On Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 12:21 PM David Barrett
   <[1]dbarrett@expensify.com> wrote:

   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 <[2]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.

   Hi David, I'm still coming down from recent psychotic breaks so I
   haven't gone through many of the old posts.  Sometimes I get through
   them, sometimes I don't.
   I briefly participated in a community biolab effort during the
   pandemic.  They had set up for manufacturing their own testing stuff.
   Then I moved to another state.
   The vaccines you hear about are being made by the people who are
   already richest from selling vaccines.  Obviously.

   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.
   ([3]https://covid-101.org/science/how-many-people-have-died-from-the-va
   ccine-in-the-u-s/)  THREE PEOPLE.
   To refuse the vaccine is idiotic.  But to discourage others from
   getting it is malfeasant.
   -david

References

   1. mailto:dbarrett@expensify.com
   2. mailto:0xloem@gmail.com
   3. https://covid-101.org/science/how-many-people-have-died-from-the-vaccine-in-the-u-s/