healthcare, politics, religion, wingnuts

The danger of tempting fate has never been as real as it is in the COVID-19 era…

The other day, I read that conservative wingnut pundit Rick Wiles, 67, who has said all kinds of nutty things about liberals and has condemned the COVID-19 vaccines as tools for “global genocide”, is now very sick with the virus. I have written about Rick Wiles before on this blog. He’s among the most rabid right wing crackpots on the airwaves today. I don’t pay a lot of attention to Rick, because most of what he says is preposterous. I have blogged about him a couple of times, when he’s said things that are especially ridiculous… and now it seems that he, along with a lot of other science deniers, is eating his words about COVID-19.

Yes, friends… Rick Wiles, Trump zealot, pastor of Flowing Springs Church in Vero Beach, Florida, host of TruNews, and overall whackjob, declared in late April that he would not get vaccinated against COVID-19, because he believes the shots are “global mass murder” perpetuated by Satan. Alas, Mr. Wiles is now begging for your prayers, because apparently, he’s one of the many people God doesn’t like. Of course, I don’t actually know what God thinks of Rick Wiles, or even if there is a God. I base that last statement on something Wiles himself has said about the coronavirus. He has repeatedly claimed that the vaccine is a plot to kill people, and that a lot of “stupid people” will be killed off by getting vaccinated against the disease.

In January 2020, Rick Wiles said COVID was God’s way of punishing China for its “godless communist government”. I wonder what he thinks now…

A couple of days ago, I noticed a link in the Duggar Family News group about Mr. Wiles and his newly acquired condition. It was the first I’d read about his experience with COVID-19. I was shocked to read that he believed the vaccines would be used to kill off 70% of the population. According to Newsweek.com, Wiles apparently based his theory, in part, on an article he read on Great Game India, “a website that promotes itself as a ‘journal on geopolitics and international relations’ and has published conspiracy theories on a variety of topics.” Great Game India’s comments were partially based on a paper put out by the United Kingdom’s Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational subgroup. In that paper, it was reported that “up to 70 percent of people who had both vaccine doses could die in the third wave of COVID infections.” However, what Mr. Wiles seems to have missed is that the 70 percent figure was never attributed to the efficacy of the vaccines. Rather, that number is reflective of “the high death toll among vaccinated individuals to the easing of restrictions and there being a large number of high-risk people being vaccinated.”

In other words, there could be more deaths among people who are already at a higher risk. That means a large number of older people who are unvaccinated, older people who are vaccinated but immunocompromised, and older people who are vaccinated, but still get sick despite being vaccinated, could possibly perish in a third wave. That figure has nothing whatsoever to do with the vaccines being ineffective. The 70 percent figure could be “the result of ‘uptake being so high’ among the higher risk group.” As we’ve seen recently, the COVID-19 virus is continually evolving and mutating, which is why the vaccines are so important. The more people get vaccinated, the fewer hosts are available for the virus to mutate. As it is, those of us who have been vaccinated will all probably need to get booster shots, although it’s not currently known when or how often the shots will be necessary.

Rick Wiles has been permanently banned from YouTube because he says things that are so controversial and hateful. I had not looked for him in awhile, so I was surprised this morning when I didn’t find his channel on the popular video sharing site. However, plenty of people on YouTube are still making videos about Rick Wiles and his lunacy. He also posts, and has been posted about, a lot on Twitter. Last week, Wiles had to be rushed to the emergency room, and he spent some time hospitalized because of the illness.

Will you survive, Rick?

This isn’t the first time I’ve read about a COVID-19 denier getting sick after publicly stating that the virus is a hoax. I remember in April 2020, reading about 45 year old Karen Kolb Selke, a woman who had, in March of last year, gone on Facebook to rant about how COVID-19 was a socialist plot to scare people into voting Donald Trump out of office. Three weeks later, she was dead, having contracted the virus herself.

There have been other stories about this phenomenon– people claiming that the virus is a “media hoax” or a “plandemic”, just to get Trump out of office and promote a “socialist” agenda. It’s a bunch of rubbish, of course. If it were only about removing Trump, COVID would not be killing people around the world. Moreover, vaccines of all kinds have saved so many lives and prevented disabilities in people. When my parents were growing up, polio was a real and scary threat to children. Thanks to the polio vaccine, later generations, including mine, did not have to worry about the disease. Ditto for measles, mumps, diphtheria, whooping cough, and rubella. Todays’ young people can get vaccinated against chickenpox and the human papilloma virus, which is thought to cause cervical cancer. Having had shingles as a young woman, I certainly wish I could have avoided being infected by varicella, which lurks in the body forever and waits for the opportunity to strike when you’re physically “rundown”, as I was after I came home from the Peace Corps and suffered from multiple skin infections. Unfortunately, it’s too late for me to avoid that fate.

