Thread by @ErrataRob

If you go back through my feed, you'll see tweets like this one. I'm rabidly pro-vaccine, but also supportive of the fact that there's two sides to the question, that instead of bullying people for questioning vaccines, we should empathize with them:

https://twitter.com/ErrataRob/status/1215395041096740870

Sometimes a feel alone. All I see on my twitter feed is toxic bullying of those who have questions about vaccines -- without anybody actually answering those questions. Am I wrong? Should I be bullying instead of empathizing?

Then I see tweets like this:

https://twitter.com/CDCgov/status/1379884947566133255

Please get your covid vaccine as soon as possible. Those aren't "side effects" -- those are the "effect" of the vaccine that tricks the body into feeling sick without making it sick. So brief fatigue/headaches/mild-fever are normal right after -- it means it's working.

I, too, distrust the government.

But believing the government is always wrong is at least as fallacious as believing the government is always right. It's also a fallacy to believe the government is responsible for the vaccines (they really aren't).

https://twitter.com/LastofTheFewLS/status/1379895574212804611

The emergency exception is not something that avoids the FDA's processes but is instead part of the process. They know within a certain range the vaccine's safety. The range of uncertainty is simply wider than normally approved -- but acceptable.

https://twitter.com/willneck/status/1379903170227404800

The SARS-Cov-2 is a new variant. The name is not new (most colds are caused by "coronoviruses").

The SARS-Cov-2 variant is a lot more destructive -- even though most survive, they'll have life-long lung/organ damage.

https://twitter.com/ServsYou/status/1379889455658635272

"Refuse to hear" works both ways. I can't imagine rejecting your siblings because of your own strongly held religious/political views. I love my siblings and would do anything for them, even though they are annoying poopy faces.

https://twitter.com/KellyD66792950/status/1379896750194876420

I can't imagine dehumanizing people who disagree with me on politics or science. Moreover, it just doesn't work. The more people who remain unvaccinated, the worse off it is for the rest of us, as they act as resevoirs.

https://twitter.com/pleasesendhel/status/1379885937702756352

We don't no precisely, but we have confidence in the range of such things. And the maximum of that range is still far less than the permanent damage caused by the virus to your lungs and organs. It's risk v. risk -- and the vaccine is FAR less risk.

https://twitter.com/Doubt30876028/status/1379906418719944705

How do we identify variants? By sequencing the genes. While the press refers to them by where they were first detected, they are given numeric identifiers.
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…

https://twitter.com/DigongDuterte4/status/1379896988116918273

Distrusting and questioning big pharma is good.
But the belief they are always evil is at least as fallacious as believing they are always good.
Your life expectancy is significantly longer because of big pharma, even if they profit from this, so do you.

https://twitter.com/LetsBuffalo/status/1379890720488710145

People do die after taking the vaccine, but at roughly the same rate that people die anyway. The numbers are so close such even if the vaccine is responsible for some, we can't tell. But conspiracy theorists distort the statistics to make this claim anyway

https://twitter.com/SSage69007180/status/1379892270170832904