Re: Dear Leaders: We don’t trust you because you’re untrustworthy

[David Barrett]

If I understand Karl's point, I think I agree with it: in broad strokes,
science works.

On Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 4:00 AM Karl Semich <0xloem at gmail.com> wrote:

> They might talk about pharma-bro Martin Skrelli hiking drug prices, or
>> correctly note how the Perdue family made billions partnering with the
>> government and doctors to get Americans hooked on legalized heroin
>> pills.
>>
>> But today, utter the phrase, “I’m not so sure about these vaccines,”
>> and prepare for the gaslighting. You’re CRAZY for not trusting big
>> pharma’s “safe and effective, safe and effective, safe and effective”
>> vaccines 100%, no questions asked.
>>
>
I think people tend to lose a sense of scale when talking about these big
numbers.  The argument that "we should be skeptical of COVID vaccines
because opioids were a problem" conflates totally unrelated problems (ie,
different industries) and totally different scales (opioids killed 500K
Americans over the past 2 decades; COVID killed 607K *in the past year*).

Don't get me wrong, Perdue got like $8B in profit from opioids over a
matter of decades.  But $8B in ill-gotten profits over decades is much
closer to $0 than the trillions of dollars of catastrophe caused by COVID.

At this point the Delta variant is ravaging everywhere in the world that is
not vaccinated.  I cannot fathom by what measure someone would still claim
that it's better to take your chances with a fatal disease that has killed
millions, than get a shot that has already been administered *billions of
times*.

So far there are exactly *three people* who are suspected to have died from
a complication from the vaccine. (
https://covid-101.org/science/how-many-people-have-died-from-the-vaccine-in-the-u-s/)
THREE PEOPLE.

To refuse the vaccine is idiotic.  But to discourage others from getting it
is malfeasant.

-david
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