SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Ohio lawmakers want to abolish vaccine requirements:
[...] Lawmakers are working on legislation to call off the lottery immediately. They're also trying to head off any plans for "vaccine passports." And last month, they introduced a sweeping antivaccination bill that would essentially demolish public health and vaccination requirements in the state—and not just requirements for COVID-19 vaccines, requirements for any vaccine.
[...] State Rep. Beth Liston (D-Dublin) blasted the bill, telling The Columbus Dispatch, "Not only would it prevent schools, businesses and communities from putting safety measures in pace related to COVID, it will impact the health of our children... This bill applies to all vaccines—polio, measles, meningitis, etc. If it becomes law we will see worsening measles outbreaks, meningitis in the dorms, and children once again suffering from polio."
[...] "At its core, this proposal would destroy our current public health framework that prevents outbreaks of potentially lethal diseases, threatens the stability of our economy as it recovers from a devastating pandemic and jeopardizes the way we live, learn, work and celebrate life," the letter said.
[...] "HB 248 would put all Ohioans at risk while increasing the cost of health care for families, individuals and businesses," spokesperson Dan Williamson said. "This proposal applies to all immunizations, including childhood vaccines. If passed, this legislation could reverse decades of immunity from life-threatening, but vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, mumps, hepatitis, meningitis and tuberculosis."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Sourcery42 on Friday May 28 2021, @02:33PM (12 children)
We're just furthering our transition from United States of America into Dumbfuckistan. Fascists and the religious right have siezed control of our ultra-conservative party and are hellbent on imposing their will on others. All but the most progressive leaning of our "Liberal" party would be considered at best centrist in most developed nations.
Asimov said it better, "Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @03:21PM (4 children)
As our country moves further and further towards extremism, the meme that our ostensibly "liberal" agendas would be considered normal in "most developed nations" is becoming more and more out of touch. This [jhu.edu] is a list of countries by vaccination percents. You might notice that "most developed nations" have dramatically lower vaccination rates than the US. And it's not because they don't have access to said vaccines, but because personal liberty tends to be a bigger factor. I currently live in the developing world, and even over here you can trivially get vaccinated if you want to (and for free). In fact they're even doing the exact same thing over here where they're giving away chances to win free gold necklaces and other things to people that agree to get vaccinated. Suffice to say the "problem" is not a lack of vaccines, much as I expect your media may have convinced you otherwise.
Even governments in "most developed nations" are vastly more cautious. For instance the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been banned or many of the "most developed nations" including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and others. Yet over here, we actively work to censor even the discussion of a negative risk:reward for *any* vaccine, and suggesting as much is seen as justification for digital lynch mobs to try to destroy people's lives.
The problem is not our liberalism, but our authoritarianism and self delusion. You are here literally arguing that somebody saying the government should not be able to *force* people to inject things, without their consent, is somebody "imposing their will on others." It makes no sense whatsoever, and I suspect 10 years from now you'll convince yourself you never even held such beliefs. Because right now we're headed down a very dark road, that's been traveled many times before. And that road, in spite of how awful a place it leads to, is paved with nothing but good intentions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @04:40PM
Got it, vaccines are like Zyklon-B.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 29 2021, @04:31AM (1 child)
Did it cross your mind that there can be heaps of causes to explain it?
Including US hoarding the vaccine supplies for itself, to the point of other developed nations having to beg for help [ctvnews.ca]?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 29 2021, @01:55PM
In this day and age of suggesting the headline of an article explains it all, some forget that elaboration and details are often proffered just beyond the first sentence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30 2021, @06:21AM
I moved from the Netherlands to Sweden one month ago. Both the Netherlands and Sweden currently prioritize elderly, and behind that the at-risk groups for getting the vaccine. I am in an at-risk group myself due to asthma.
I only just received an invitation to come get the vaccine from the dutch gov just one week ago. (It was forwarded to my new Swedish mail address by the dutch post company.)
In other words: I would like to get the vaccine but simply haven't been able to yet due to shortages/rationing in the past few months before I moved.
So please do not use currently vaccinated numbers in Europe as some kind of evidence for widespread anti-vaccin sentiment. Me and many others want to get it, once we get our turn.
I expect the numbers will improve drastically as vaccines before more widely available.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by ChrisMaple on Friday May 28 2021, @03:22PM (6 children)
There is no significant "ultra-conservative" party in the U.S.. If there were, you would hear widespread calls for the end of the income tax, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, antitrust laws, mandatory insurance laws, and many others. Religious conservative politicians would be proposing that Sunday closing of retail businesses be mandatory.
People in the center and non-religious right just want to be left alone by government, so that they can go about living and enjoying their own lives. This means that they don't seek government jobs. Leftists and other authoritarians want to order people around and take their stuff, so they seek government employment. That employment includes teaching, so that they corrupt the minds of youngsters and push a leftward agenda, which results in an increasingly leftist population. What Europe and the US accept now as normal would have been viewed as absurd 60 years ago.
