Sarah Vine peddles the usual bollocks.
When it comes to the coronavirus vaccine, it’s funny how many otherwise intelligent people I know have become borderline deranged about it. Endless paranoid WhatsApps and links to bonkers Facebook posts.
‘You won’t catch me putting that poison in my arm,’ they say. ‘I’m not stupid. I don’t want to be part of the evil plans of [insert sinister global organisation here] to [insert outlandish conspiracy theory here]. Oh no, not me. I’m not falling for that.’
Sorry, but no. You are stupid. Weapons-grade stupid, in fact.
What follows is the usual strawman argument used to demonise anyone who dares to decline a vaccination for Covid. Indeed, the arguments are so weak, so risible that the strawman is the only way these idiots can justify it. Weapons grade stupid is a fair assessment of Vine’s article, frankly, riddled as it is with idiocy, falsehoods and logical fallacies.
A killer virus that has paralysed the world, brought the economy to its knees, cost millions of people their lives and livelihoods, driven us all half round the bend with fear and grief, and you don’t want to have your free immunisation that scientists have worked around the clock to develop in record time so you can avoid becoming a statistic?
Jesus Christ, how stupid is this woman? The virus did nothing of the sort. The devastation has been caused by the government’s response to it. People did this, not the virus. People aided and abetted by the criminally hysterical journalists such as Sarah Vine.
And all because Wayne in Minnesota, who lives in his parents’ basement, has told you it’s an evil plot by lizard people so they can harvest our organs? Or because a deluded preacher in Nigeria claims it’s white witchcraft?
If I was to write the definitive guide to the use of logical fallacy, then this would be in the entry labelled strawman. Those of us who have declined the vaccine have good reasons for doing so. We have looked at the evidence and the options and risks and made a rational decision. Yet the facile hard-of-thinking idiots such as Vine cannot see beyond their own myopic prejudices and consequently label us as conspiracy theorists. They are an example of the polarisation of debate that now plagues the world. Anyone who dares to challenge the orthodoxy is demonised accordingly. What we are seeing is not reason or rational discussion, it is primitive cultism.
Yet still people don’t get it. In London, where I live, there are already hundreds of cases of the Indian variant. And that’s not because of people returning from the subcontinent; it’s because too few residents have had the jab.
This is an evidence-free assertion. Even so, it is an irrelevance. New variants will continue to arise because as any fule no, covid is an RNA virus and RNA viruses mutate rapidly creating new strains somewhat faster than vaccine manufacturers can keep up. Also, the vaccines do not stop the spread, they merely mitigate the symptoms so having the vaccine or not makes no difference whatsoever to the spread whether it is the Indian variant or any other strain. A basic understanding of biology, logic and reason seems to have bypassed what passes for a journalist here.
After months in lockdown, our capital city is starting to open up again. And with that awakening will come jobs, hope and happiness. Yet all this is now in question because people won’t listen to sense.
Nope. It is at risk because the idiots in government keep listening to the idiots in SAGE and their wildly inaccurate computer models.
Instead of being able to see that the vaccine is our way out of this nightmare, the anti-vaxxers, emboldened in no small part by nonsense they read on the internet, have somehow convinced themselves it’s actually the problem.
Another strawman. And the label anti-vaxxer used to demonsie anyone who dares to decline this vaccine. I’ve had plenty of others throughout my life without any quibbles. I am not an anti-vaxxer. I do, however, object to being coerced into taking an experimental one where we have no long term data on possible negative outcomes. On a balance of risks, my decision is a low risk one. My body, my choice.
Honestly, it’s like being offered an antibiotic for a septic toe and deciding you’d rather have your leg amputated because you once read something about penicillin being a bit bad for your gut flora.
No, it isn’t and you would have to be incredibly dense to think that this is even remotely comparable. This really is bad. Awful reasoning.
Except it’s worse, because having a leg cut off is not contagious. Covid is; and unless we are prepared to risk goodness knows how many more deaths in pursuit of that natural herd immunity, the vaccine is our only chance of getting back to some form of normality.
Jesus, but this woman is either very, very stupid or she is being very, very disingenuous. Flu is contagious, but we don’t have lockdowns and we don’t coerce people into being vaccinated against it. We leave them to make up their own minds based upon their own evaluation of the risk. As for deaths, we are looking at a similar fatality rate to that of seasonal flu – less than 1%. It’s not the black death.
So I’m totally on the side of Lord (Andrew) Lloyd-Webber when he says refusing the jab is no better than drink-driving.
Then you are as stupid as he is.
It’s an act of supreme selfishness and irresponsibility. Not least because it won’t be the vaccine refuseniks who are left to clear up the mess, but the NHS. And they, I think we can all agree, are long overdue a break.
