Scary Vaccines

Some people will try to scare you away from vaccines by listing scary sounding chemicals that are in them.

Here’s a list of scary sounding chemicals:

Propyl acetate

2-Methylpropyl acetate

Propanol

n-Butyl acetate

2-Methylpropanol

2-Methylbutyl acetate

n-Butyl propanoate

n-Butanol

n-Pentyl acetate

2-Methylbut-3-enyl acetate

2-Methylbutanol

3-Methylbut-3-enyl acetate

3-Methylbut-3-enol

3-Methylbut-2-enyl acetate

n-Pentanol

n-Hexyl acetate

E-Hex-3-enyl acetate

Z-Hex-3-enyl acetate

Hex-4-enyl acetate

E-Hex-2-enyl acetate

n-Hexanol

Z-Hex-3-enol

E-Hex-2-enol

n-Hexyl-2-methylbutanoate

n-Heptanol

Camphor

n-Octanol

n-Oct-2-enol

1 -Methoxy-4-(2-propenyl)-benzene

The thing is, that isn’t a list of chemicals found in vaccines. It’s a partial list of aroma compounds found in a standard Gala apple. Scary sounding chemicals are not always actually scary.

Even when they are actually scary, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be used safely in a medical setting.

Do you know what the most toxic substance on the planet is? Like literally the most deadly compound that humans have ever discovered? The answer is Botulinum toxin. 120 billionths of a gram of Botulinum toxin could kill an average human. To put that in perspective, that’s about 1/500th the weight of a typical eyelash.

Here’s another fact about Botulinum toxin. It’s the active ingredient in Botox. It’s used medically every single day for everything from treating muscle spasticity and migraines to excessive sweating and, most commonly, to get rid of wrinkles.

Literally millions of people in the United States willingly inject the #1 most toxic substance in the world into their muscles every year and it is, by and large, safe and well tolerated.

So when virtually all medical experts and scientists with the relevant expertise tell you that a vaccine is safe and effective, and you decide that you’re against vaccines because your friend on Facebook told you about some scary sounding chemicals that are in vaccines or you “did your own research” so you know better than all of the doctors and scientists who have devoted years of their lives to studying how to keep you healthy and safe, you’re not being smart... you’re being an idiot.

We’re all idiots sometimes and that’s often ok but we are in the middle of a pandemic at the moment. Whether or not you want to acknowledge its severity, it is real, it is dangerous, it is killing hundreds of thousands of people, and it is devastating the lives and livelihoods of millions of people.

At some point, we will likely have a safe and effective vaccine, and when that happens, we need you to take it. In order for the vaccine to really do its job, we need for most people to get vaccinated. Once that happens, we can finally get this virus under control and start the process of rebuilding.

I understand why people are skeptical of pharmaceutical companies and of our government. Both have a less-than-stellar track record when it comes to telling the truth and acting in the best interest of the public.

I’m not asking you to blindly trust the Trump administration or the pharmaceutical industry. What I’m asking is that when you hear a chorus of voices from the scientific and medical community telling you that they believe that a vaccine is safe and effective, that you trust them.

We don’t have time for your conspiratorial bullshit on this. Lives are at stake. When a vaccine is truly ready, get it. And please, for the love of science, please, please, please stop spreading anti-vaccine sentiment, discredited studies, gross misinterpretations of the literature, and unfounded conspiracy theories, no matter how plausible you think they sound. Plausibility does not indicate reality and you are not somehow better equipped to establish the safety and efficacy of medical treatments than the global community of subject matter experts.

If getting vaccinated were just about protecting yourself, I’d tell you that it is your choice. But it’s not just about protecting you. It’s about protecting all of us, especially the most fragile and vulnerable among us. In this particular case your refusal to see reason could result in the unnecessary deaths of people who I love.

Be skeptical, do your own research if you’d like, but when the expert consensus is that it’s ready, get vaccinated.

Oh yeah... one more thing that I forgot:

Get. Fucking. Vaccinated.