Already typing these first few words of this opinion piece makes me wonder whether I should have just let it go and wrote about something that maybe is not so serious and won’t cause that much backlash. But where is the fun in that?
Honestly, I am not the kind of person that has to convince everyone that my opinion is always right and that theirs is wrong, but a conversation I had with my neighbour recently just made me want to put my thoughts in words and explain how I changed my own opinion.
Just to put this out there; I am not against vaccines and I do believe they work, I am up to date with all of them (apart from the Covid vaccine).
My neighbour is absolutely 100 percent sure that Covid-19 does not exist and that the vaccines are actually just a rouse to get every person on this planet micro chipped and/or poisoned.
I mean I had read about people thinking this way on the internet, but actually having someone I know say that out loud just made me stop for a moment and wonder where she got that idea from. And sure enough, her source was Facebook and some other conspiracy websites that seemed dubious at best.
But that’s okay, I don’t blame anyone for being misinformed. These days it is hard enough to know what you can actually trust on the internet and what is just purely made up, which is why I urge everyone to always double and triple check all of their sources before they spread the word.
As soon as we heard the vaccines were about to roll out, my first feelings about it were doubt and fear. Doubt that in such a short time they could produce a safe vaccine and fear that it may have unforeseen side effects, plus the fact that I have a needle phobia did not really help.
So I went on the internet and checked and read and studied and tried really hard to understand what this vaccine was and how it worked.
A bit more googling and some memory snippets from 10th grade biology class helped me figure out what was actually being done here.
What we are dealing with, are mRNA vaccines, a new kind of vaccine that doesn’t require weakened or inactivated germs from the actual disease. mRNA stands for “messenger RNA”, simply put, it sends a message to your cells and teaches them how to make a protein that can then trigger an immune response and produce the necessary antibodies.
It means we don’t have to infect ourselves with a little bit of the disease, we can simply send a message to our cells and give them instructions on how to fight something our body and our cells have never even made contact with before.
I thought this was really cool and super smart but was also still a bit apprehensive about a completely new kind of vaccine. Turns out it’s actually not as new as I thought, I had just never heard about it before, and I think it is quite normal to be apprehensive about the unknown. mRNA vaccines have been studied for decades already. Granted, for other diseases, but this means that the time it took to develop the Covid-19 vaccine was actually just spent on designing the mRNA instructions specific for this virus, the rest was already there.
This information and some conversations with people whose opinion I value and trust has made me rethink how I approached this topic and though I must admit that I too let myself get scared by things I read on Facebook and misinformation posted on click-bait sites, I still went and spent a couple of hours informing myself, doing my own research and in the end changing my opinion and making the unknown a little less scary.
get in line for the useless vax, Forget about people dying, having strokes, paralysis etc. Those side effects must be ignored because the idiot crooks you elected want you to get the vax
By rod from USA on 16 Apr 2021, 15:20
Kim,
I think you missed a few things in spite of the fact that you studied the subjekt for a couple of hours.
There are many fears concerning the mRNA vaccine. One is ”Phatogenic priming” or immune enhancement witch happened in animal trials in the past when they tried this.. All went well until they where exposed to the wild virus, then they got sick and many died. But of course now we skipped the earlier mandatory animal trials to save time.
You do know that these vaccines is authorized for emergency use only?
You know that a court in lisboa and last week in Austria concluded that the PCR test was not suitable for C-19 diagnosis?
That the inventer of the PCR-test, Kary Mullis said that you can’t use this test to diagnose any infektion?
That the pharmaceutical companys totaly relied on the PCR test when they evaluated the vaccine efficiency?
Officially about 0.04% of the world pop has died with/of the infection, yet we have to vaccinate everybody? Even the practically unaffected children? In Portugal about 600 people under the age of 60 has died in association with this disease, fewer children than the normal flu but we want to give them an experimental vaccine!
And what is a”conspiracy theory? Something not coming from the authorities or MSM?
And is science really something we should believe in like ” I believe in vaccins” Do you mean all vaccins?
But anyway, thanks for your opinion and your extensive research.
By Nils from Algarve on 16 Apr 2021, 15:54
Did you also read that this is an experimental vaccine that is still going through trials (until 2023)? Or that the animals in previous trials all died and were excluded completely for the covid-jab? How about the statistics of reported deaths and side effects (which are only a small percent of the actual number since most aren’t even reported in the first place)? A safe vaccine takes years to develop, not a couple of months. There have been no positive outcomes of rushed drugs in the past, so how can anyone be so confident that now would be different?
Add to that the fact that the great majority of people won’t be affected by the virus itself, for someone who’s healthy the survival rate is almost 100%. You are at much greater risk from taking the jab than you are from the virus itself. That is not misinformation or conspiracy theory, that’s fact.
All of that said, if you want to take the jab, then go right ahead. I won’t stand in your way. However, labeling anyone that is questioning what’s going on as a conspiracy theorist is not fair. They have just as much of a right to say “no” to the jab (whatever their reason) as you are to say “yes”. It’s called informed consent. And violating that is against the Nuremberg code. I suggest you take a closer look at that as well.
By Nicole from Lisbon on 17 Apr 2021, 10:49
I find it amusing that journalists are the mouthpiece for the pharma companies, why didn't you add some links from your extensive research to back up your claims, i have researched this topic as many others but i didn't get my information from facebook as i don't use it or Google because they are bias, there are many other medical publications to research and the medical consensus is these vaccines the MSM call "jabs" are nothing more than poisons, and why are you, a journalist justifying these vaccines, who is paying you, and if these current vaccines are so good why did Astra Zenica feel the need to change their name and also, why is there no choice in the vaccine they are using, why not write a story about the Russian Sputnik V, at the beggining of this flu pandemic, Mr Bill Gates was doing what you just did, telling the world the need to be jabbed, rainbows and unicorns and all is good, he is getting devorced from his wife, what's going on, call me a conspiracy theorist but i can dig much deeper than many people on facebook, i will be vaccinated with Astra in the comming weeks because i have no choice, if that what it takes for me to reunite with my family in Thailand so be it but this is not over yet, look at India, this bio weaponry got out of hand and this is not over by a long shot, the consiracy theorists need to be vocal so that they the Fauchis and WHO can't keep lying to people, stay healthy.
By Joao Martins from Algarve on 11 May 2021, 12:15