Scientific illiterate M.T. Greene says VAERS proves her right
After losing her personal account on Twitter and being temporarily banned by Facebook, M.T. Greene took to the latest conservative whine-site, Gettr, to complain about her treatment by social media. She wrote,
“Facebook has joined Twitter in censoring me. This is beyond censorship of speech. I’m an elected Member of Congress representing over 700,000 US tax paying citizens and I represent their voices, values, defend their freedoms, and protect the Constitution. But apparently they too think the CDC managed #VAERS system on our own government websites are misinformation.”
Starting with the classic complaint of the petty person, “Do you know who I am?”, Greene would have us believe that US Representatives are immune from being assholes. And that her position grants her rights that usually only aristocrats in monarchies feel entitled to. She wants to have her cake and eat it. She would like to be seen as a woman of the people while being a woman above the people.
We all already know she’s a limited thinker, with high self-regard, a tendency to paranoia, and an addiction to conspiracy theories. In addition, it has long been evident that she embraces conservative hypocrisy by espousing love for small government and free markets while simultaneously believing the government should interfere with the right of private businesses to make their own decisions. So far, so typical. But it is her promotion of the CDC’s VAERS system as ‘proof ‘ that vaccinations are dangerous that reveals her complete lack of understanding of how science works.
VAERS — the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System — is a website jointly run by the CDC and FDA which allows any member of the public, no medical training needed, to report what they believe is a negative effect of a vaccination. A child might get a jab and a week later score a ‘D’ on their vocabulary quiz, and a parent could report the event as vaccine-induced mental confusion. As you might imagine, this leads to all kinds of fantastical claims — things like the MMR vaccine causes autism. Or that the COVID vaccine causes swollen-testicle-induced impotence. In one case, a 39-year-old Alaska woman reported her post-vaccination symptoms included “Jesus visiting her,” along with her contracting a “sexually transmitted disease.”
VAERS is not an accurate reflection of vaccine science any more than the comment stream on a Fox News story is an accurate report of the news.
The CDC aggregates the VAERS reports to see if any trends are developing. If a sufficient number of people report similar symptoms, let’s say chest pain or swollen joints, the CDC will take a closer look. So far, the CDC has uncovered no new vaccine side effects. And the only side effect of any consequence is blood clots the medical community has associated with the J&J vaccine. And even that is not as bad as it seems, as the rate of blood clots is far higher among unvaccinated COVID patients.
The most significant side-effects that anti-vaxxers do not bring up are the side-effects from not getting vaccinated, which include ‘long COVID’, ICU stays, and death.
And that is why the science-denier and pro-death advocate, M.T. Greene has been tossed off social media, despite being a US Representative.