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Donald Trump pushed back against Candace Owens' anti-vaxxer claims. It may save lives.

via The Candace Show/Twitter

Candace Owens interviews Donald Trump.

Former President Donald Trump made a strong statement about the importance of COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday in an interview with conservative firebrand Candace Owens. His full-throated endorsement of their effectiveness could inspire his supporters—who are among the least likely to get vaccinated—to get the jab and help stop the virus’ spread.

Owens has a long history of spreading deadly misinformation about vaccines. In the interview, she attempted to lead Trump into a discussion on their ineffectiveness, repeating the false claim that more people have died of COVID-19 during the Biden administration than during Trump’s.

In reality, the numbers show that more people died of COVID-19 under Trump’s watch (424,401 to 379,192) and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, MD, unvaccinated people are 14 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than the unvaccinated.

One can imagine how high the death toll would have been without lifesaving vaccines.

Trump:I came up with three vaccines—all are very, very good. I came up with three of them in less than nine months. ....

Owens: And yet more people have died under COVID this year, by the way, under Joe Biden than under you. And more people took the vaccine this year, so people are questioning how—

Trump:Oh, no. The vaccine worked. But some people aren't taking it. The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take the vaccine.

But it’s still their choice, and if you take the vaccine, you're protected. Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it's a very minor form. People aren't dying when they take the vaccine.

Trump was far from honest in saying that he “came up with three vaccines,” but he was right in touting their effectiveness. Trump has a very big influence over American conservatives, who are one of the largest contingents of unvaccinated people. By talking positively about vaccines, he may cause some to change their minds and get the lifesaving jab.

Trump’s pushback against Owens comes three days after he was booed in front of an audience in Dallas with Bill O'Reilly for saying he recently received his COVID-19 booster shot.

When Trump was president he downplayed the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating the perception that it wasn’t a serious problem. He’s also been criticized for not promoting vaccines as much as he should.

However, Trump’s recent high-profile endorsement of vaccines is important because the areas where his supporters live have been hit much harder by the virus than in places that supported Democrat Joe Biden for president.

According to NPR, since the vaccines became available:

“People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.73 times the death rates of those that went for Biden,” the report states. “Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates.”

A major reason for the lack of vaccination among Republicans is misinformation. According to NPR, more than 90% of Republicans surveyed believe or are unsure about at least one false statement about COVID-19.

Trump played down the deadly virus while in the White House, leading to countless deaths. Now, in his post-presidency, he has the opportunity to right that wrong by continuing to be a vocal supporter of COVID-19 vaccinations. On Wednesday, the Biden administration acknowledged the important role that Trump can play in the nation’s COVID-19 health initiatives, saying he sent an "important signal to many Americans about the importance of getting boosted.”

Let’s hope his supporters listen.

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Well Being

Pro-vax mom gets in trouble with the law for having an unvaccinated sick baby.

Tensions run high in the anti-vax debate, because it's literally a matter of life and death (Somebody please tell Jessica Biel).

Sometimes situations are more nuanced than "I am an idiot, so I won't be vaccinating my kid," and the case goes to court.

On April 30th, armed officers showed up at an Orthodox Jewish woman's apartment to serve her a summons for failing to vaccinate one of her nine children.


She wasn't deliberately skirting her responsibilities to the community in the face of the public health emergency, though. The woman, identified as Jane Doe in court documents, is pro-vaccine, and vaccinated eight of her children. The summons she received was for her youngest son, who at eight months old, had been sick for several weeks.

Because the baby was experiencing fevers and ear infections, his doctor said to hold off on the vaccination until the baby recovered.

The Kings County Sheriffs' office didn't know that when they banged on her door at ten at night, scaring her (vaccinated!) children. Her kids were so afraid, and in order to calm them down, Doe told them that the armed guards were simply selling furniture. This is America after all—furniture salesmen have the right to bear arms.

"I'm a very responsible mother...I was very hurt about this whole thing," Doe told Gothamist/WNYC. "I feel they're coming very strong on me because of the public and because of the anti-vaxxers."

In April, New York City declared an emergency order changing the immunization requirement from twelve months old to six months old. Doe was out of the loop as an Orthodox Jewish woman who doesn't watch TV or use the internet, and her doctor didn't mention it, even though the emergency order had been already declared.

Doe argued her case when she was summoned to court, and if the court rules in favor of the city, she will be charged an $1,000 fine.

Gothamist reports that the court has been pretty forgiving and understanding of circumstance. Doe was one of 209 individuals who had received summonses under the city's mandatory vaccination order. Ninety of those cases were withdrawn after the defendants complied with the city's order and vaccinated their children.

This article originally appeared on SomeeCards. You can read it here.

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Jessica Biel is getting dragged back to 7th Heaven after standing up for anti-vaxxers.

Another day, another opportunity for a celebrity to take a brave stand against medicine. On Tuesday, actress Jessica Biel lobbied alongside anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the California State Assembly, where they both expressed opposition to SB 276. For those unfamiliar, SB 276 is a California state bill that would effectively limit medical exemptions from vaccinations, and require a state public health officer approve such exemptions.