Oh, FFS! No, it is not selfish. We, the people who have decided not to partake, are merely increasing the potential risk to ourselves should we catch it. As for the sainted NHS, you can stick that where the sun don’t shine, love. We are now into guilt tripping territory, which is another tool of the charlatan. Unfortunately for Vine, I do not worship in the cult of the NHS. Given the chance, I would tear it down, salt the earth where it once stood and rebuild a decent, functional system based on something more commonly seen across the channel with an internal market driving up efficiency and placing downward pressure on costs. Either way, we have the non sequitur fallacy being used here.
I’ve not often come across such a risible piece of ill-conceived, blatant propaganda and we’ve been subjected to a fair bit this past year or so. What she does demonstrate is that she has little if any understanding of logic, reason, evidence or factual analysis, let alone basic biology. This, then, is the state of modern journalism. Dire doesn’t come close to describing it. This was a dreadful piece. Utterly awful.
I’m over 70 and decided to take the jab. My body, my choice. I extend that courtesy to anyone who disagrees with me and refuses the jab. Why is this even being considered odd or bad? The vaccination either works or it doesn’t. If it does, then I am protected from you and I cannot infect you. Job done. If it doesn’t work, then whether we’ve had the jab or not doesn’t matter.
The guilt trippers can go fuck themselves.
I think Mrs. Gove is just doing the government’s work of frightening people into having the inoculation. I wont say vaccine as none of the ones currently available are actual vaccines. I discussed this with my GP and opted for the least weird one, the Oxford-AZ one. My wife had it too. I told her straight why I wasn’t having either of the mRNA ones. I am a Microbiologist, molecular biologist and went to med school. So she listened to my boring lecture on autoimmune disease. My GP did too and gave me the least worst inoculation as I said. Most people didn’t even get a choice. There is no long term safety data on these experimental vaccines. The clinical trials don’t conclude until 2023. From a poll I saw the government has so frightened people 10% want lockdowns to continue for ever FFS! This is madness.
I was speaking to one of my students the other day and he was the first one to advocate for continued lockdowns. I asked him why and his response was that the government has a duty of care. This is nonsense of course. A fantasy as the only way they could achieve this would be to micromanage every aspect of our lives. Oh…
First class fisking. I don’t suppose that she will ever get to see it which is perhaps a shame, I doubt that she would understand it if she did.
They aren’t interested in what the proles have to say.
“It’s an act of supreme selfishness and irresponsibility. Not least because it won’t be the vaccine refuseniks who are left to clear up the mess, but the NHS. And they, I think we can all agree, are long overdue a break.”
I wonder if she plans to apply the same logic to drug users, drinkers, smokers, partakers in anal sex (indeed any sex where the disease status of the partner is not known), those who eat themselves to the size of a house, dangerous sports enthusiasts, indeed anyone who takes an above average risk in their day to day life? Are they all to be excluded form the sainted NHS because they ‘brought it upon themselves’? To be honest there wouldn’t be many people left who qualified for treatment.
‘Sorry sir, you were going 3 miles an hour over the speed limit when that artic lorry jack-knifed and crash into you, so we’re just going to leave you here on the side of the road to die, because as you know the NHS won’t treat those who bring about their own healthcare problems’.
All of which goes against the principle of socialised healthcare. We pay through the nose and regardless of our risk profile the sainted NHS does what we pay it to do and no questions asked. At least, that’s how it should be. Unfortunately, the socialised part means that sanctimonious half-wits peddle the kind of idiocy we see coming from Vine.
I had my two jabs at a small cottage hospital in East Yorkshire. Both times the hospital appeared to be empty with no activity apart from the injections going on.
Every newspaper is The Grauniad now….
She’s the wife of a minister…that’s the scary part.
I know, that’s probably why she is peddling this bullshit.
But vaccines might not work against the Indian variant, despite the same vaccines being used all over the world, and therefore I expect in India. Did see a news report out of Pakistan claiming that they’re concerned about the UK variant.
Very little makes any sense. I’m not in rush to go abroad, I’m self employed, and I’m under 50 so I’ll give it a miss. Should I feel the need to partake in an activity that requires vaccination, then I’ll consider it in a year or two when more data is in.
It’s fair to say though that the data so far is less than encouraging. Why they are even considering this for kids is beyond me. I saw some initial figures that 9/4000 children had died in America as a result of I think the J&J but would have to check to be sure.
Vaers itself though has quite the litany of grim cases. It’s already not looking good, and it’s early days. In Winter it might be interesting to see the ratio of vaxxed to unvaxxed cases/deaths as those that know more.about this than I have said something about priming though I don’t know much about it. We’ll see I guess.
