Gifted visual communicator, @tomaspueyo makes devastating use of this photo (caution: legit trigger warning). And tho scientists in the UK 'Nudge Unit' have recently expressed regrets wrt exploiting fear, surely many would have found such a photo tempting. telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/…
But the smallpox vaccine does actually set up an interesting counterpoint: far more frightening & horrifying disease (to most), with a vaccine agreed to have caused a level of vaccine injuries unacceptable by pre-2019 standards.
This is the context for a pub. in an American Bar Association special issue: Body Rights, Body Ethics soon after it became apparent that
US medical scientists & psychologists
were being enlisted in torture
in the Bush II regime's War on Terrorism: americanbar.org/groups/crsj/pu…
'Smallpox vaccination was discontinued in the United States in the 1970s because its benefits no longer warranted exposing individuals to its serious risks.'
Almost *200 yrs* after it was first used.
Pharmacovigilance safety systems in 1796 were not a thing. VAERS est. in 1990.
'Smallpox vaccination is a relatively dangerous and invasive therapy that, although offering protection against one of history's most devastating contagious diseases, poses significant risks and side effects.'
'Potential complications include encephalitis, death, and a number of side effects serious enough to require a doctor's care in one of every 10,000 cases.'
'Today these potential risks are exacerbated by the fact that the vaccine for this program is either "old" vaccine that has been in storage for more than thirty years, or "new" vaccine manufactured through cell culturing and considered experimental.'
'Studies of the safety and efficacy of the old vaccine in dilute doses, conducted during the past year primarily on healthy college-student volunteers, resulted in about one-third of the vaccine recipients becoming sick enough to miss work or school as a result of the vaccine.'
But btw January & publication in April of 2003 alone, ~ '350,000 military personnel have also been vaccinated w/ the old vaccine...there have been 14 cases of myocarditis... (an incidence rate of 1 in 20,000) & a number of other side effects, incl. 2 reported deaths.'
'Vaccination of armed services personnel raises a serious human rights concern. Altho vaxx of health workers & the general public involves voluntary, individual decisions (at least as of this writing), smallpox vaccination of armed services personnel is mandatory'
'The problem posed by mandatory vaccination is basic: military service does not negate humanity & basic human rights.
Most important in this context, however, is that the vaccination program has aspects that are research oriented. As outlined in the Nuremberg Code'
'participation in medical research must be voluntary and military personnel are not excepted, even in times of combat. Pentagon rules against nonvoluntary medical research have been explicitly in place since at least 1925.'
'Even in the absence of biological attack, unvaccinated troops pose logistical problems: those who are vaccinated with the live vaccine can spread the infection or might require separate quarters from unvaccinated troops.'
'in late November 2002, senior aides to President Bush indicated that a final decision concerning universal vaccination would likely be delayed until more information about adverse reactions...had been gathered from vaccination of health workers and military personnel.'
A different generation of healthcare workers:
'In this regard, vaccination of military personnel has become a significant issue, given that objections to pre-event smallpox vaccination have been widespread among health workers and many hospitals have refused to vaccinate...'
'their employees. The health worker vaccination program thus is far behind schedule: although officials had hoped to vaccinate 500,000 health workers before March 1, 2003, by the deadline only 12,690 volunteers had come forward.'
'Although the ACLU carefully monitored the administration's vaccination plan through the end of 2002 and advocated for protections for health workers who choose not to be vaccinated, it has remained largely silent concerning mandatory vaccination of military personnel.'
3. the International Covenant on Civil & Political rights: 'no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.'
(whereas the UDHR Article 7 'is nonderogable, even "in time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation."')
4. even for soldiers, at war:
'soldiers may relinquish their right to refuse medical treatment upon enlisting, they retain, as all humans do, their right to refuse to be subjects of human experiments--& so retain their right to refuse experimental or investigational drugs...'
Stumbling into Armageddon...
'As an old cold warrior as a member of the anti-Soviet Committee on the Present Danger and as a member of a secret presidential committee that helped Reagan end the Cold War' paulcraigroberts.org/2022/01/18/can…
I can tell you that I am astonished that Washington has not heard what the Russians have, in all frankness, told them.
If the Committee on the President Danger had heard the Russians say this in the 1980s, we would have told President Reagan to acknowledge their concern...
' and reduce the tension.
Today the situation is so different that to an experienced cold warrior such as myself it is extremely scary.'
Ever see it argued that vaxx *weakened* our pandemic response?
'In the last 24 hours there were 55,232 new Covid cases in Australia.
By comparison, Australia had 10 (yes, ten) new daily cases a year ago in January 2021, just prior to the vaccine rollout.' sovereignman.com/trends/austral…
'But now that 92.6% of eligible Australians have been vaccinated, the infection rate has increased more than 5,000x from a year ago.'
'In other words, these politicians think that Australian residents will only become vaccine hesitant if Djokovic is physically present in Australia, as if he’s going to sneeze and his ideas will spread like Omicron droplets.'
'Advocates of blanket COVID vaxx mandates have tried to conflate those insisting on individual risk assessment w/ the ideological anti-vaxxers. While there is some overlap between the two, many people who never thought twice about immunizing their children against measles, mumps'
'have balked at the thought of injecting their children w/ an experimental medical solution to a virus that poses a negligible threat to them.'
Absent significant co-morbidities (some still unknown), & recognizing that fatality is not the sole negative outcome, of C19 or vaxx...
'Never in American history have schoolchildren been required to receive vaccines that had not already undergone years—usually at least a decade—of safety trials. Nor have we required children to receive vaccines for diseases that primarily pose a risk to adults or the elderly.'
Informed consent:
'A Canadian father who has not been vaccinated against Covid has temporarily lost the right to see his ...child.
A judge ruled his visits would not be in the child's "best interest"' bbc.com/news/world-us-…
'The judgement is the first depriving a parent of access rights on immunisation grounds' though the child is double-vaccinated & though even if vaccinated the father could still contract & transmit the virus to his child. ledevoir.com/societe/659685…
The father had declared his willingness to respect all other public-health requirements, including avoiding leaving his residence for all non-essential excursions. He did not provide reasons for his reservations regarding vaccines.