Every time I make a pro-vaccination comment on this blog, I get an e-mail or two from an absolute stranger telling me it's a hoax, it's a danger, folks like me who've had two shots — and it doesn't seem to matter which vaccine — will begin dropping dead in the streets any day now. No matter how many non-vaccinated people die and no matter how few vaccinated ones do, they hold firmly to this prediction. Some of them even seem to take pride in declaring that their minds are set in Lucite™ about this and nothing will ever change them.
I don't see that as something to be proud of, especially on a topic where some of them also say, "These vaccines were rushed out and not properly tested." One guy told me that and then added that as far as he was concerned, the science was settled and everyone who got one is going to die. He reminded me of those people I met during a foolish part of my life when I was interested in conspiracy theories about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I met folks who claimed to be open to any theory, no matter how little evidence — the C.I.A. did it, Cuba did it, Martians did it, Russia did it, Elvis did it — as long as it wasn't that Lee Harvey Oswald did it.
More recently, it's like guys who will tell you about Climate Change that "the science is not in" and in the next breath that no, it's been proven conclusively that there's definitely no global warming.
I guess the thing that bothers me most about the vaccine-opponents is that they haven't grasped one basic fact of life. It's always been true and it's even truer now in the Age of the Internet: Anonymous people never change anyone's mind. And total strangers with no visible expertise don't either.
On the matter of getting vaccinated against COVID-19, I was advised by my chief physician, my proctologist, my gastroenterologist, my dentist, my orthopedist, my urologist and one or two other folks who've actually studied medicine and obtained a license to practice it. Remember a few years ago when I had my right knee replaced and it got infected and they had to go back and redo it? Well, that infection was studied by the chief doctor specializing in infectious diseases at that big hospital and he sent out e-mails urging everyone on his mailing list to get vaccinated a.s.a.p.
Could these Real Doctors all be wrong? Yeah, I suppose. But if I have a choice of listening to them or listening to "Wolfguy," who e-mailed me last night, I just might choose to go with the doctors. Because they're doctors.
I dunno who Wolfguy is and if he'd signed his message with a first and last name, I bet I wouldn't know either. But he didn't say he was a doctor, which I assume he'd have mentioned if that was so. Think for a second of a really, really menial job that requires absolutely no knowledge of science or the human body or pathogens. For all I know, that's what Wolfguy does for a living. When he's not messaging me about this, he could be the person sending out all those offers for guaranteed penis enlargement.
But he's an authority because he's read some articles on the Internet that tell him what he wants to believe. He forgets that we can all find articles on the Internet that tell us what we want to believe, especially if we don't care who wrote them.
And yes, you can find folks who say they're doctors — maybe even some who really are — who dissent from the consensus. The only opinion you'll probably ever read on the 'net that's unanimous is my view that there are no opinions on the Internet that are unanimous. Hell, you can even find people who will insist that cole slaw is a food product. That doesn't make it so.
This is not a plea for the non-vaccinated to get vaccinated. You're going to do what you're going to do. I just want people to stop thinking my mind can be changed on medical matters by someone whose identity and credentials are unknown to me. In my view — and this is just my view based on my observations and experience — enormous damage is done, however well-intended, by people who say, "Well, I'm not a doctor but I know a lot about this stuff…" This applies to anything more serious than a paper cut.