So I read this article with an open mind, but that very first cartoon[1] is so bad that I really feel it's the only thing I need to respond to. The cartoon makes 4 statements in 4 panels:

1. The Covid vaccines don't prevent you from getting covid.

2. Even vaccinated individuals have to wear masks.

3. Vaccine manufacturers are not financially liable for injuries resulting from vaccines.

4. Because the cartoonist, and the audience, don't know the reason for the first 3 points, there can be no rational reason for the vaccine and people are just mindlessly following order.

To start off, the first 3 statements are all true, but the final conclusion does not follow from them. If this cartoon was convincing to you, then you're the sort of person that should be following expert advice. It turns out there are very good explanations for the first 3 points. Let's start there.

1. No vaccine ever developed by human guarantees complete protection. Not MMR, not polio, or tetanus. The extreme infectivity of covid makes this even more true. It's the whole reason behind the concept of herd immunity. An interesting note, the polio vaccine most responsible for wiping out polio in most of the world can actually give people polio. That vaccine is what's called a live, attenuated virus and is very durable which is why it's so widely used. But hey, sometimes it causes the very disease it's meant to stop. So if argument 1 is true of every vaccine, why does the comic author try and use it as an argument against the covid vaccines?

2. Due to mutations in covid, it's extreme infectivity, and especially because of the large amount of anti-vaxxers, we still need to take masking precautions. Before omicron, mask mandates were removed, but the large number of anti-vaxxers (at least in the US) caused a medical crisis. The mask mandate is useful because it's a policy that's easy to enforce. I can see if someone is wearing a mask. Vaccine mandates are more difficult to enforce, have greater friction, and require more infrastructure.

3. This is true of all vaccines going back decades. Because of the usefulness of vaccines, and the extensive trials required to certify one, the federal government made the decision to take on financial liability. So if you're harmed by a vaccine, there's a dedicated government fund for financially compensating you. Again, does the author think this point is unique to the covid vaccines?

All of these 3 points are very obvious and very available to anyone who just looks them up, so why didn't the cartoonist know them? Either he's ignorant of the answer, is apathetic and never bothered to look up the answers, or they know the answers and are making arguments in bad faith. None of these speak well to the authors motives. So why believe anything this cartoonist says about the vaccine when they've so clearly demonstrated their own ignorance? Why believe anything about covid from someone who thinks this cartoon makes good arguments? If they are unable to see the clear errors and omissions in a simple cartoon, why should I believe that they understand the rest of their own arguments any better?

I could go on about the rest of the article, but it's very long and I don't have all day. Needless to say, it contains a combination of outright false statements, misquoted statistics, people purporting to be experts on topics they are not experts on, and facts stripped of necessary context.

If you find this article convincing, there are two questions you need to ask yourself.

1. Why are medical agencies all over the world, from the US to Israel, EU and China all on nearly the same page as far as the efficacy and desirability of the different vaccines? Is there one unified conspiracy uniting tens of thousands of immunologists and researchers across dozens of countries?

2. Why were medical experts all over the world so quick to discover and publicize the blood clotting issue with the J&J vaccine? Why was that vaccine removed or the protocol modified so quickly, while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines encountered no push back? Who did Pfizer and Moderna bribe or extort that J&J failed to lean on? How did Moderna, a newer smaller company than J&J, get on the inside of this conspiracy while the much larger J&J was booted?

[1]: Cartoon in question: https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_p...