In a 1967 or 1968 speech at MIT, Asimov said "I voted for Johnson but I got Goldwater", meaning he thought he was voting to end unnecessary military action. That Asimov did not realize what Johnson was illustrates Asimov's complete and utter incompetence in political and cultural judgement.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @04:00PM
> Leftists and other authoritarians
From where I sit, these are orthogonal--authoritarians come in every political stripe.
Many people like to be told what to do, sometimes I think this is intellectual laziness, they just don't want to take the time to do their own thinking. Another weakness (extremely common, I've caught myself in this one) is succumbing to repetition--if you hear something enough times (or in early life) why then, it must be true[NOT]. Anyway, for whatever reason, this portion of the population is ripe for the picking by the small group of people that make up the "charismatic" leaders.
I'm automatically leery of anyone promising easy answers.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday May 28 2021, @04:42PM
Republican States Struggle With How to Replace Income Taxes [bloombergtax.com]
Trump's Second-Term Plan For Social Security: Starve The Beast [forbes.com]
GOP takes aim at Social Security, Medicare [fayobserver.com]
LOL!!!!!
Bush administration abandons court fight for Microsoft breakup, seeks lesser penalty [tahoedailytribune.com]
Yep, they're HUGE fans of Obamacare
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @04:43PM
> People in the center and non-religious right just want to be left alone by government
I mean... WTF? You might as call them Good Guys and Bad Guys. Dipshit.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Friday May 28 2021, @11:42PM (2 children)
None of that has anything to do with vaccines and safety. Medicine is not political. Vaccines are not political. Face masks are not political. They're about FUCKING SURVIVAL.
Reduce America down to a single town of a few thousand people. Introduce a deadly biological pathogen. 500 years ago we would be burning some people at the stake out of ignorance having made it religious. That God was punishing us for some reason. There would be fervent and unanswered prayers about why it was happening. Evil sociopaths would use it as a tool to consolidate or take power.
Look at today. We're blessed with advanced science and medical. There is no ignorance. We even have pictures of the pathogen and sophisticated understanding of its workings. Within 12 months we've developed an effective treatment.
If you're refusing to get the vaccine, you're a danger to society. Period. Those few dozen or hundred people in the town will be expelled by the rest because they're a danger. You've seen plenty of movies, and read plenty of books I'm sure, that outline how that shit plays out. Those that argue and refuse to take the steps necessary get their brains eaten by the zombies after being shoved outside. Or shoved out an airlock, or shoved off the boat. Those that did weren't being unreasonable, it was those that were being shoved out that were the unreasonable parties.
It's a fucking face mask and injection. To stop a deadly pathogen. It's about survival period, and if you're not cooperating, your're objectively a danger to yourself and those around you. Then it's completely reasonable to take action against you. There is nothing political about it. There is no reasonable discussion of freedoms and rights, when those freedom and rights are directly, objectively, and profoundly endangering the rest of the people in the town. Nobody agrees to that social contract, that you get fundamental rights to put the rest of us at serious risk. If you want those rights so bad, then leave our society.
The only reasonable question you can raise is if the vaccine causes you harm, and the only reasonable doubt you can have is if the purveyors of the vaccine are operating in a correct fashion. Those both have answers. Universal Health Care and the Death Penalty.
If the vaccine causes you harm, you will be taken care of medically regardless. There shouldn't be any harm because those responsible for the creation and manufacturing are monitored and strictly regulated. If they do anything, especially in the name of Capitalism and Profits, that knowingly causes harm and death to thousands or worse.... well then that is prison time and penalties up to and including death.
I'm tired of hearing this bullshit about leftism, the extreme far right, and civil rights. This is about surviving a profoundly deadly biological war waged upon us by nature. Science and reason is asking for so very little. Not your firstborn, not prima nocta, not indentured servitude. Just a fucking mask, some soap and water, and taking a vaccine that can finally bring us back to some normalcy. Assuming we ever had it.
It is not totalitarianism to ask you to not be a danger to society if you want to be in it.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 29 2021, @02:04PM (1 child)
In times past, they wouldn't have even noticed less than 1% of people dying slightly faster than expected. Note the median age of death for COVID is 83 [ons.gov.uk]. They'd have seen folks catching cold, some passing, and moved on with their lives.
As an aside, this is also why the fear mongering about Africa ended up being completely absurd. COVID was supposed to wreak a trail of death and destruction through Africa unless they all got vaccinated, locked down, etc.. They ended up neither vaccinated nor locked down (with some exceptions like South Africa). And the result? Basically nothing. The median age in countries throughout Africa tends to be *extremely* low, and as COVID has next to no effect on the young, their resultant deaths from COVID have been non-existent.
You probably won't realize this for many years to come, but you're the sort of person that would have been cheering on the burning of witches in one era, or hunting of heretics in another. You know, dangers to society.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 01 2021, @12:36AM
We have better knowledge and technology than they had. We notice what they would have ignored.