By Erin K. Costello It has been about a month since my last MAM blog post. I tried to resist the urge to blog about MAM, I really did. But, I just couldn’t keep a few claims from MAM and my observations regarding MAM quiet. I just want to grab her followers by the shirt and ask WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING LISTENING TO THIS IDIOT?! To demonstrate what I mean while also debunking MAM’s sorely lacking claims, I’ll breakdown her post from yesterday regarding Vaccine hesitancy.
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By Erin K. Costello I took a couple days off from social media and all things vaccines this week. Today, as I did my usual catch up on all things anti-vaccine after my brief hiatus, I noticed I missed a couple of bitch-fests from Kate Tietje on both her personal, yet public, Facebook page and from her Facebook group. Now, before you assume this is another MAM post, let me assure this is not. She reminded me of a blog post I intended to publish a couple weeks ago but completely forgot about. There will be a couple of screen shots of Kate’s posts and comments, though the dozens of other screen shots featured are from other people. This blog post focuses on the rise of coveted warfare from the anti-vaccine echo chambers. Civil war seems to be the growing theme among these most violent, gun loving, second amendment preaching, privileged American terrorists. I can’t help but to wonder, however, how many of those posting the call of war, or commenting their desire for war, are doing so from the safety of their homes, much like Kate does. How many of them have also never attended a protest, have nothing to lose since they don’t have kids in public school, or how many of them rarely leave the comfort of their homes…. just like Kate Tietje? By Erin K. Costello UPDATED 6:15pm May 16, 2019 *Added Youtube video It looks as though Erin Elizabeth from Health Nut News is lying to us again. On a Facebook post thread found on the page Future Horizons, Erin makes several claims to be autistic, a claim I cannot find made or discussed by Erin anywhere else online or off line. With every other issue Erin has alleged to have and has blamed on vaccines, I find it highly suspect that she'd fail to mention her autism all this time, and just happen to announce her autism on an autism post from an autism page. Let’s begin with Erin’s newfound claims of autism. By Erin K. Costello A few weeks ago, while I was searching for horrific antisemitic comments on social media by anti-vaccine zealots, I found many other of their disturbing comments. I found enough of these hateful remarks to create categories and arrange them as such. This discovery has provided me with plenty of material for many future blog posts, though, I take no pleasure in using this material. Whether I come across anti-vaccine cultists harassing a mom with a sick child, attacking a mom on social media who just lost a child, attacking an 18 year old with pack like mentality simply because he chose to be vaccinated, or referring to children with autism as though they are wild animals (upcoming blog post), I absolutely hate that this material exists on social media. Those leaving such comments appear to have no shame in doing so. Imagine if the medical community or scientific community behaved this way toward anyone who didn’t vaccinate. I’ve said it before and it still stands, this behavior also exists in the online pro-vaccine communities. However, not at all in such aggressive ways or in the same numbers. In today’s blog post I will feature comments made to parents of sick children, deceased children, comments left to an 18 year old vaccine advocate who had the opportunity to speak to members of congress, and comments left on the Facebook page of another person raised anti-vaccine who grew up to become vaccinated and vaccinated her children. By Erin K. Costello You can find a support group on Facebook for just about anything you can imagine, providing it isn’t illegal. You can even find these support groups for illnesses that aren’t recognized by the medical community or by the CDC. Support groups for Morgellons disease is just one of those illnesses. For those unaware of what Morgellons disease is, according to Health Line it is described as, "a rare disorder characterized by the presence of fibers underneath, embedded in and erupting from unbroken skin or slow-healing sores." Wikipedia describes it as, "a self diagnosed, unconfirmed skin conditions in which individuals have sores that they believe contain some kind of fibers." Is Morgellons disease real? By Erin K. Costello It has been about 2 months since I last typed up a MAM related blog post. This has due to both choice and circumstance. I haven’t read anything particularly rage inducing posted by MAM, but I have also made an effort to avoid posts from MAM. Too much MAM exposure is dangerous to one’s