A friend of mine recently posted on social media about her experience of publicly questioning the official story about covid and covid vaccines. Having been harmed by a different vaccine in the past, this friend has been very skeptical of the covid vaccine. She reports having lost friends over her stance. Her experience is not uncommon.
A few people that I know experienced medical problems subsequent to receiving the vaccine, though none attributed the problems to the vaccine. I also know a handful of people who refused vaccination and then developed debilitating covid infections. Because my medical situation is complicated, I refused vaccination until a relative assumed financial liability for any harms the shot might cause. And when I tested positive for covid in January, my illness had zero symptoms, leading me to believe that the vaccine was helpful in my circumstance.
This is a messy reality, to which the media has added a bunch of politicized and polarizing nonsense. I know people on both sides of the issue and have struggled to keep all of my friendships intact through the pandemic, with mixed results. My own stance is that the virus is not as bad as we've been led to believe, the vaccine is more dangerous and less effective than we've been led to believe, and pandemic policies may have been more damaging overall than just letting the virus run its course would have been. Lockdowns, masks, and vaccines all failed to stop the pandemic while enriching billionaires and harming the poor. And the control regime neatly divided us against one another, precluding the formation of widespread opposition to its policies.
At this point, whenever I hear people parrot the lie that vaccines stop the spread of covid, I gag a little and roll my eyes. And whenever I hear people propagate the false narrative that the vaccines change DNA or that covid itself is a manufactured bioweapon, my response is similarly dismissive. Since the pandemic began, many of my friends have indicated to me that they believe at least one of these things. They sometimes fight with each other online or at the coffee shop about it, which feels unreal, because they're all so flagrantly incorrect.
I'm past looking for middle ground with wrong perspectives. I either ignore them completely or respond to them with impersonal facts and sources. This has probably created friction in some of my relationships. I'm sure that I'm not doing enough to build bridges.
My unvaccinated friends have been ostracized by society in a variety of ways. They've been segregated by bad policies, discriminated against in the job market, and stigmatized by the media. That's appalling. The primary benefit of vaccination is reduced risk of serious illness in the event of infection. Whether this benefit seems worth the risks is clearly a personal choice. Underneath all the bluster about variants and breakthroughs, the vaccines are ineffective at preventing new infections over time. They have exceedingly marginal social benefit, insufficient to justify the intense social pressure being applied to the unvaccinated.
At the same time, a few of my unvaccinated friends espouse views that are absolutely bonkers. It doesn't help that they're regarded as pariahs by the mainstream. The social stigma makes them defensive, and more likely to double-down on their unsupportable beliefs. It makes them more inclined to form closed communities that protect them from outside criticism.
It would also be true to say that many of my vaccinated, mainstream friends espouse views that are absolutely bonkers. They're just bonkers in a socially acceptable way. Sometimes these friends are open to alternative perspectives. Oftentimes, they're not. Regardless, they're not being ostracized constantly for their personal choices like the unvaccinated are, and may not understand what that's like.
I'd like to think that these issues will all soon be behind us because the pandemic will fade away. And maybe it will. Hopefully, the social divides created by the pandemic response also fade away conveniently. That would be great.
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
Read my novels:
- The Paradise Anomaly is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Psychic Avalanche is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
Check out the comic I wrote:
- Finney Vol 1 Immutable Journey is available as a free e-comic.
Read my autobiographical monograph:
- Navigating Dystopia can be read for free or purchased as an NFT.