Rant: Child Dead in LA is Just a Sign of Things to Come

When Trump nominated RFK Jr to CDC Head, things are going to get bad, and the latest news is merely a sign to come. 

RFK Jr is, for lack of better term, a so-called vaccine freedom-fighter... as in vaccine should NOT be mandatory. They claim the "risks" of vaccine means it should be a personal choice, when it *should* be public policy, because diseases affect everybody. Once RFK jr took office, one of the first things done was firing the entire vaccine advisory panel... and replaced it with a group composed of various vaccine denialists that were discredited during COVID. Since then, CDC has basically waived every school vaccine mandate, claiming it's a state-level issue or personal freedom issue. As a result, childhood diseases such as measles, which was nearly eradicated decades ago (back in Year 2000), and used to be only counted in the teens, except for a few cases in isolated communities where vaccine denialists congregate, is making a major comeback. Measles case count per year is at a 33 year high. 

And this new child death in Los Angeles is a sign of things to come. 

To keep a long story short, Los Angeles County Health has reported a death of a child from a measles-related brain disorder called SSPE, which was basically "delayed measles". The child probably contracted measles while very young (less than 1 year old). While it is notable that this is probably BEFORE the child could be vaccinated for measles (generally MMR vaccine is given between 12-15 months old), but unvaccinated people are often protected by "herd immunity" (low chance of encountering the disease due to high percentage of vaccinated people around them). SSPE means measles virus entered the brain, and lay dormant until months or even years later. The child appears to have recovered, then the symptoms started appearing, as the virus started to destroy the brain and nerves from within. First memory starts to go, then mood changes, then muscle coordination deteriorates. Mental acuity lessens. All this, in the course of a few months... and the body lives on... And there is no cure and no treatment. 

Los Angeles County Health officer Muntu Davis released a statement, from which I quote: "Infants too young to be vaccinated rely on all of us to help protect them through community immunity. Vaccination is not just about protecting yourself—it's about protecting your family, your neighbors, and especially children who are too young to be vaccinated."

And yet RFK jr is proposing that we do away with vaccines because of "freedom". 

Would you not sacrifice a little bit of YOUR freedom to lessen the health risks for your children and your children's children? 

Foreign Influence COVIDiocy: Foreign Agitators Started the Occupy LA Movement

The Occupy Canada convoy shows no signs of ending, and their boldness has encouraged foreign agitators to stir up similar movement in the US, and the antivaxxers have swallowed the bait. 

Facebook has confirmed that foreign actors are controlling several trucker convoy Facebook groups. Various groups are being run by IP addresses traced to Romania, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and other countries. Many of them used to be MAGA or Trump-related Facebook groups. Facebook have removed several that are confirmed to be run by foreign IPs, but the astroturfing has caught American attention, and even RFKjr's website has settled on a March 5th "convoy" targeting Los Angeles. 

Some have tried to organize groups to disrupt the traffic in Los Angeles to target the Superbowl this weekend, but they simply did not have enough time. 

It's clear that antivaxxers no longer cared if they've been led through the nose by foreign actors. They are willing to gather in tight quarters because they prefer to care about themselves and their "freedom" to spread COVID rather than care about keeping everyone safe. 

Vaccines prevent hospitalization, and masks prevent infection. That is the science of COVID. 

Such a "convoy" will pull in agitators of every sort, from Jan 6 insurrectionists to antivaxxers to free-dumbers to Maga dreamers who still believe the election was stolen from Trump even though all evidence shows Trump tried to steal the election, not to mention anarchists who just want to see some chaos, and whichever foreign actors with their own agendas. 

I hope CHP, LAPD, and Governor Newsome have contingency plans. If they don't start making some now. This can get VERY ugly. 

And if you join up, you're a COVIDiot sheeple who don't care if you've been used by foreign actors. 

AntiScience COVIDiocy: How to Pretend to Care About Science While Spewing Anti-Science Misinformation

One of the ways antivaxxers catch the attention of sheeple is pretending to care, and one of the ways they pretend to care is by portraying their antivax attitude as "concerns about vaccine safety". Indeed, if you ask RFK jr, he would say he's not antivax, he's pro vax safety. 

And one of the most frequent sources antivaxxers like to cite is VAERS, or Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. They love to "dumpster dive" into VAERS data and claim VAERS numbers are proof that vaccine caused injuries or even deaths, even though VAERS itself CLEARLY states that VAERS does NOT establish "cause-and-effect" relationship between the vaccine and the reported adverse event. 

Here's an example of an adverse event reported to VAERS. Patient had Pfizer COVID shot on Jan 9, 2021. Patient had a single car accident on Jan 23rd, 2021. She spun out into a snowbank. She was transported to ER, treated, and released. She was found unresponsive on Feb 1, 2021 and pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed she had a brain bleed. 

Yes, that's a genuine VAERS entry, 1004811-1, of which a screenshot is included below. I can't link it because VAERS doesn't allow direct linking. You will have to zoom in the see the details. 

The death and the vaccination are clearly unrelated, but as per proper procedure, it's included in VAERS, and the report was submitted on Feb 5th, 2021. In fact, CDC instructions to health care providers were to include the data in VAERS, "regardless if the reporter thinks the vaccine caused the AE (adverse event)". The reason is simple: CDC needs a way to know if there's a side effect they never considered or expected, and the only way to know is to report EVERYTHING, so the data can be mined later for commonalities. 

So if you search for "COVID vaccine" and "death", you would probably end up counting this one, and probably dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands like it, where if you look at the details, there's just no way they could be linked. 

Not that it stopped antivaxxers and pundits like Tucker Carlson from claiming "vaccines killed thousands" when the data they cited does NOT indicate such a thing, and organizations across the country had to put out FAQs debunking such fearmongering. 

When confronted, most antivaxxers will reply with "but I just want a safe vaccine" or variations thereof, often with emphasis "but even one adverse event is one too many". 

Some antivaxxers will then trot out the "COVID isn't that dangerous" trope, esp. with the "children tend to have milder symptoms" bit. 

So you remind them "so you are comparing a KNOWN risk of COVID such as death, long COVID, and MIS-C, vs a POTENTIAL unknown risk of vaccine adverse reaction that has so far not been observed?"

Some may be smart enough to admit defeat, but some will segue into VAERS dumpster diving. 

That's when you remind them that they're processing garbage data and drawing bogus conclusions, as we had discussed above. 

And what's when they block you because they can't beat you with the truth.