Overheard in the hospital, a woman from kitchen staff speaking with a doctor, both Black. Somehow the topic of #CovidVaccine came up. The doctor asked the woman if she’d gotten the vaccine yet. She said no and that she wasn’t going to. 1/
The doc asked why. She said she was healed by His blood. The doc politely but urgently suggested that she “really should get the vaccine” because #COVID19 is “killing people out there.” 2/
Her response was that when He wants you to come home, there’s nothing you can do about it. I suppose, from a Christian point of view, that’s true, but I also learned years ago, when I was still a devoted Catholic, that God helps those who help themselves. 3/
Leaving our seemingly deformed theologies aside, this little overheard snippet of conversation as I was passing through reminded me that vaccine hesitancy is not just a problem among white, Trump-living evangelicals. It’s a huge problem among people of color as well. 4/
I was further reminded that Blacks are much more severely affected by #COVID19 when a patient’s relative told me she know several people who had died of COVID, including a healthy man in his 50s. I know a fair number of people who got symptomatic COVID, but no one who died. 5/
I know, I know, this is anecdotal personal experience and thus unreliable and potentially unrepresentative, but it’s in line with what the data show. The bottom line is that we have a lot of work to do to win the trust of people like this woman. We need to do better. 6/6
Seemingly different theologies.🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

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More from @gorskon

15 Mar
I'm amused by all the folks in "my generation" (and even a bit younger) complaining about #GRAMMYs last night, specifically about the "lewd" dancing, revealing costumes, and dirty songs. When is it that we became our parents and grandparents? 1/
I'm equally amused at their loud and obnoxious complaining that there's "no good music anymore." That's utter BS. There's lots of great music out there. It's just that most of it doesn't get nominated for #GRAMMYs and you have to look for it. 2/
In any event, it appears that most people develop their musical tastes in their teens and early twenties. Whatever music was popular then is generally what they like forever, and, by the time they're in their 40s, they often have a hard time with music the "kids" find popular. 3/
Read 6 tweets
11 Mar
Of course I'm in favor of informed consent. The problem is that what antivaxxers and #COVID19 cranks represent as "informed consent" is in reality what I like to refer to as misinformed refusal. 1/
"Misinformed refusal" is refusal of vaccines based on the pseudoscience, quackery, misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories promulgated by antivaxxers that vastly exaggerate the risk of harm from and downplay the benefits of vaccines. 2/ respectfulinsolence.com/2020/02/07/aap…
I used to refer to this concept as "misinformed consent," but realized a few years ago that "misinformed refusal" of vaccines is a more accurate way to describe it. 3/ respectfulinsolence.com/2016/07/06/rob…
Read 6 tweets
10 Mar
Yep. Historically, it is arguably liberal voices that have been more frequently "canceled" than conservative voices. I'm old enough to remember some of the times @DoonesburyComic was "canceled" dating back to the mid-1970s.
Having never heard of Mallard Fillmore before, I went to its website and perused its last couple of weeks worth of strips. Damn. Maybe the reason the strip was "cancelled" by those papers is that it is painfully unfunny and not very clever.
I mean, seriously. Today's strip features a truly lame joke about @Disney, @starwars, and non-binary gender. Another strip is about a cheerleader and "incitement" to demolish her team's opponents.
Read 4 tweets
10 Mar
Poor Prof. Gøtzche. He's been spewing "skepticism" about vaccines for years and even agreed to speak at a meeting of antivaccine physicians before the social media blowback embarrassed him into backing out, and he's surprised that antivaxxers think he's one of their own? 1/
Here's part one of the saga that I'm talking about. 2/ sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-strange-sa…
And here's part two, in which Gøtzsche tried to rationalize why he had agreed to speak at a conference alongside antivaxxer @RobertKennedyJr and other prominent antivaxxers. He claims he wanted to "refute" Shira Miller's antivax nonsense about MMR. 3/ sciencebasedmedicine.org/peter-gotzsche…
Read 7 tweets
4 Mar
Oh, bloody hell. @RobertKennedyJr has been cozying up to minority communities for a number of years now to spread fear of vaccines. Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we? 1/
It seems to have gotten its start when RFK Jr. made common cause with @BroTonyMuhammad of the @OfficialNOI back in 2015 to oppose SB 277, the California law that eliminated nonmedical exemptions to school vaccine mandates. 2/ respectfulinsolence.com/2015/06/18/cra…
This alliance continued, and Brother Muhammad spoke at a number of antivaccine events during 2015. 3/ respectfulinsolence.com/2015/06/22/cra…
Read 20 tweets
2 Mar
Or conflating “I personally don’t know anyone affected by this” with “No one is affected by this.”
Or “I personally have never seen it before” with “It’s not a problem.”
And the ever-popular appeal to personal ignorance or incredulity...
Read 4 tweets

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