As if I couldn’t get the liberal freedom takers any more pissed off at New Times, I thought I would just go ahead and try again this week.
We’re going to talk about a group of anti-vaxxers on the Central Coast—wait, they want to be called ex-vaxxers … wait, actually, they’re now calling themselves the Central Coast Health Coalition, which is kind of like the oil industry lobby calling itself Californians for Energy Independence.
This coalition is so healthy, in fact, that Facebook put a disclaimer on the group’s page warning everyone who visits that the group discusses vaccines.
“Before joining this group, read information from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that can help answer questions you may have about vaccines,” the disclaimer states.
You know your cause is in trouble when Facebook weighs in.
But, guys, if you ask coalition members, the CDC is in on the vaccine hoax with the pharmaceutical companies and so is Facebook. In fact, everyone is in on the conspiracy—but coalition members. Only they know the truth. Don’t be sheeple people!
After a vaccine grudge match transpired on New Times’ Facebook page over a My805Tix post for a showing of Vaxxed II: The People’s Truth (it’s kind of hard to read that without rolling my eyes and heaving a gigantic sigh), I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to touch the whole vaccine thing for the foreseeable future, but then the Women’s March SLO had to go ahead and mess up that dream! How could you? Damnit!
Now I have to—once again—stand up for the rights of people I know are wrong to speak their minds. God, I hate it when I have to do that. But. Here. I. Go.
You leave me no choice!
Our friendly neighborhood group of mothers against vaccinating their children because they apparently don’t believe in science when it comes to measles, polio, chicken pox, etc.—aka the “health” coalition, which doesn’t care about herd health or understand the concept of immunity—applied to have a booth in Mitchell Park during the Women’s March event on Jan. 18. Women’s March SLO (WMSLO) denied the application, saying that the mission of the coalition doesn’t align with that of the march, according to Andrea Chmelik, a spokesperson for the local chapter of the Women’s March.
“Part of the mission of WMSLO is to work in solidarity to protect women’s rights, human rights, our safety, our health, and our planet. While WMSLO recognizes that many issues exist with the pharmaceutical industry, the movement to suppress the rate of vaccine use poses dangers to health and safety, and therefore does not align with WMSLO’s focus,” Chmelik said.
It’s mothers against mothers here in SLO, sheeple!
Fair. Women’s March SLO paid for the permit to use the park and has every right to control who sets up booths during the event.
What really got my gears grinding is this next part. Women who showed up to participate in the march were asked to wait across the street because the signs they held didn’t have slogans on them that Women’s March SLO organizers wanted associated with the march. So much so that organizers got San Luis Obispo Police Department officers to ask “health” coalition members to leave the park!
Whatever happened to the invitation for people to “address your truth” on the signs they carried?
“This rally and march is free and open to the public. Your signs are your personal expression of values you are fighting for,” according to the Women’s March SLO website.
There’s nothing that says, if your truth doesn’t align with ours, you have to go across the street and hang out in the church parking lot because the rally isn’t actually open to “the” public; it’s only open to “our” public.
It’s disappointing and a common complaint that’s been lobbied against the march from the beginning. If you don’t fit in, then get out!
And come on Women’s March SLO organizers! You didn’t think that the anti-vaxxers (Yes, that’s what you coalition people are!) were going to make a gigantic stink about having their speech rights squelched? They already have a freakin’ complex about being discriminated against.
Meanwhile, frequent and outspoken vaxx-tavist (It’s like fracktavist, get it?) Nicole Dorfman compared the coalition’s plight and Women’s March concerns about public health to the “rationale used to segregate and oppress African Americans during the Jim Crow era; it was one of the things that Nazis leveled against Jews, that they were rats and they spread disease.”
Really, Nicole? Wow.
She continued by calling out these supposed “herd immunity” claims.
“I don’t think they have a shred of evidence … that unvaccinated people are more likely to spread disease in general,” Nicole said.
Really? What about that whole polio thing? According to the CDC, polio has been eradicated in the U.S. for the last three decades. And yes, that is because of vaccines!
But if Nicole wants to say all of that—and she obviously did—she has every right to. No matter how wrong it might be.
And if the Women’s March is going to get on a soapbox about being inclusive, then it should be inclusive, even if it means cringing at the sight of the signs that people are carrying. Δ
The Shredder is always on a soapbox. Send comments to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Health and Wellness 2020.
Actually there is surmountable evidence that clean drinking water, more sanitary conditions, underground plumbing, safer food handling and good old fashioned hand washing significantly contributed to the downfall and spread of polio long before the vaccine was ever given to the masses. And polio was NEVER eradicated. It has simply been renamed several different things. Transverse myelitis, acute flaccid myelitis, Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Perhaps you should read the hundreds of studies and dozens of books written on this very subject.
Melissa is a a rock star and correct. The author clearly hasn’t read the hundreds of SCIENTIFIC studies that disagree with her, but hey, sheep are easily led aren’t they? Ever wondered why the vaccine manufacturers can’t be sued if there is an adverse reaction or death caused by vaccines? Hmm. why not? Read the 1986 Vaccine Injury Act. But you probably didn’t know about that did you “shredder”. My nephew died at the hands of the TDap vaccine so your insensitive article doesn’t address the hundreds, and thousands who have been adversely affected by vaccines. but hey, stay on your ill-informed soap box.
This Shredder really got my blood boiling. In the very article where it claims “They already have a freakin’ complex about being discriminated against” it denigrates intelligent well educated people who happen to not believe what the writer believes. It uses humor to slyly say what these people are fighting for, the human right of body autonomy and a parent’s right to make health choices for their children, sets them apart. It calls these intelligent educated people ignorant. This IS discrimination. One doesn’t HAVE a “complex” about being discriminated against when you ARE being discriminated against. That’s like telling a person of color to just get over it or a transgendered person restrooms are their problem rather than society’s. This writer couldn’t have made it more plain than if he or she had called them ignorant negros or filthy Jews.
