During the past nearly three years 50,000 Canadians have died of the COVID19 pandemic. A disproportinate number are the elderly, particularly those living in long-term care facilities. We failed our elders as a society and we still are.
Sadly, thousands have died because they have failed themselves through another virus of misinformationWe heard a few days ago that a report by the Council of Canadian Academies has identified at least 2,800 Canadian lives lost to COVID19 because they believed the lies of conspiracy theorists and those who opposed vaccinations In addition, tens of thousands hospitalizations could have been prevented and $300 million in hospital costs might have been saved. How many people with other illnesses died beause they couldn't receive adequate care or surgeries during that time?
We know that misinformation was also spewed by some religious leaders, mostly conservative Christians, who had wacky notions that Jesus was going to deliver the faithful from this illness which was often fatal before vaccines were developed. Lots of the protesters who were part of the occupation of Ottawa a year ago were right-wing Christians.
Locally, a prominent and respected businessman died in 2021 with the probable cause being COVID, although this was never acknowledged. His family had connections with the evangelical community and the word was that he chose to go unvaccinated. He was loved by his family and friends and the loss seems senseless to me.
The irony is that in the 1950s many religious leaders promoted the polio vaccine as a gift from God, although there was also opposition.
I'm grateful that religious communities of many backgrounds, including the United Church, supported science over superstition.
Dr. Francis Collins, a scientist who headed the Human Genome Project in the United States and who was awarded the Presidential Medal for Freedom is also is an evangelical Christian. He admits that he is puzzled by the attitude that if you take the COVID vaccine, it means you don’t trust God. He has offered that “This is like God just answered your prayer. It’s a gift. But you have to unwrap it, which means you’ve got to roll up your sleeve.”
Amen.
Elvis gets his polio vaccine before appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956
ReplyDeleteI did not know that Elvis did that public immunization demonstration! As happens so often, your blog entry sent me off to do more investigating. Scientific American had a piece on this in January of 2021.
"when Presley appeared on the Sullivan show, immunization levels among American teens were at an abysmal 0.6 percent.......In fact, after he publicly did so, vaccination rates among American youth skyrocketed to 80 percent after just six months."
They point out that in today's parlance, he was a huge social influencer. Now they point out, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of social influencers with followers online.
From the perspective of 2023, in the case of COVID some of those influencers were also spreading misinformation.-KB
I was pleasantly surprised to find out about Elvis as I snooped around, Kathy. I'm intrigued about the level of influence Elvis had, and surprised by the figures you mention. How did the word get out there so thoroughly? He was a huge influencer, as you point out. I wish we could quiet the ones today who can be so destructive. I won't look to Elon to help in that regard.
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