The line between comedy and tragedy is paper-thin. One might argue it only exists in the eye of the beholder and, like a prism held to the light, depending on the time and place and angle with which you look at something, you may see comedy or tragedy. The anti-vaxxer movement and its intrinsic conspiracies are something that can be looked at both ways. The tragedy is in the sickness, death, and mental gymnastics COVID-19 and vaccine deniers endure instead of demanding better medical infrastructure and economic security from their elected officials.
An example of the anti-science tragedy that many of us deal with comically (for our own sanity and well-being) was the fad of anti-vaxxers sticking keys and metal utensils on their bodies and claiming their blood had been magnetized by the Fauci-ouchie. A more recent fad over the past couple of years has involved anti-vaxxers going on social media accounts and claiming that since receiving one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, they or a loved one have been experiencing a very traumatizing side effect of uncontrollable shaking. Also referred to as “spasms,” it is possibly the only side effect that hasn’t actually been seen in any study. The videos declaring this side effect are strange. Whether or not the person in the video is truly experiencing some kind of physical issue is hard to verify, but what is verifiable is that whatever they are going through, it does not have to do with COVID-19 vaccinations—at least not physiologically.
Many of these posts begin with some preamble like “Thanks Pfizer,” or “After the COVID vax...” and then a video. There has been an increase in responses to these videos, probably because post-Elon Musk Twitter has allowed an avalanche of COVID-19 misinformation accounts back onto the platform. The responses make fun of these anti-vaxxer videos because at a certain point, it is too difficult to refrain.
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This is the kind of thing being blamed on the vaccine.
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Louisiana’s Angelia Desselle became an anti-vaxxer celebrity when her posts showing her uncontrollable spasms went viral back in 2021. Her videos led to similar videos from others claiming COVID-19 vaccine injuries. Of course, Desselle’s issues were investigated and are more likely connected to something else. The fact that Desselle was diagnosed with the very rare Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome shortly after receiving the jab seems to have spurred her belief in anti-vaxxer ideology. Spasms are not a known condition of the syndrome, but neither is the vaccine.
VAERS data do not show any cases of adverse reaction in Louisiana in the last month whose symptoms resemble Desselle’s, nor feature reports of adverse reactions linked to the Pfizer vaccine batch she mentions in one of the videos. In January 2021, only four women in Louisiana appear to have suffered from an adverse reaction to the Covid-19 vaccines, and all of them were older than 50 – Desselle said in a video that she is 45. A spokesperson for the CDC says that the health protection agency has “no adverse event data regarding a case of this nature out of Louisiana”.
What is known about getting vaccinated is that, at the very least, it can greatly reduce one’s risk of having a severe case of COVID-19. Like the flu, getting a less severe case of COVID is ideal because it also means you won’t die from contracting it, or spend a ton of time in the hospital. It also means that your chances of future cardiovascular complications will hopefully not “greatly increase.”
To that end, NPR reports that the FDA is considering shifting its COVID vaccine strategy to begin promoting it the same way they promote the flu vaccine. The major difference in policy here would be that instead of getting unvaccinated people to receive the primary two-dose vaccination followed by a booster, the government would advise that people get the most recent version of the COVID-19 vaccine once per year. This new policy would not include young children and older folks, who would still be required to get the full initial doses and booster.
There are many others with shaking and spasming conditions they believe were caused by a COVID-19 vaccine. For example, this person continues to have major issues.
This looks like a similar side effect.
There seems to be a debate in the differences between the vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer.
This one is pretty bad.
The shaking may have jumped to animals, it seems.
And it seems to be able to affect inanimate objects, as well.
You have to look closely to see this early (1985-1986) evidence of COVID-19 vaccine spasms.
Even legends have been affected.
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