If I understand Karl's point, I think I agree with it: in broad strokes, science works.

On Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 4:00 AM Karl Semich <0xloem@gmail.com> wrote:

They might talk about pharma-bro Martin Skrelli hiking drug prices, or
correctly note how the Perdue family made billions partnering with the
government and doctors to get Americans hooked on legalized heroin
pills.

But today, utter the phrase, “I’m not so sure about these vaccines,”
and prepare for the gaslighting. You’re CRAZY for not trusting big
pharma’s “safe and effective, safe and effective, safe and effective”
vaccines 100%, no questions asked.

I think people tend to lose a sense of scale when talking about these big numbers. The argument that "we should be skeptical of COVID vaccines because opioids were a problem" conflates totally unrelated problems (ie, different industries) and totally different scales (opioids killed 500K Americans over the past 2 decades; COVID killed 607K *in the past year*).

Don't get me wrong, Perdue got like $8B in profit from opioids over a matter of decades. But $8B in ill-gotten profits over decades is much closer to $0 than the trillions of dollars of catastrophe caused by COVID.

At this point the Delta variant is ravaging everywhere in the world that is not vaccinated. I cannot fathom by what measure someone would still claim that it's better to take your chances with a fatal disease that has killed millions, than get a shot that has already been administered *billions of times*.

So far there are exactly *three people* who are suspected to have died from a complication from the vaccine. (https://covid-101.org/science/how-many-people-have-died-from-the-vaccine-in-the-u-s/) THREE PEOPLE.

To refuse the vaccine is idiotic. But to discourage others from getting it is malfeasant.

-david