# Vaccine mandate

[potted-dandelions]

When it came to COVID vaccines, we all used our gut instinct whether we took them or not. It didn't have to be rational to be the right decision, or the wrong one.

It is in human nature to assume that practicality and rationality go hand in hand, and it feels correct since we tend to do impractical things for irrational reasons. But sometimes it's rational to do impractical things—we call this rationalizing—and sometimes it's practical to do irrational things. We saw numerous examples during the pandemic, but it's useful to look just at vaccination rates because people used a broad mix of reasoning, both good and bad, to decide whether to take what turned out to be a mislabeled product, the mRNA COVID vaccines.

Notably, the definition of the word 'vaccine' was adjusted after Moderna and Pfizer wanted to sell their products with that designation attached to it. People generally trust vaccines so giving their products that name helped to win public trust for an entirely new class of drug. The trick has always been to associate mRNA drug technology with proven treatments that use altogether different chemistry.

We ought to be willing to admit that the old definition of the word 'vaccine' was just clever marketing wank because the fact is that no vaccine has ever prevented infection. They simply accelerate immune response so infections, when they do happen, never grow out of control. The new vaccine definition is just as clever, admitting that infections are not preventable so as to lower expectations without totally discouraging consumers.

So a drug which offers mere prevention against a severe viral infection, not necessarily one which reduces infection rates, is now called a vaccine. But what about herd immunity? We who took our chances with the vaccine hoped to prevent ourselves from transmitting the virus to others. But today it's widely known that mRNA COVID vaccines are insufficient to lower COVID's reproduction number below 1.0, meaning herd immunity is impossible to achieve with mRNA vaccines alone. This was always the case, it's just a question of when did our betters realize it.

Initially, mRNA vaccine makers had loads of confirmation bias to tell them their products would shorten the pandemic but the only way to know for sure was for everybody to take it, and somewhere in the back of their collective mind they understood this. Cue the vaccine mandates. A mandate exists to make people do something they wouldn't necessarily choose to do on their own. Modifying incentive structures is a time-tested and proven way to manipulate human behavior, and threatening to take away somebody's livelihood is a powerful incentive. It's also tyranny.

Pharmaceuticals marketed a fancy new drug by calling it a vaccine so we would want it, and when it turned out that only 2/3rds of us did, they lobbied the Biden administration to make the remaining 1/3rd take it just to prove something to themselves and the world at large. Sure, they were motivated by profit, but even profit motivated companies avoid doing evil if for no other reason than to protect their public image. Really, they needed to know if 100% vaccination was possible, practical, or effective because it had never been achieved before.

So, pharmaceuticals irrationally convinced themselves that forcing life-saving drugs upon the public would be appreciated. After all, the evil of depriving us of our agency was counterbalanced by the good of shortening the pandemic, and life trumps liberty, at least in their minds.

But at the end of the day, people will exercise their personal agency unabated by government mandate, and damn the consequences. That may have sounded irrational before the Supreme Court weighed in and struck down the broadest vaccine mandate a year ago, but its perfectly practical to go with your gut feeling regarding your health.

The gut is, after all, an important part of the human immune system. It must destroy harmful microorganisms while allowing helpful gut flora to flourish within limits. Its 'brain,' the enteric nervous system, isn't involved in cognition but it does inform your decision making. Without a prefrontal cortex, the gut's enteric nervous system is incapable of rationality but by the same token it is also incapable of irrationality. The gut only deals in hard facts and practicalities, what works and what doesn't, what makes you healthy and what makes you sick.

Operating on gut instinct isn't always rational, but the law of natural selection has improved its odds of success beyond what random chance allows, and your statistically unlikely existence is proof of that. You are the product of countless generations who threw the dice and won. Sometimes your gut is wrong, but it never lies to you. You can't always believe it, but you can always trust it. So if it tells you not to use mRNA drugs, take its advice with a grain of salt but take it seriously. Its wise admonitions are informed by millions of years of evolution.

Gut instinct is practical in ways our rational minds may never comprehend, but it exists for one specific purpose: to promote healthy consumption habits. (Incidentally, our senses of taste and smell and our eyes' color sensitivity all serve that same purpose by identifying poison.) So when you get vaccinated and then feel sick a few minutes or hours later, that's your gut telling you that you've ingested poison. Trust it. And then remind yourself that all medicines are poison depending on the dose, and all poisons are medicine depending on the illness.

mRNA drug technology is amazing. Trying to cure COVID with it was amazingly stupid. And mandating its use was simply evil, if for no other reason than it has turned the public against the most promising potential cure for cancer we've ever seen. And it's all down to patent law.