One would think that the Trumpers might have changed their tunes over the past few months, but the crazies are still out there, peddling their bullshit. Just this morning, the actor Robbie Rist, shared this frightening post by Laurie Roth, Ph.D., who is the self-proclaimed “Annie Oakley of the Airwaves”. Based on this post, I can’t say I’m too impressed by her credentials… I can’t imagine why anyone with sense would want Trump in charge again. I get being conservative, but Trump isn’t like most conservatives.

WHAT?

The so-called “Annie Oakley of the Airwaves” continues with this follow up post on Facebook, which was posted on June 5th:

From False Narrative Dr. Laurie Roth

Apparently, my last article stating that President Trump had signed the Insurrection act in January 2021 and that the military was in control caused a Tsunami of reaction. This included Facebook tagging my article as a lie and false.

What does one do in a situation like this? Do I go to liar school, hide in the closet and never speak again? Do I disappear and accept the label and let the leftists win again?

What I did was call my connected military source again, who by the way knows a top General who is a man of honor and service as my source is. I told him the response of social networking controllers and Trump haters and one of their statements. “This can’t be true because it is not written anywhere and hasn’t been publicized.”

My source said, Trump didn’t have to publicize it to the media that has long been sold out to the America hating left. There is no law or rule that declares his signature and declaration of this act had to go to anywhere else but the Military.

Remember, the House and the Senate failed us and they were given the evidence of a stolen election The Supreme Court wouldn’t hear any case regarding it. They failed us also. So did numerous, liberal Governors and courts. There was only one choice left – the Insurrection Act.

As I said in my last article that got everyone’s knickers in a twist, it was President Trump’s duty to sign the Insurrection Act since it was already proven that other countries interfered and stole the Presidential 2020 election. It was also investigated thoroughly by our military who found the real numbers of the election. Trump boldly won the popular vote and the Electoral College.

It was their duty, then to acknowledge the Insurrection Act because of foreign influence and a sea of election crimes in this election. Trump did the only thing a real patriot would do and sign the act putting our military in charge.

Most in social media hate Trump, real freedom of speech. In their eyes, they know all, see all and are the 4th person of the Trinity. In truth, they are the sell outs and liars. If real Patriots are nothing but liars and conspiracy nuts these days, then I am proud to be one!

Think about it for a minute. Do you recall President Trump as the type of man who would just submissively accept the fact that hard core proof showed a landslide victory, that China and other countries coordinated the stealing of our election and he would just drink a beer and go golfing? Don’t believe that Trump would disappear and not fight for our country and justice for a second. We are in the biggest battle of our lives and much of it we cannot see…..yet.

It is so boringly like the left, to immediately call you all manner of names and scream with shrillness that you are lying. Hopefully, I would slither off and never talk again.

Truthfully, I should yell thank you from the rooftops since all they did was add fuel to my fire. I will scream the truth all the more. Remember, I survived, national talk radio for 15 years and was called every name there is. Believe what you will but pray and fight for your country. Stand. Great things are on the way and Justice is coming.

I don’t even know what to write about Laurie Roth’s nonsensical drivel. Does she actually believe this, or is this just about making money and a name for herself? I am relieved to read comments from people who see what I see… some straight up crazy bullshit conspiracy theories. She’s like “The Transformed Wife“, Lori Alexander, but for Trump zealots instead of Christian evangelical fundies.

In any case, I think it’s quite clear that COVID-19 is very real, and people had better get wise. I’m grateful Bill and I were able to get the vaccine. It doesn’t mean we won’t get sick from COVID-19 or anything else, but I am convinced that the vaccine will make it less likely that we’ll need to be hospitalized from the virus if we do get it. Frankly, I am surprised by how easy the shots were for me. Other than a little bit of a sore arm, I wasn’t affected at all. In fact, I recovered from “COVID arm” even faster with the second shot than I did the first. Bill did have a harder time with the second round, but it only lasted a day. Neither of us wants to lie in a hospital bed gasping for air from a viral infection as we prepare to depart life.

Posted on Twitter, May 31st.

I don’t wish death on Rick Wiles, and I am not rejoicing in the fact that he and some of his family members got sick with COVID-19. I have doubt that this experience will do much to change his mind about the crap he’s been spewing. But I do hope that his experience will serve as a wakeup call/moment of truth for his followers. Not getting vaccinated is a crazy gamble, even though I respect your right to self-determination. I would encourage you to learn from Rick and do your part to avoid spreading this disease. It’s definitely real.

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