In laymen's terms, it would stop anti-vaxx parents from making baseless claims about why they're not vaccinating their children, because they would be required to have exemptions filtered through a medical professional.

This bill is being floated with the express purpose of protecting public health, and according to the bill's sponsors, which include the California Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatric, the bill would not block exemptions for children with actual medical issues exacerbated by vaccines.

All this being said, when pictures of Biel lobbying against a pro-vaccine bill first hit the internet, it nearly exploded with reactions.









Some people are marveling at the absurdity of an actress with no medical school going to bat against actual medical professionals. Also, the grave misuse of her platform, which could easily be leveraged to support causes rather than conspiracy theories.









Biel, upon receiving backlash, made a post on Instagram claiming she is not against vaccinations but rather wants to make sure that medical exemptions don't get cracked down on, or filtered expressly through a public health officer.



People were quick to point out the logic flaws in Biel's Instagram post, and how opposing this bill still firmly places her in the anti-vaxx camp. Also, she wrote the wrong bill number in the Instagram post.





Overall, people are disappointed to see yet another celebrity with privilege and platform cross over to the dark anti-medicine side.






This article originally appeared on SomeeCards. You can read it here.

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Family

The measles outbreak has hit New York City. Literature targeting Orthodox Jews is behind it.

The first major measles outbreak in New York State this year may have started in upstate New York, but it’s officially reached the epicenter — New York City.

For several months, officials in New York City have been encouraging members of ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in the Brooklyn area of New York City to vaccinate their children in an attempt to squash the rapidly growing number of measles cases in the region. In addition to providing education about the vaccine and talking to local rabbis, they have also tried keeping unvaccinated children from attending school.

Despite those efforts, there have been 285 confirmed cases of the infection since September with 21 of them leading to hospitalization. It’s the largest measles outbreak the city has seen in over three decades. So this week, officials took a more staunch approach — Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a public health emergency.

As part of the increased efforts to eradicate the outbreak, the mayor announced that those who refuse to comply with the required vaccinations will face some legal consequences: violations will be issued, and some may incur fines of up to $1,000. As of today, the order targets four zip codes where the outbreak seems to be centralized.

Some individuals claim that vaccinations go against their religion, and the order is unconstitutional. That, however, isn’t deterring Mayor de Blasio from towing a hard line in this worrisome situation.

“This is the epicenter of a measles outbreak that is very, very troubling and must be dealt with immediately,” de Blasio said during a press conference. “The measles vaccine works. It is safe, it is effective, it is time-tested.”

Health officials claim they won’t randomly perform spot checks on students as part of the enforcement. Instead, if a new case of measles is detected, they will look into the vaccination records of all individuals in contact with the infected person. They hope this stringency along with the imposed fines will encourage more people to get vaccinated.

While the outbreak is scary, the entire Orthodox community isn’t to blame. Only a small percentage Orthodox Jews in the area are against vaccinations.

According to the New York Times, most religious leaders in the community do not back anti-vaccination beliefs. Instead, they have been perpetuated by a grassroots movement that may have started with the distribution of a propaganda handbook created by a group called Parents Educating and Advocating for Children’s Health (Peach). The handbook makes many false claims about vaccines, saying they cause autism, contain cells from aborted human fetuses and defy the Kosher diet.

“Vaccines contain monkey, rat and pig DNA as well as cow-serum blood, all of which are forbidden for consumption according to kosher dietary law,” Moishe Kahan, a contributing editor for Peach magazine, reportedly said in an email.

Despite the fact that most prominent rabbis maintain vaccines are Kosher, the literature seems to have still swayed a number of families.

The Times interviewed several rabbis and Jewish medical experts who attest to this, maintaining they have been working hard to educate and influence the people in their community who refuse vaccinations.

However, as has been seen in other areas of the country where measles outbreaks have occurred, those who are anti-vaccination aren’t quick to drop their beliefs. And the required vaccination mandate seems to have made them dig their heels in deeper.

“I don’t think it’s up to the city to mandate anything. We all have constitutional rights,” a mother-of-five who identified herself as Gitty, told the Times. She added that she refused to vaccinate any of her kids, referring to the act as “a medical procedure by force.” She added: “We are marginalized. Every minority that has a different opinion is marginalized.”

Another woman, whose interview outside of the mayor’s press conference was posted on Twitter, called the act “unethical,” maintaining the government has no right to force her to inject her children with medicine.

“This is my religious belief,” her friend, featured in a separate video interview, explained. “It comes along with whatever it comes along and we deal with whatever comes along with and I think I chose the better part of it, because my kids have measles for life,”  she exclaimed.

There are even claims that “measles parties” are being held in the community, in order to expose children so that they can build up immunity and antibodies.

Spreading a potentially deadly disease to other people shouldn’t be anyone’s right.

According to the CDC, the measles vaccination is not 100 percent effective. One dose is about 93 percent, while two offers 97 percent effectiveness. So just because someone is vaccinated doesn’t mean they’re totally immune to the disease.

Refusing to get vaccinated, regardless of the reason, is putting other people’s health and lives at risk, no matter how you slice it. New York City’s approach to the measles outbreak might seem extreme, but at this point, it’s necessary to stop this outbreak once and for all.

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