this vaccine.
It’s easy to understand why this person died of COVID-19. This isn’t a great mystery. There is a way to prevent all this from happening, and it isn’t a big mystery. It’s also free and easily available.
Her poor kids, her poor special needs child who depended on her every single day. All of that gone, and for what? And what’s worse, is that this story repeats itself thousands of times a day. It is a train wreck in slow motion.