That’s the problem. It isn’t that this has happened just once or twice, either. This is literally the last fifty years. For some of these people in the Ozarks, they were literally targeted by the pharma companies and opioid doctors because A) it was a direct check from the government, and B) there were no negotiations on price and C) the targets were so poor they couldn’t possibly have any legal action work in their favor. This is what has been done to them in various cycles for the past fifty years. They’ve been a constant checkbook.
I was a hard core alcoholic by the time I was 17, I quit drinking when my daughter was a year old. We had zero tolerance toward drinking until she turned 21. It was the rule of law, no exceptions but…
She was told exactly why we had that rule, we hid nothing about my drinking. We wanted her to know why we were so dead set against it (grandpa and two great grandpas were also alcoholics). I got all kinds of grief from family members for telling her the truth. Every rule we made she knew why, as she got older she could argue her point and change our minds. (but not with drinking until she was 21)
She turned out to be a very strong, think for herself, take no crap, able to stand by any decision she makes right or wrong. And she trusts us. Sometimes she just won’t shut up though and I blame myself.
On a side note, that some of you may have already seen today, fitness guru Bill Phillips was recently discharged after spending two months in the hospital fighting COVID. He didn’t think he needed to get vaccinated because he had COVID previously and thought he had some level of immunity. Now he’s telling people to get vaccinated. He’s 56 and relies on a wheelchair and oxygen.
i think there’s a particularly american trait of not doing things that are good for oneself once you’ve “taken a stand” on an issue
( see also things gun control. )
the sense of being a good person is so wrapped up with the sense of making good decisions that to say we were wrong is also to say that we were bad people. people ( americans ) will literally rather risk death than change their mind
i don’t know how to explain it exactly but ive seen cross cultural studies on how stubborn americans are and how ashamed we are of losing face that many can’t even acknowledge it as a possibility.
a bad mix of “independence”, ego, and christianity i think
since they know better in the first place, anyone telling them to do something is either wrong or late. whereas since they always do know better, them telling other people to do something is always right and timely.
Honestly, they strike me as massive authoritarians who’d be happy in a dictatiorial state. They just think trump would make a good dictator and that anyone else would be a bad dictator.
“I’m more of a ________ and I don’t like being told what I have to do.”
I think it’s less “clueless shit who thinks that a recommendation is a mandate, and because I’m stubborn to the point of death I’m willing to die rather than get a free vaccine that could have prevented all of this” than “child.” Also, “child” is a lot easier/shorter.
What’s ironic is: he does like being told what to do! Trump, the GQP, his whole conservative “tribe”… they all told him what to do and what to believe! They all told him to distrust of mainstream media, scientists, the CDC, the entire medical community, oh, and vaccines.
He is just one of the 300000-400000 casualties that Donald John Trump is directly responsible for.
Right! I know multiple examples of deniers who passed away. Denial to preserve your biases is a strong force, but you’d have to assume reality will shine through as this snowballs.
Also I think we need more footage of people who are inflicted. It’s much harder to deny when you see the suffering. That’s more compelling than statistics.
You’d need to get HIPAA releases from everyone on the ward to do that. It’s difficult to gain people’s consent when they’ve got an air tube down their throat. I figure the whole situation may count as a form of duress.
Looked like an absolutely gorgeous place to live. And I was struck by the calm politeness of the people at the city council meeting, for while they stuck to antivaxx script, they sounded genuinely concerned, not just angrily gotcha-ing.
The video made me wish I’d visited the Ozarks before all this.
I hope those that come out of the hospital can convince their neighbors to try the vaccine.
That was the most frustrating part of the video for me - they said they heard of a lot of people who’d gotten vaccinated but got covid anyway. oooooookaaaaay … Like willfully staying ignorant of the difference between ‘like the flu’ and ‘going to the hospital’.
Apparently, he was unwilling to figure out for himself what he needed to do.
Stubborn? Sure. Ignorant? Don’t think so. Looks like he let Ego override all.
Once again, stupidiity cured itself. Too bad others will suffer because of it.
As far as I am concerned, this worthless bastard & all others of his ilk [Abbott, DeSatan, etc, etc] are guilty of Democide, & should be regarded as psycopaths.
The way people really are in many of these towns is nothing like what either or any media side portrays them as. If people here actually knew these people as I do, it’d be a lot harder to easily wish them dead as I see here. In short, people on every side of this thing have been gamed for clicks, anger, and emotional engagement the whole time.
In that town of 42,000 , I know at least eight of my friends from school got vaccinated, and got covid anyway. Five of them ended up at the hospital for it with a serious case. Three had really bad flus. None of them had “mild symptoms.” Now, anecdote is not evidence, but in a small town, these stories spread like wildfire, as you can imagine. And you flip on the TV and people are telling them that “breakthrough disease only happens in 1 in 20 and only seriously in 1 in 500”. You’re saying this in a town of 42000. With 36% vaccinated. That’s 756 breakthrough illnesses. That should be 2 serious illnesses.
I personally know 5 serious illnesses. My mom knows like, ten or fifteen more. Among vaccinated people. So, when you tell them that it’s not that bad, and yet , they see it being that way, why should they believe you? These are not smart people, they don’t understand statistical anomalies (or , in this case, given the new data coming in from Israel, reality… breakthrough cases are MUCH more common than 1 in 20, and severity is MUCH more common than 1 in 500). So what are they to believe? The thing telling them that what they’re experiencing is impossible, or the actual people with the actual positive covid tests going to the hospital because they can’t breathe?
And then everyone wonders why they have trust issues?
Nope. Not in my case, anyway. But I’m Australian, grew up in an abusive, authoritarian house, was bashed for questioning anything. Treated like the proverbial black sheep my whole life and called a liar and troublemaker by gaslighting history rewriters because my memories don’t fit with their recollections/delusions. Now 48 and fled from that environment when 18 (because I couldn’t get out any sooner). And have never lost my curiosity, questioning instinct. Sure, I’m a bit naive (and/or dumb) about a lot of things. Still have a lot to learn. But don’t believe the answer to essentially ‘what is wrong with these people?’ is as simple as ‘they were raised in an authoritarian environment’.
When the vaccines rolled out, I withheld getting one for as long as possible. I was safe working from home. Teachers needed them WAY more, and my wife and her colleagues were having a hell of a time getting appointments because too many rich, connected people were jumping the queues. I wanted to ensure that others who needed it more went before me. Schools were rushing to push teachers back into the classroom without vaccines, claiming “its available, go get it,” without acknowledging that there were too few doses for everyone at the time. They gambled with lives while we stressed and worried.
Now? No, I’m not waiting when it comes to a booster. People have had opportunities before, and the percentage of those who were honestly waiting for full approval from the FDA is small compared to those who are choosing to be willfully misled, as far as I can tell. My wife and I will get one immediately. I will have zero difficulty with this given all that folks who WANT the vaccines have had to sacrifice.
Roughly 150 million Americans have gotten the vaccine now (probably way more, I’m intentionally under-estimating). At the original 5% rate of break throughs, that means 7 1/2 million will still get covid. And with efficacy slowly waning, that number goes up. No vaccine is ever 100% effective, and folks just don’t get this. But it IS apparently nearly 100% effective at mitigating the symptoms and keeping them out of the hospital and dying from it, unlike those who are unvaccinated.