Good rebuttal @LR
Piers Moron had similar piece to Mrs Gove’s in today’s DM
Deluded vaccine refuseniks deserve to be shamed
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9595749/
It sickens me that Gov’t & MSM constantly pushing narrative that anyone who doesn’t agree to take an unlicensed experimental drug is a conspiracy theorist who reads “Wayne on FB” and Q-Anon etc
I don’t; I read and listen to respected Doctors, Scientists etc, not loons
I am not a Refusnik, Anti-vaxxer, conspiracy theorist or loon
I made my decision based on risk/benefit analysis, same as last March when I said “Don’t panic, carry on – C-19 nothing burger like ‘Flu”. Indian variant – nothing burger
More emerges every day of the risk of the ‘vaccine’
Worth a listen:
James Delingpole talks to the receptionist of a large NHS medical practice for the Delingpod. She tells him about the adverse reactions to the jabs that her patients have had
https://delingpole.podbean.com/e/nina-1621086702/
All adverse reactions mentioned are established, not conspiracy theories, but not reported on msm
“Covid Vaccines: The Tip of the Iceberg”
The latest news on vaccine safety and effectiveness from the Swiss Doctor
https://swprs.org/vaccines-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/
Risk of Dying from Covid-19 – Kings College, London
1 in 47,000
A must watch:
Tucker Carlson’s interview with Dr. Peter McCullough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7cLxs8fNq8
or
https://www.bitchute.com/video/3b6BUGlCi98F/
PS:
“In Bulgaria, even doctors aren’t sure COVID-19 vaccines are a good idea”
. A Euronews report from Bulgaria, where just 13.5% of the population has been vaccinated
https://www.euronews.com/2021/05/18/in-bulgaria-even-doctors-aren-t-sure-covid-19-vaccines-are-a-good-idea
OT “This Article Is Partly False”
. Writing for City Journal, John Tierney demonstrates that FaceBook and its fact-checkers are “stifling scientific debate” and “enforcing progressive orthodoxy”
https://www.city-journal.org/facebook-and-its-fact-checkers-spread-misinformation
OT “How the CDC is manipulating data to prop-up vaccine effectiveness”
. New policies at the CDC will make the vaccines look better than they are, says Kit Knightly in Off-Guardian
. “…The CDC is demonstrating the beauty of having a “disease” that can appear or disappear depending on how you measure it.
To be clear: If these new policies had been the global approach to “Covid” since December 2019, there would never have been a pandemic at all…”
https://off-guardian.org/2021/05/18/how-the-cdc-is-manipulating-data-to-prop-up-vaccine-effectiveness/
“Indeed, the arguments are so weak, so risible that the strawman is the only way these idiots can justify it.”
I’m sorry but that’s just rubbish. The vaccine has been absolutely instrumental in stemming the contagion which at one point last year was killing over 1,000 Britons every day.
Just accept you were wrong in this case with some dignity will you?
@John
1. Vaccine rollout has been during normal seasonal decline, similar to last year when we didn’t have vaccine
2. CDC changing “Covid Death, Case” criteria for vaccinated vs unvaccinated. If USA doing that, likely UK and more too
Covid-19 has always been a nothing burger, Gov’ts now trying to find a way to dig themselves out of the hole they dug themselves into. Boris floundering around contradicting himself
I’m not wrong. And if you think that Vine’s article is anything other than propaganda, you are deluded. Indeed, you use the same logically flawed argument as she does. I wasn’t arguing one way or another about vaccine effectiveness. I was arguing about Vine’s risible attempts to demonise those of us who chose not to partake.
As for your claim of it killing over 1,000 per day, that’s bullshit. Like seasonal flu it kills those who are already dying or have co morbodities. The figure you bandy about is, like those in the media, entirely without context, making no differential between those who died of covid and those who died anyway but tested positive. PHE poisoned the figures so they are meaningless.
As for your claim that the vaccine is instrumental in reducing contagion, the manufacturers have stated that it doesn’t prevent spread, it mitigates symptoms. Repeat after me, correlation does not equal causation. At this time of the year a reduction is precisely what we would expect.
We’ve had the equivalent of two bad flu seasons.
The only rubbish here is coming from you.
The cognitive dissonance in your head must be quite something.
Now run along and do whatever wancock and doris tell you next.
Mrs Gove, Piers Moron and Lloyd Webber are spouting this because
Matt Hancock told Sky News the “roadmap” could be extended if “enough” people don´t take the vaccine…
Mr Hancock, Coercion or force to undergo medical treatment is illegal in UK
– Also worldwide under Nuremberg Code
– Swine Flu vaccine and Thalidomide Mr Hancock?
For anyone facing coercion and feeling they must surrender, I’d suggest a little white lie: GP says don’t have it due to polyethylene glycol allergy