I am astounded at how persistent some conspiracy theories have managed to remain this past year. Despite overwhelming evidence to disprove these theories, people are stubbornly clinging to them. Granted, most of those people just as stubbornly refuse to examine any of the evidence that disproves them and willingly swallow the partial or total lies they have been sold. Here are some pieces of reality that people really need to understand.
1. Wearing masks does not harm your health. Certainly, if they are worn improperly or are not cleaned or replaced, there can be some minor problems that arise. However, nearly all masks allow for enough oxygen transfer that they can be worn by Olympic level athletes during training (not that this is a preferred method). Meanwhile, every study with a statistically significant participant group has shown that wearing the masks markedly reduce the transmission of COVID.
2. You have a greater chance of being killed by a vending machine this past year than from any of the COVID vaccines. Despite fear-mongers' claims, all three vaccines in the U.S. are remarkably safe. Out of 189,000,000 people in the U.S. who have been vaccinated, only a little over 8,100 deaths have been reported after a vaccine has been administered (that's 0.0043%). Out of the investigations of those deaths, as of the beginning of this month, only 3 were found to have a possible causal link (that's 0.00000016%). Meanwhile in the U.S., the mortality rate for COVID-19 is at about 1.6% of those who get infected. This mortality rate is lower than the world average of 3.4% only because a large percentage of our most vulnerable population has been vaccinated (to say nothing of having access to the vaccine in the first place).
3. The January 6th attack on the Capitol, while inept, was an actual attempted coup. Mountains of evidence is surfacing, including confessions from those involved, that the insurrectionists were attempting to overturn the Congressional proceedings to confirm the electoral votes. The breach of the Capitol--a first for this Capitol--was a violent event intent on overturning an election.
4. Three, of course, leads to this point: the 2020 election was valid with no evidence of fraud. Even the poorly conducted "audit" in Arizona had to come to this conclusion. While fraudulent "news" sources spread information about the thousands of "discrepancies" the audit discovered (FYI: a "discrepancy" can be caused when a voter does not completely fill in an oval), they are surprisingly silent on the actual verdict. People need to stop embracing this national embarrassment, but that would require them to doubt Trump's truthfulness and perhaps make them reevaluate many of the things they believe(d) about him.
Certainly, my writing about these will likely not change the minds of those who stubbornly cling to the falsehoods they have been fed, but I'm seeing ridiculous statements on the rise again and needed to vent.
1. Wearing masks does not harm your health. Certainly, if they are worn improperly or are not cleaned or replaced, there can be some minor problems that arise. However, nearly all masks allow for enough oxygen transfer that they can be worn by Olympic level athletes during training (not that this is a preferred method). Meanwhile, every study with a statistically significant participant group has shown that wearing the masks markedly reduce the transmission of COVID.
2. You have a greater chance of being killed by a vending machine this past year than from any of the COVID vaccines. Despite fear-mongers' claims, all three vaccines in the U.S. are remarkably safe. Out of 189,000,000 people in the U.S. who have been vaccinated, only a little over 8,100 deaths have been reported after a vaccine has been administered (that's 0.0043%). Out of the investigations of those deaths, as of the beginning of this month, only 3 were found to have a possible causal link (that's 0.00000016%). Meanwhile in the U.S., the mortality rate for COVID-19 is at about 1.6% of those who get infected. This mortality rate is lower than the world average of 3.4% only because a large percentage of our most vulnerable population has been vaccinated (to say nothing of having access to the vaccine in the first place).
3. The January 6th attack on the Capitol, while inept, was an actual attempted coup. Mountains of evidence is surfacing, including confessions from those involved, that the insurrectionists were attempting to overturn the Congressional proceedings to confirm the electoral votes. The breach of the Capitol--a first for this Capitol--was a violent event intent on overturning an election.
4. Three, of course, leads to this point: the 2020 election was valid with no evidence of fraud. Even the poorly conducted "audit" in Arizona had to come to this conclusion. While fraudulent "news" sources spread information about the thousands of "discrepancies" the audit discovered (FYI: a "discrepancy" can be caused when a voter does not completely fill in an oval), they are surprisingly silent on the actual verdict. People need to stop embracing this national embarrassment, but that would require them to doubt Trump's truthfulness and perhaps make them reevaluate many of the things they believe(d) about him.
Certainly, my writing about these will likely not change the minds of those who stubbornly cling to the falsehoods they have been fed, but I'm seeing ridiculous statements on the rise again and needed to vent.
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