Doubling Down on a Dangerous Narrative

 

I seem to have struck a nerve.

A couple of weeks ago, an article (a REAL article, not just a Letter to the Editor) written by Art Joyce, appeared in a local paper, The Valley Voice.  That article can be read in its entirety here, on page 16.

The Valley Voice February 9th 2023

I responded with a brief letter, pointing out how inaccurate and misleading his article was

My letter can be seen here, on page 4  The Valley Voice, February 23, 2023  and a more lengthy response was posted on my blog.   That article can be seen here: A Falsely Dangerous Narrative.  Some explanations cannot be made in 2 paragraph snippets, especially when The Valley Voice makes a disproportionate amount of space available to anything coming from the anti-vaccine and anti-science community.

 The following week, Mr Joyce responds.  His response can be seen here:  The Valley Voice, March 9, 2023, page 5

Mr Joyce makes several claims.  One is that I "... didn't address even one of the points ..." in his article.  In fact, I addressed ALL of them.  Apparently Mr Joyce didn't actually READ my comments.  He then goes on to appeal to authority - he's written X number of books and articles over 30 years as a journalist - and then appeals to science - what could be more scientific than references to VAERS, a bunch of footnotes and some random names with Dr in front of them?  I have no comment about Mr Joyce's other works.  They could be great.  I'm just saying that this particular article is nonsense.

Here's the thing, Mr Joyce.  I addressed every single one of your points.  Every. Single. One.  Did you address mine?  No.  And just because you include references to a database in a pretense of using "science" doesn't mean you've been able to draw any useful conclusions from it.  This is like owning an electron microscope and having no idea how to use it.  Owning the microscope doesn't make you an expert in electron microscopy. You might impress some people because you own such a device, but if you don't know how to use it...., well, you're just another schmuck with your own personal dust collector.

Mr Joyce then goes on to dig in a bit deeper by mentioning, once again, the people he called on in his original article to support his stand.  It bears mentioning that just repeating something that was unhelpful or misleading to begin with does nothing to make it more helpful, or truthful.  The fact is, ALL the people he mentions are generally well-known for their stand against vaccines and the kind of public health actions that we saw over the past 3 years.  I'm sure they have their reasons for believing what they do, just as children have reasons to believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.  Eventually, one just has to learn how to distinguish between fact and fiction.

Mr Joyce goes on to mention, once again, someone who seems to be one his pet sources, a certain Dr Naomi Wolf.  I will have to admit not knowing much about Ms Wolf.  She was one of the earlier pioneers in the Feminist movement, along with people like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan.  So far, so good.  In more recent years, however, Ms Wolf seems to have had an epiphany, and not a good kind.  Increasingly, she's been viewed this way: (from Naomi Wolf - Wikipedia)

Since around 2014, Wolf has been described, by journalists and media outlets, as a conspiracy theorist.^[a] She has received criticism for promoting misinformation on topics such as beheadings carried out by ISIS, the Western African Ebola virus epidemic and Edward Snowden.^[7][8][9]

She has objected to COVID-19 lockdowns and has criticized COVID-19 vaccines.^[10][11] In June 2021, her Twitter account was suspended for posting anti-vaccine misinformation.^[12]

As I mentioned before, Ms Wolf has a PhD in Philosophy.  This doesn't qualify her in any field related to medicine, virology, pharmacology, immunology or really anything related to the pandemic.  Even in her later writings, she's come under increasing criticism, with comments like "... a "silly book" containing "much dubious neuroscience and much foolishness."

Ms Wolf could very well have "a team" or "researchers", but we can see pretty clearly what her team is looking for.  I wouldn't give it much credence.

In a final (one hopes) parting shot, Mr Joyce tosses in the name of one girl who was supposedly "injured" by the Pfizer vaccine.  It's difficult to find much credible information on this incident.  I'm discounting YouTube videos and anything from known anti-vaxx cultists, but I was able to find ONE article that described the situation.  That article, from November 2021, mentions that:

The mother of the girl and the group behind the ad have not provided any evidence that the girl was diagnosed as harmed by a Covid-19 vaccine.

We all should know by now that people CAN react adversely to vaccines, just as they can from any medical procedure.  Many people can also react adversely to viruses, and many die.  The question is what is the risk vs reward ratio?  The anti-vaccine industry is going to great lengths to claim that "thousands" (or is it millions?) have died, had heart attacks, strokes, Bell's Palsy and all manner of other outcomes from being vaccinated with what they call "experimental mRNA vaccines".  

These are the vaccines that have been administered to billions of people around the world.  They've been studied and under development for close to 20 years.  They're new, certainly.  Their approach is revolutionary.  Expect to see them being used to treat other conditions.  Calling them "experimental" at this state is a bit of a stretch.

Despite all this, I'm grateful to Mr Joyce for bringing, once again, his opinions into view again.  It makes it quite clear where he has decided to hang his hat.