Although the forthcoming cancer cure will be patentable on its own, the mRNA/lipid nanoparticle suite of technologies it will employ has been undergoing research for decades now and patent protection only lasts up to 20 years. For practical reasons, the COVID vaccine was rushed to market. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna had to have known from the very start that curing coronavirus was a fool's errand. Scientists have tried for decades, especially after the SARS pandemic, but it mutates so rapidly that no vaccine maker can keep up, not even seasonal flu vaccine makers.

Nothing was rational about using mRNA to attempt a coronavirus vaccine but the pharmaceuticals were motivated by practicality, not rationality, so they did it anyway. Simple government corruption did the rest; nothing else kills rationality like having fuck you money in your pocket. Despite it all, I hope mRNA technology flourishes. I hope it does make cancer curable and I hope people learn to trust it. But if our trust is gone forever, the pharmaceuticals and our governments can only blame themselves. No force can overcome irrational practicality except irrational practicality itself.

[amprosite]

President Joe Biden is on the wrong side of almost every issue. Since Biden became President, everything from border security to our economy has deteriorated. Our country is in serious trouble because of his ineffective leadership. Yet, even an old, mentally incompetent, and lying politician, like a broken clock, can be right on rare occasions.

[jackassdemocrats]

As always, never buy anything made in china. Don't ever trust a democrat and NEVER leave your child alone with one.

[jangillman]

[masgwi]

Talking to my mom over the weekend about how it's ridiculous some businesses still require proof of up to date covid vaccination.

I didn't get a single shot. I got covid. It was bad but it passed without me seeing a doctor or taking any prescription medication.

My mom had up to date vaccination with boosters, wore masks as required and followed all hygiene protocols. She got covid. She was hospitalized for weeks. She has developed new and permanent illness as a result of covid + vaccinations.

How are people not angry? How are they still climbing up on a tall (but dead) horse to claim moral superiority? The propaganda game is so strong it's sickening.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

On Wednesday, former Republican President Donald Trump turned his aim towards transgender people near the end of a speech in Racine, Wisconsin, which was mostly focused on immigration and crime. In the speech, he announced that his administration would shut down federal funding for schools that support transgender people, describing these schools as “pushing transgender insanity,” on day one. He also announced his intent to target transgender people in sports. These statements suggest that the candidate may increasingly prioritize targeting transgender people as a key election issue should he win.

Though the first hour of the speech went by without a mention of LGBTQ+ people, Trump turned his attention towards schools abruptly after speaking about crime, where he announced his day one priorities: “We're going to be proud of our Capital, we're going to take care of our Capital. On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut Federal funding of any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto the lives of our children, and I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask."

He then turned towards the topic of transgender athletes, claiming that a cisgender woman was injured by a volleyball hit by a transgender woman, which he claimed “came out at her at a speed that which she’s never seen before.” He also took aim at transgender swimmers and weightlifters. This is not the first time that Donald Trump has spoken about transgender issues. Recently, his campaign slammed President Biden’s proclamation of Transgender Day of Visibility as “blasphemous” for falling on the same day as Easter. Notably, Trans Day of Visibility has been on March 31st for several years, whereas Easter is a moving holiday. Shortly after, he endorsed Pastor Mark Burns in South Carolina, who has called for executions over transgender people.

Recently, in a rally in Michigan, he stated that his day-one priorities included reversing Title IX protections for trans youth. Likewise, last year he released a video stating he intends to target programs promoting gender-affirming care “at any age” and to treat gender-affirming care as child abuse.

At a propaganda rally in Racine, WI Wednesday, Donald Trump pushed his insane "parental rights" in schools agenda by suggesting that federal funding of schools be cut if they don't toe Trump's anti-student inclusion line of banning support for trans people in schools.

Speaking of who is cramming down "political content" in schools? It's right-wing indoctrination factories such as PragerU.

See Also:

The Signorile Report: Trump's feeble pitch to LGBTQ voters: Think about your wallet--and stay closeted

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Breaking: Former President Trump says he will rehire all former members of the military who were discharged for refusing the SARS-COV-2 vaccine. They will receive back pay and an apology.

Corporations should be required to follow this same example.

[jccheapalier]

Black Men Have Had Enough! Man Goes Scorched Earth On The Democratic Party!

[royalteachitchat]

😡👆👆👆🇨🇦

[allthecanadianpolitics]

MPs overwhelmingly voted to kill a bill Wednesday pushed by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre that would have banned Ottawa from again imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates on federal workers and the travelling public.

By a vote of 114-205, MPs agreed to drop the private member's bill, C-278, that Poilievre first introduced last year when he was running for the party's leadership.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[jackassdemocrats]

Joe "Pinocchio" Biden Is A Legend In His Own Mind.