Yesterday I wrote about how, in addition to the much, much greater hardships faced by folks like Ms. Jody Vance and Dr. Florence Debarre in the face of relentless online harassment, I, too, have received a modicum of attention from the lunatic unhinged for having the temerity to write about the risk/reward ratios of COVID vaccines.
All of which is terrible.
But I can't even begin to imagine having to deal with the following, as recounted by North Carolina journalist Billy Ball, writing in The Atlantic:
My 6-year-old boy died in January. We lost him after a household accident, one likely brought on by a rare cerebral-swelling condition. Paramedics got his heart beating, but it was too late to save his brain. I could hold his hand, look at the small birthmark on it, comb his hair, and call out for him, but if he could hear me or feel me, he gave no sign. He had been a child in perpetual motion, but now we couldn’t get him to wiggle a finger.
My grief is profound, ragged, desperate. I cannot imagine how anything could feel worse.
But vaccine opponents on the internet, who somehow assumed that a COVID shot was responsible for my son’s death, thought my family’s pain was funny. “Lol. Yay for the jab. Right? Right?” wrote one person on Twitter. “Your decision to vaccinate your son resulted in his death,” wrote another. “This is all on YOU.” “Murder in the first.”
I’m a North Carolina–based journalist who specializes in countering misinformation on social media. I know that Twitter, Facebook, and other networks amplify bad information; that their algorithms feed on anger and division; that anonymity and distance bring out the worst in some people online. And yet I had never anticipated that anyone would mock and terrorize a grieving parent. I’ve now received thousands of harassing posts. Some people emailed me at work.
For the record, my son saw some of the finest pediatric-ICU doctors in the world. He was in fact vaccinated against COVID-19. None of his doctors deemed that relevant to his medical condition. They likened his death to a lightning strike.
Strangers online saw in our story a conspiracy—a cover-up of childhood fatalities caused by COVID vaccines, a ploy to protect Big Pharma.
To them, what happened to my son was not a tragedy. It was karma for suckered parents like me...
My 6-year-old boy died in January. We lost him after a household accident, one likely brought on by a rare cerebral-swelling condition. Paramedics got his heart beating, but it was too late to save his brain. I could hold his hand, look at the small birthmark on it, comb his hair, and call out for him, but if he could hear me or feel me, he gave no sign. He had been a child in perpetual motion, but now we couldn’t get him to wiggle a finger.
My grief is profound, ragged, desperate. I cannot imagine how anything could feel worse.
But vaccine opponents on the internet, who somehow assumed that a COVID shot was responsible for my son’s death, thought my family’s pain was funny. “Lol. Yay for the jab. Right? Right?” wrote one person on Twitter. “Your decision to vaccinate your son resulted in his death,” wrote another. “This is all on YOU.” “Murder in the first.”
I’m a North Carolina–based journalist who specializes in countering misinformation on social media. I know that Twitter, Facebook, and other networks amplify bad information; that their algorithms feed on anger and division; that anonymity and distance bring out the worst in some people online. And yet I had never anticipated that anyone would mock and terrorize a grieving parent. I’ve now received thousands of harassing posts. Some people emailed me at work.
For the record, my son saw some of the finest pediatric-ICU doctors in the world. He was in fact vaccinated against COVID-19. None of his doctors deemed that relevant to his medical condition. They likened his death to a lightning strike.
Strangers online saw in our story a conspiracy—a cover-up of childhood fatalities caused by COVID vaccines, a ploy to protect Big Pharma.
To them, what happened to my son was not a tragedy. It was karma for suckered parents like me...
There is a sickness in our society, that while it may be viral, has nothing to do with spike proteins, lipid membranes or nucleotide codes. Regardless, it is a sickness that we have to start to treat meaningly, immediately, or we may soon all be consumed by it.
.
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2 comments:
I happen to be reading another book by one of my favourite authors, Richard Dawkins. It is fairly recent (2021), but contains a book review he wrote that was published in the New York Times on 09 April 1989. Here is a paragraph from that review:
“I don’t think it is too melodramatic to say that civilization is at war. It is a war against religious bigotry. In Britain recently our newspapers have shown crowds of fundamentalists (they happen to be Muslim rather than Christian, but in this context the distinction is of no importance) baying for the death of the distinguished novelist Salman Rushdie, displaying his effigy with its eyes put out and publicly burning his books. The truly appalling thing all such people have in common, whether they are invited to murder by ayatollahs or to less violent observances by television evangelists, is they know, for certain (demonstrating the chilling power of childhood indoctrination), that their particular brand of revealed truth is absolute and needs no reasoned defence. In Iran I don’t suppose evolution is even an issue, but in the United States a case can be made that it is right there on the front line.”
That was in 1989. We know that since that time Salman Rushdie has been almost killed and has indeed had one of his eyes put out. And Dawkins writes regarding the review, “Weirdly, my review provoked a lawsuit from a man in Texas who spotted it 26 years later and thought he recognized himself in one of its phrases. He sued me - unsuccessfully - for $58 million.”
Is it any wonder then, that two nights ago we read this news report?:
“Renowned scientist Richard Dawkins has shut down during a TV interview with Piers Morgan, refusing to speak when asked about author Salman Rushdie and a UK ISIS bride stuck in Syria.”
Scary times for those who work in the daylight
Perhaps it is the ability to use computers which enable to access email, twitter, texts, etc. which has contributed to all this disgusting material sent to grieving families. I just don't know what is causing it.
Sometimes I think its people who just want everything to be about them, so when some one dies, they chime in to add their two cents worth, whether it is called for or not or whether its appropriate or not. They want to be noticed and in their quest to be noticed, they don't think of any one's feelings, they don't think about being polite or sensitive to others beliefs or feelings.
Perhaps all of these people could benefit from a course in manners, appropriate behaviour, and how to control their opinions. Not every one is interested in reading about how much you dislike others or blame for the deaths of family members, which are unwarranted.
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