HOW CREDIBLE IS MEDICAL MISINFORMATION FROM A MORBIDLY OBESE WHITE MAN?
PEOPLE WHO REFUSE TO WEAR FACE MASKS & ARE UNVACCINATED PUT ALL OF US AT RISK.
Group of United Cape Patriots protest 'VaxBus' in Provincetown over COVID vaccine
PROVINCETOWN – After an uptick in positive COVID-19 cases in town, the state’s VaxBus rolled to a stop near MacMillan Pier Thursday morning.
When it arrived, the mobile vaccination clinic covered with the slogan “trust the facts, get the vax,” was met with red and white signs emblazoned with anti-vaccination slogans posted outside the nearby public restroom.
Four members of the United Cape Patriots, a conservative grass-roots group, were also handing out flyers to people walking by the bus stop.
“Wouldn’t you want to know the facts before you vaxx?” the flyer read.
People should be made aware of all facts, said Adam Lange, of Brewster and founder of United Cape Patriots.
“We defend freedoms across Cape Cod. That includes medical freedoms. We’re out here informing people of the downside of the experimental vax,” Lange said.
Reuters Fact Check determined that vaccines are not “experimental,” as they all have been put through standard safety testing before being rolled out to the public.
The vaccine death numbers posted on the anti-vaccination sign should be accompanied with the 600,000-plus deaths from the virus itself, said Orleans resident Steven Allard, who was walking around the pier with his wife, Mary Ann, Thursday afternoon.
“If I go out into the world unvaccinated, there’s a much bigger chance of me getting COVID, and not only me dying, but the people around me [dying],” Allard said. “If you’re a responsible citizen, you do this not just for yourself but for other people.”
Allard said those who want to use their freedom to not get vaccinated have that right. But if they get sick from COVID, he said they also have the freedom to take care of themselves, instead of getting first-responders sick.
The anti-vaccine activists' facts and figures printed on their flyers come from a federal database known as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. The database includes hundreds of thousands of reports of health events that occurred minutes, hours or days after vaccination.
But according to a National Public Radio report, many of the reported events are coincidental and not caused by the COVID vaccination.
The CDC reported that while the agency is aware of the misuse of the VAERS data, there are no immediate plans to change the system in part because VAERS is one of the agency's best sources for early warnings about real vaccine side effects, according to the NPR report.
COVID-19:Uptick of cases in Provincetown prompts request for pop-up testing units
The ‘VaxBus,’ a partnership between the state, Yankee Line Inc. and Purple Shield Medical traveled from Pittsfield to Provincetown, administering either J&J or Pfizer doses of the COVID vaccine, Michael Peterson, VaxBus administrator, said. Clients who choose the Pfizer shot will be able to get their second dose when the bus comes back to Provincetown on Aug. 5, he said. By end of day, six people received shots through the VaxBus.
Peterson said VaxBus staff has encountered several groups of anti-vaccine protesters as the bus has made its way across the state.
“As long as they’re expressing themselves peacefully and they don’t deter people from making their own decisions or get in way of the people trying to get a vaccine, then that’s their prerogative,” Peterson said.
“It seems like a lot of the protestors are coming out after the fact," he said. "To my knowledge, when the big centers were giving out vaccines at Gillette Stadium and the Hynes Auditorium, I don’t know where the protestors were then, but they seem to be targeting our mobile vaccine buses for whatever reason."
Peterson said being able to bring vaccines to people in their own communities has been a positive experience overall.
While some protestors seem to think they are forcing the vaccines on people, VaxBus EMT Shaun Alger said that's not the case.
“We’re here to fill the need,” Alger said.
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