"My 6-Year-Old Son Died. Then the Anti-vaxxers Found Out."

[Texacon]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217767614

Nevilledog (45,594 posts)


"My 6-Year-Old Son Died. Then the Anti-vaxxers Found Out."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/03/covid-vaccine-misinformation-social-media-harassment/673537/


No paywall
https://archive.is/2ZLmv

My 6-year-old boy died in January. We lost him after a household accident, one likely brought on by a rare cerebral-swelling condition. Paramedics got his heart beating, but it was too late to save his brain. I could hold his hand, look at the small birthmark on it, comb his hair, and call out for him, but if he could hear me or feel me, he gave no sign. He had been a child in perpetual motion, but now we couldn’t get him to wiggle a finger.

My grief is profound, ragged, desperate. I cannot imagine how anything could feel worse.

But vaccine opponents on the internet, who somehow assumed that a COVID shot was responsible for my son's death, thought my family’s pain was funny. “Lol. Yay for the jab. Right? Right?” wrote one person on Twitter. “Your decision to vaccinate your son resulted in his death,” wrote another. “This is all on YOU.” “Murder in the first.”

I’m a North Carolina–based journalist who specializes in countering misinformation on social media. I know that Twitter, Facebook, and other networks amplify bad information; that their algorithms feed on anger and division; that anonymity and distance bring out the worst in some people online. And yet I had never anticipated that anyone would mock and terrorize a grieving parent. I’ve now received thousands of harassing posts. Some people emailed me at work.

For the record, my son saw some of the finest pediatric ICU doctors in the world. He was in fact vaccinated against COVID-19. None of his doctors deemed that relevant to his medical condition. They likened his death to a lightning strike.

*snip*

MagickMuffin (14,355 posts)

1. It's mind boggling how cruel the RWNJ are, but they have shown themselves



For who they truly are

The Wizard (12,077 posts)

2. Gratuitous cruelty

is a major part of the GQP DNA. What a sad and sick lot.

Fairly new thread.  I wonder how many are too ashamed to post on this?  Tell me again what the Herman Cain Award is?  Who was it they awarded it to?  How many websites out there were wishing death on those of us who refused to get the shot?  How much cheering went on when an unvaccinated person died, no matter who they were?

I did not and will not cheer anyone dying, it's not who I am.  At this point I've read and seen a lot of articles and news stories literally saying those who are vaccinated are dying at a higher rate from COVID than the unvaccinated.  That isn't cheery news, but it is truthful news.

DUmmies, care to dig up some of the threads I just mentioned and post some of those links in the OP's thread?  Are you scared?  Embarrassed?

KC

[USA4ME]

All good points, Tex.

From the article: “I’m a North Carolina–based journalist who specializes in countering misinformation on social media.”

This is where many of these types invite being attacked. It’s not up to this individual to decide what is and isn’t misinformation as he isn’t qualified to make that determination. That’s for me to do as I come across information. This could all have been avoided if he had either kept his mouth shut or stated that he was only expressing his opinion. I’m guessing if one were to check back on what this individual wrote, he had a “I’m smarter than all of you” attitude as is typical of these types.

Edit: A quick search shows this writer, Billy Ball, to be your typical leftist whacko (I know; redundant). No surprises.

.

[ADsOutburst]

All good points, Tex.

From the article: “I’m a North Carolina–based journalist who specializes in countering misinformation on social media.”

This is where many of these types invite being attacked. It’s not up to this individual to decide what is and isn’t misinformation as he isn’t qualified to make that determination. That’s for me to do as I come across information. This could all have been avoided if he had either kept his mouth shut or stated that he was only expressing his opinion. I’m guessing if one were to check back on what this individual wrote, he had a “I’m smarter than all of you” attitude as is typical of these types.

Edit: A quick search shows this writer, Billy Ball, to be your typical leftist whacko (I know; redundant). No surprises.

.

The self-styled "fact-checkers" and "specialists in disinformation" have a lousy track record.

[Muddling 2]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217767614



Fairly new thread.  I wonder how many are too ashamed to post on this?  Tell me again what the Herman Cain Award is?  Who was it they awarded it to?  How many websites out there were wishing death on those of us who refused to get the shot?  How much cheering went on when an unvaccinated person died, no matter who they were?

I did not and will not cheer anyone dying, it's not who I am.  At this point I've read and seen a lot of articles and news stories literally saying those who are vaccinated are dying at a higher rate from COVID than the unvaccinated.  That isn't cheery news, but it is truthful news.

DUmmies, care to dig up some of the threads I just mentioned and post some of those links in the OP's thread?  Are you scared?  Embarrassed?

KC

How is this behavior any different from "Guess thoughts and prayers didn't do any good in Tennessee"?

Personally, anyone who'd go on social media and make sick jokes about the death of a family member is scum. 

[jukin]

The reality of the mythical "compassionate" leftists-democrats-proggies on jabs:

[SVPete]

There are anti-Covid-vax ghouls out there who jump on reports of celebs and semi-celebs who "die suddenly" without a cause of death given (because families don't deserve to have privacy!), much as this writer at "The Atlantic" claims happened to him.

So what? Similarly - and I see little moral difference between the extremes - there are crazies out there claiming unvaxxed people spread Covid and want people to die. How these unvaxxed people spread Covid without getting it is never explained by the crazies. These are the crazies who have some folks so scared of Covid that they hardly ever leave their homes due to their fear. Actual data shows that, statistically new Covid cases and Covid deaths declined into the background noise mud months ago and are continuing to decline, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ .

I'll "have to" update my count of running events I've done since being vaxxed (my "booster count" is still zero, because I don't perceive a need) - coming up on 2 years, now, so there's still a bit over a year before I'm "supposed to" die according to anti-Covid-vaxxer claims.