10/20/2021
If you are a healthy person who has decided not to get "the" vaccine, please read Lissa Rankin's post.
"I understand why the vaccine hesitant are scared to get vaccinated or trust authorities or inject themselves with a pharmaceutical when pharmaceutical companies have behaved so abominably. I understand why distrust in doctors is so high and science seems hard to interpret and spiritually poetic doctors like Christiane Northrup sound like they’re protecting people from the powers that be, like a wise grandma.
But winter is coming, and if you’re not already vaccinated, this would be a good time to take the plunge. Because herd immunity is SO important. Every one of us who CAN mount an immune response needs to do so- to protect these vulnerable BIPOC men with cancer like Colin Powell, whose immune systems may not be strong enough to protect themselves. It’s not so complicated. It’s really quite simple. Sometimes we make small sacrifices or do things we don’t 100% want to do- because it just might save someone else’s life. Rest in peace, Colin Powell."
A Conspiracy Of Silence Among Those Who Helped Platform COVID Misinformation Spreaders (& Why Herd Immunity Could Have Saved Colin Powell)
Last night’s top headline on CNN was “They take an oath to do no harm, but these doctors are spreading misinformation about the Covid vaccine.” It was all about the doctors betraying their vows, including the woman who wrote the foreword to my first book 12 years ago, Christiane Northrup, who I used to respect but whose current messaging I started renouncing at the beginning of the pandemic, when her delusional, psychotic, clearly misinformed Covid information began going viral.
This doctor was platformed by Oprah with 12 appearances on her show and by Hay House who not only published her books, but got her on PBS 8 times to promote her books. Yet search the internet for any evidence that either Hay House or Oprah are withdrawing their endorsement and you find…crickets.
Even after BIPOC Hay House author Rebekah Borucki invested dozens of hours of emotional labor trying to educate Hay House about how racist Dr. Northrup’s messaging is (as well as the messaging of other Disinformation Dozen doctors Hay House promotes, like Dr. Kelly Brogan and Dr. Joseph Mercola), Hay House did nothing to issue a public statement to renounce the messaging of their misinforming authors. Neither did Oprah. Even when Rebekah went public on the Conspirituality podcast- and I did the same to stand in solidarity with her, Hay House continued with their racist policies and stayed silent about the Disinformation Dozen doctors they platform.
Yet these folks are the reason these doctors got famous. They platformed, promoted and helped earn the public’s trust in these doctors who are now 3 of the 12 people responsible for 65% of the Covid misinformation on the internet.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a statement saying, "Every life that is lost to COVID-19 when we have vaccines available, is a preventable tragedy…COVID has really brought into sharp focus the full extent of damage that health misinformation is doing." The simplest way to stop the spread of misinformation is simply to stop sharing something questionable you read online. "If you're not sure, not sharing is often the prudent thing to do."
This is why I have been fierce in my refusal to allow my own public platform to be used as a place to spread misinformation. Because every lie puts yet another vulnerable, marginalized, at risk person at risk of dying, and you don’t want that blood on your hands. Neither do I.
The spreaders of Covid misinformation would lead you to believe otherwise. But lies on the internet kill people, and those who are spreading that misinformation need to be stopped at all costs, including holding those who helped platform them responsible for renouncing their messaging. The failure to do so only continues to promote these people (while companies like Hay House continue to profit from the sales of their books.)
Hay House? Oprah? Why aren’t you doing anything about this?
Here’s how easy it would be for Oprah and Hay House to help break the spell of those who are still following these folks and believing their lies.
“While we stood by Dr. Christiane Northrup’s messaging when we platformed her in the past, it is now evident that she is no longer a trustworthy source of medical information. We regret any complicity we had with helping platform her and earn the public’s trust. While we hold her in our hearts as a former colleague and fellow human, we no longer support her messaging and encourage you to stop following her, stop trusting her, and stop believing anything she says. We are deeply sorry for any role we played in helping her build a platform that is causing so much public harm.”
I recently met a middle aged Black man who has leukemia and is getting chemotherapy. He is immunocompromised, so although he got two doses of the vaccine, he cannot mount an immune response and is still very vulnerable. Sadly, our famous BIPOC military leader Colin Powell died of Covid after vaccination. But he was also battling multiple myeloma, a cancer that impairs the immune system. People need to understand that just because someone got vaccinated does not mean they are always capable of mounting an immune response. That is not a failure of the vaccine; it’s a failure of an immunocompromised person to be able to mount an immune response. These people are absolutely dependent on herd immunity to help them survive this pandemic. The cancer patient I met, who is still in active treatment, can barely leave the house. He triple masks and stays away from all crowds, because if he did get Covid, he probably would not survive it, given his weakened health.
I understand why the vaccine hesitant are scared to get vaccinated or trust authorities or inject themselves with a pharmaceutical when pharmaceutical companies have behaved so abominably. I understand why distrust in doctors is so high and science seems hard to interpret and spiritually poetic doctors like Christiane Northrup sound like they’re protecting people from the powers that be, like a wise grandma.
But winter is coming, and if you’re not already vaccinated, this would be a good time to take the plunge. Because herd immunity is SO important. Every one of us who CAN mount an immune response needs to do so- to protect these vulnerable BIPOC men with cancer like Colin Powell, whose immune systems may not be strong enough to protect themselves. It’s not so complicated. It’s really quite simple. Sometimes we make small sacrifices or do things we don’t 100% want to do- because it just might save someone else’s life. Rest in peace, Colin Powell.