mental health and stability. I’ve quite enjoyed the break, to be honest. However, like most things in life sadly, all breaks from idiocy must come to an end. Let’s reacquaint ourselves with the Hypocrisy Known as MAM. By Erin K. Costello No one likes to be proven wrong, especially in a debate or an argument. When it comes to something that we believe to be true we can often take it personally when we are shown that our intuition, our hunch was wrong. When our philosophy is found wanting, we can feel like a fool. However, in matters of science, most of us aren’t personally invested in what the facts are. Most of us are only vested in finding the facts. We don’t create our own theories and then look for information to support our conclusions. Instead, we form our conclusions from the information presented to us at the time. This information can change or grow. When this happens we simply take into account the new or additional information, and then adjust our conclusions as needed. Most of us are not personally invested in ignorance. Most people don’t become upset because they better understand an issue. Most people don’t turn away additional information simply because they don’t like it. And most of us do not threaten death, rape, physical harm, or wish disease on a loved one because you shared important information backed by evidence and study data. Those of us who aren’t anti-vaccine believers, that is. By Erin K. Costello Last week I came across a video that I found most disturbing. There are many ideas and actions that trouble me from the anti-vaccination movement, though I rarely find a new one that shocks me. Last week was one of those rare moments. In response to the NYC state of emergency public ban on those not vaccinated, Del Bigtree dialed up the drama. In a YouTube video, Del Bigtree gives a speech on March 28, 2019, to a crowd in Austin, Texas, and specifically to the Rockland County Orthodox Jewish community that has been most impacted by the county’s recent measles outbreak since so many have chosen not to vaccinate. At the end of his speech, Del then grabs a yellow piece of, what appears to be, fabric shaped like a Jewish Star of David, and then pins it to his lapel. While he did this, he likened himself along with all other anti-vaccination supporters, to being in danger of the same type of persecution that Jewish people tragically endured during WWII. He even went as far as to say, "I stand with you. I stand with a nation that said we will never oppress the minorities. We will stand with your religious conviction. We will let you believe in your God, we will let you raise your children the way you see fit. I stand in a nation that does not bring hand sanitizer and hand it out referring to innocent children as though they are dirty. We have ween that before and we will never let that happen in this beautiful country. You know who washed their hands with hand sanitizer? Pontius Pilate. That's who did as they sent the lamb to slaughter. We will not let our government state capitals send our children to slaughter. Certainly not in Texas. Certainly now where liberty reigns supreme. Certainly not where parents call the shots. We stand now together." The video then fades to black showing the hashtag "#StandWithRocklandJews." By Erin K. Costello Over the past couple weeks I have been asked in media interviews for my opinion on what actions should be taken to combat the spread and harm from the anti-vaccine community on-line as well as off-line. Though I try, this is not a question I can properly answer in a 15 second window. I have thought about how to stop anti-vaccine zealots from time to time these past two years, though I haven’t done much reading on the issue or explored many options. Due to media attention from current measles outbreaks, this subject has been popular and often discussed. This is a list of those suggestions made by myself, but mostly colleagues, that I believe hold the best possibility of being implemented, as well as the most potential for some success. Luckily I am not limited in time and length here in this blog so get ready for a whole lot of opinion. By Erin K Costello Yesterday morning, CNN released a news segment and an on-line report concerning disturbing behavior directed towards grieving parents from anti-vaxers. As a result there have been dozens, maybe hundreds, of social media posts discussing the existence of this horrible behavior from anti-vaxxers. Pro-vax have shared the CNN post while admitting to witnessing such behavior, and anti-vax have shared the CNN post overwhelmingly denying such behavior from their peers but then alleging to have witnessed these attacks from the pro-vax side. Here’s the thing…..both sides are correct about this, and both sides are wrong. First, let me address the errors I perceive. **Small disclaimer at the end |
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