"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." ... Winston Churchill
Now that vaccines don't seem to be working, what should we do? Let's tweak the data. How about spin the vaccinated has less serious effects. How about 2 shots good, 3 shots better. How about it's all the fault of the unvaccinated - the dirty carriers of the virus.
We seem to ape the socialist Americans who excel in creating fault lines in society. Vaccinated vs the unvaccinated, where in the US it is progressing into a real life Hunter Games mode. Here in Singapore, segregation is in effect.
Often we see the clarity of hearts between the vaxx'd and the un-vaxx, especially in the US. When an un-vaxx goes down with covid, or dies from it, especially the rich and famous, the vaxx'd floods media, facebook, twitter with schadenfreude. On the other hand, when a vaxx'd goes down, the narrative of the un-vaxx is usually trying to highlight the failure of the vaccines, not gloating about someone's misfortune. The un-vaxx respects the rights of folks to vaccinate and hopes in their heart of hearts that vaccination really works for those who took the jabs. On the other hand, the vaxx'd views the un-vaxx as dirty carriers of the virus, flat Earthers, non-science bigots, irresponsible, and murderers, according to Joe Biden.
We are just waiting for when vaccination for covid will be mandated. Will Singapore follow Australia, US and Canada to lead the universal charge of vaccine tyranny. Many countries allow for vaccination exemption on religious grounds. Singapore has no such protection, despite the plurality of religions here. However, there is actually nothing in religions that forbid vaccination. The clergies in fact tend, to support vaccination programs.
For Muslims, the issue is simply whether it is halal. The litmus test is whether there is anything swine in the vaccines. Of course there is'nt any. The swine concern I suspect will be more serious in the future, when specially cloned pigs without the genes that cause organ rejection will be farmed and organs harvested for transplant. That technology has already arrived. However, vaccines do involve use of other animal cell tissues, such as kidneys of monkeys, as well as fetal cells. In this regards, I expect Muslim concerns, on the issue of halal, would relate to the compassionate process of killing the donor. I have not been able to sight any literature about this.
I am not aware of other religious objections. Vaccine objections for covid seem to be from minority ultra-orthodox Jews and white evangelicals. However, there is nothing to suggest this objection arises out of figurative readings of religious text. There is nothing in the holy books that has any relevance. The vaxx'd of course, volunteers a reason. They say the dogmatic idiots of faith believe the jab is the sign of the beast in the end times, thus will avoid at all cost. To these liberals, the religious folks are non-science bigots who believe in a flat Earth. There has been no big scale surveys to attempt to understand the reason for the objection. In 2019 a limited scale survey was done in Israel to find out why orthordox Jewish mothers object to have their children vaccinated for covid. It turned out there was nothing religious about it. They all decided not to vaccinate their children based on their assessment of risk.
As to the evangelicals, from what I have read in social media, it is all about some moral values they stand on. Fetal cells are used, either during vaccine studies, or in its production, or both. Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson, all use fetal cells. I believe only Astrazeneca mentions this. The other 3 kept this as part of their trade secret, but the truth have been leaked. The Left twists this objection to the Rights' anti-abortion stand, but it has nothing to do with this. The objection is simply because these folks reel in horror at the way the fetal cells are used. For those who are unaware, let me explain.
Parasite found in Pfizer vaccine
The reason for fetal cells is the need for a very clean environment to culture virus. The body tissues of grownups are contaminated so babies are used. You are probably thinking the fetal cells come from aborted babies, or those that died in child birth. So why the moral fuss of the evangelicals. The foetus can be obtained in 2 ways - by vagina delivery or cesarean. Natural delivery is problematic because the foetus will be contaminated by thousands of bacterium in the mother's vaginal fluid. In a cesarean delivery, the foetus does not come into contact with the mother's vaginal fluid. Unfortunately, it comes into contact with many hospital germs. To prevent contamination, the foetus is extracted with its water sac intact, which means the baby is still alive. This guarantees bacteriological sterility. The cell tissues are then extracted in clean laboratory facility. Another reason why the babies had to be alive is because for tissues to be viable and useful, there has to be functional blood supply in the body at the time of dissection.
And here comes the horror. The babies are cut open and their organs extracted. All this done with the babies alive. No anesthetic is allowed to avoid contamination. So the next time the vaxx'd wants to criticise the un-vaxx, I hope they can visualise the defenseless babies on the laboratory tables, kicking and twisting in unimaginable agony, and hear their screams as the scientists ripped out their kidneys, hearts, eyes ,,,,. And perhaps then they can have a little more respect for the sensibilities and moral values of the evangelical anti-vaxxers.
Vaccine tests are done mostly on the fetal cells extracted in the 1960s. The covid vaccines all use the same cell line called HEK 293. This came from a 1973 abortion in the Netherlands.
We can all be proudly science-based and rationalise the cruelty done to an unborn to obtain cell material for fundamental research and for the diagnosis of some human diseases, is for a greater good. So long as it's not our own body that is being dissected.
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