It is inevitable that a higher percentage of people who choose as their trusted source of news the conspiracy-laden news sources that paint the COVID-19 vaccines as dangerous will die than those who choose more trustworthy sources.Sources that rely upon fearmongering and push unproven — and often wrong — conspiracy theories in order to grow and keep their audience, exaggerate and distort potential and real dangers. One of the main distortions is the trustworthiness of other sources of news.
So we have folks who, believing the lies peddled by these fearmongers, don’t trust the sources who say that science shows that it is much safer to be vaccinated than not vaccinated, not only for one’s self but for the people around you. Those who get vaccinated not only are much less likely to get sick, much less likely to have major symptoms if they do get sick, and are much less likely to infect others.
That people would peddle such falsehoods that effectively kill part of their own audience shows the quality of the people that do so. In this case, I consider the quality such that if I had a trinket of that quality, I would toss it in the garbage.
— Alex Koponen
Fairbanks
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