My day started routinely enough yesterday:  coffee, juice, letting the dog out, and scrolling through Twitter and Facebook to see what I missed.  It would also start a jaunt through the looking glass into the world of the anti-vaxxer. 

First on the Facebook feed was a meme from a 70-ish-year-old non-frequent “friend” who used to be my acupuncturist, saying she wasn’t going to “comply” and get a coronavirus vaccination–it’s a plot by them to get you under control.  And it’s your patriotic duty to not get vaccinated. 

“It’s not about trying to get you to comply, Karen.  We want you to get vaccinated so you’ll be safe and healthy,” I posted in response.  Within a minute, Karen replied:  “That’s nice, but we’re going to protect our freedoms.  Why do you want the government to mandate you get a shot?”

And that was the first shovelful of dirt that started a very deep rabbit hole. 

Soon, three or four other Karens joined in:  “Fascists like you only want us to do what you tell us to do.  But we don’t, and that makes you mad.  WE WILL NOT COMPLY!”  (By the way, the quotes here are paraphrased, and they all weren’t really named Karen.)

I was inundated with links to a variety of sites they claimed proved that the vaccines were deadly, or tracking devices, or a chemical that will ultimately enslave us.  They always talked about protecting “your freedom.”  My favorite link they shared was to a website claiming to have irrefutable proof that the coronavirus vaccine had killed 25,000 people.  When I pointed out the website didn’t cite how they calculated that number–oh, and the website was run by a personal injury attorney looking to start a class action suit–the responses were:  “Stop telling us why our sources are wrong.  Why do you want the government to force injections on us?  Do you think they should force black women to get abortions?  Do you want to sterilize Jews?”

Two of the women linked to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) system.  Again, I pointed out that VAERS is an open-submission site.  The site warns against drawing causal relationships between an event and an outcome, and that literally anyone can submit a report.  “NO!  It says 10000 people died!!!!”  I didn’t make any points by noting that the VAERS database has listings of people dying of traffic accidents and gunshot wounds as an aftereffect of vaccination, and it seems to imply two patients who got the vaccine had to have nose jobs as a side effect.  

One very ardent Karen told me she has two friends who are actual virologists, and they say there’s no need to get inoculated.  I asked for the name of these virologists so I could check their credentials, but got no response, except for a link to… VAERS.  The exchange was over for the day.

Today, though, I woke up to about 5 times the number of Facebook notifications than I normally have in the morning, nearly all from that thread.  One of the original Karens said that because of people like me, there’s going to be a genocide.  Others said it’s obvious “Jack is brainwashed.”   The original Karen, the acupuncturist, announced that she had unfriended me because she didn’t like my “negative energy.”  (She is an acupuncturist, after all.)

I started responding to a couple of these posts by saying, “It’s bullshit that you think you’re ‘protecting’ my freedom.  You’re inhibiting my freedom.  Because we’re having wave after wave, we can’t go out to eat.  Hospitals are filled. Healthcare workers are quitting because they’re broken.  You’re doing this because you’re spoiled children and conspiracy theorists who feed off each other, use bad sources, and think you’re more important than you actually are.  You’re selfish, spoiled, self-involved who think about no one but themselves.”

That didn’t go over well.  I didn’t get through all the responses before Karen the Acupuncturist banned me from seeing her page. 

That wasn’t enough for Karen the Virologists’ Friend, though.  She DM’d me a new update:  she had her antibodies tested, and they were through the roof!  She had talked to her virologist friend and he said COVID was just the flu.  She linked to a TikTok video from a guy who claims to be a “clinical lab scientist” who tested 1,500 “supposed positive COVID tests” which–ba Ba BAAAAA–were only positive for influenza.  Of course, it’s been debunked. 

My new psychotic “friend” also sent me this list of her authorities on how bad COVID vaccines are–all from a post on Telegram.  They’re all listed as doctors–including Dr. Naomi Wolf, whose doctorate is in English Literature.  

I was actually shocked to see the name of Nobel Prize winner Dr. Kary Mullis on the list as people who have spoken out against coronavirus vaccines.  Sure, he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize like the list claimed–he won the Nobel in Chemistry–but it would be very unlike him to speak out about the coronavirus vaccine given that he died in August 2019, four months before the first case of COVID had been identified. 

But hey, he’s on a list, right?  So it must be true.  I’ve done my own research.