Wow! Personal attacks, sarcasm and name calling! Typical journalism these days when the journalist – wait, you’re no journalist – when the reporter has done zero research, regurgitates narrative talking points and always resorts to those tired tactics to generate readership. Talk about “sheeple” (your word not mine). I quit reading the New Times many years ago. Now I remember why.
The thing is that most of us moms have gone to college, we got our education, we worked/work in careers, the tired old
excuse that we are just “moms” doesn’t work anymore! It was a good one while it lasted! I went to college, I got my Bachelor of Science degree, I studied; o-chem, biochem, anatomy/physiology, public health, environmental health, epidemiology, etc. We are not ignorant, we HAVE done our research. We have learned from our own past experiences or from other mothers/fathers.. and we BELIEVE them. We aren’t just going to listen to some bought out mostly male western medicine doctor for what is right for OUR children. We make choices for our children, no one else! What the Women’s March did was wrong. Not because we are some crazy lunatics that they gave some publicity to. They were wrong, because they decided that they would use force to discriminate against a small group that no one wants to believe. This is why rape culture exists, this is why women have been marginalized. Because no one wanted to believe a message that was uncomfortable for them. I marched with a Trump guy screaming at all of us, my question is this; was he banned from the “permitted” area? Was he asked to leave? Or is it because he was male? Have we not even gotten very far with all this “marching”. What is even the point of any of it, if we can’t even open a simple SLO park up for ALL the messages from women. Or was there pressure from somewhere else to not have this message be apart of such a Day of “Free” Speech?
Hey Shredder. I’m one of those moms that was kicked out of the Some Woman’s March in SLO. You say we don’t believe in science? It’s science itself that fuels these moms and going off your commentary alone, I can say you have never looked into this science. One may claim that vaccine injury is rare and for the ‘greater good’… and that’s cute until one day it’s your kid. CDC says ingredients in vaccines can cause damage in my child due to her rare disease that would cause total, unrepairable hearing loss. After following the recommended schedule for far longer then I would like to admit, she is left with one good working ear. Where’s the parade for her? Who helps pay for her hearing aid and insurance? Not the herd. She took one for the team for your supposed herd immunity… and then to be scrutinized, labeled with a slur and pushed aside? And people like you think should keep setting my baby on fire to keep you and the herd warm because you are living in fear of diseases like the fricken chicken pox? Since you have truly jumped into the arena after this one, let me know if you need any help or resources to help you wake the flock up, I would be more then willing to help you with that.
Under the veil of advocating for civil rights could your comments be any more misogynistic? And yes, people that are discriminated against typically have a complex about it. Good grief, your soap box has a serious case of dry-rot.
Shredder,
You made a very bold statement about “our friendly neighborhood group of mothers against vaccinating their children because they apparently don’t believe in science…or care about herd health or understand the concept of immunity”. It is clear here, that you are entirely missing the point of why these mothers showed up. You see, there is a much more deep and fragile issue surrounding mothers uniting to promote vaccine safety and awareness. It is called tragic loss of our children’s health. And LIVES. (Yes, you read that right. Hence, the label ex-vaxxers.) If you feel that these women are making false or anti-science claims about that, you ought to get yourself acquainted with VAERS, the U.S. government reporting system for those who have suffered from Vaccine Adverse Events, which include injury and death (both of which are noted on the package product inserts, by the vaccine manufacturer themselves). The government has paid out over 4 BILLON dollars in injury and DEATH, in this reporting system (which is estimated that only 1% of adverse events are reported, so you can do the math on that). Your attack fell upon women, mothers and families who indeed vaccinated. They felt the pressure, fear and hate, all of which you demonstrated in this article, and did the thing they were “supposed to do”, in the name of protecting them and YOU! Now many of us live with shattered lives. Many of our children live with shattered dreams. Many of our children are not with us any longer. We suffer this in the deepest way, on so many levels. We suffer the guilt of giving something to our children that harmed them. We suffer through the pain. But, we persevere through the cruelty, ignorance and carelessness of haters.
We came as women and mothers, not with a message of hate or to tell you not to vaccinate. We personally know there are risks and that not all bodies are the same. We have truth. We came to bring awareness to this FACT. Our theme is to educate before you vaccinate and our fight is to keep our rights to medical and health freedom as mothers, women and humans. Fear, hate and discrimination does not stop a woman. It will not stop a mother! And we will keep fighting, even for people like you.
I miss Steve Moss. He had a clue. New Times has gone downhill since his passing.
Your sarcasm, distain and ignorance for such a sensitive topic is alarming. Verbally attacking mothers who are educated with college, sometimes science degrees , and speaking up for their children who have been injured is despicable. Do you know how many more vaccines children get these days compared to when you were a kid? Children get as many vaccines in their FIRST year of life as you or I got by the time we were 18. The aluminum used as the adjuvant in highly neurotoxic. This has been shown up be a huge problem in countless studies.. and guess where it ends up? The brain. No wonder so many kids have chronic illnesses these days. Educate yourself before making a fool of yourself and attacking people who are trying to stand up for their injured children. Slo is a wonderful place to live, but you sir are spreading hate. Do better.
Sounds like it was written by the Merck CEO. Do they pay you to write this drivel and hate?
Whatever happened to investigative journalism? As I see it, there a real story here that could make you a real journalist instead of an anonymous columnist who rants and raves for the Newtimes magazine. Imagine if you did the research and found that we were right- you could expose the largest humanitarian scandel of our time, exposing big pharma, the government and billionaires like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg…. Your name could be recognized worldwide. Instead, your just the Shredder and your opinion doesn’t really matter.