Proponents of vaccine injury are also acting like a cult. Because their stance, as with Brain Retraining, is also entirely faith-based. As if they KNEW what did this to them. If COVID has taught me anything, it's how little we do know for certain. Except them. They KNOW. And NEED you to know also.

r/covidlonghaulers is being overrun by a vaccine-injury narrative that simply does not hold up water.

I say this as someone married to an ER doctor, close friends with an internist and in constant contact with numerous immunologists.

Anyone who's followed me knows that I care about one thing and one thing only: the truth.

Well, here's the inconvenient truth: The evidence does not support the claim that COVID vaccines have been maiming people nearly as much as the very vocal and very persistent antivax lobby wants us to believe.

It may turn out that COVID vaccines triggered an autoimmune response in some people. The spike protein gone awry, our immune system's inability to flush out the proteins mRNA vaccines told it to fabricate as a prompt against the real thing. It's very possible. I am in NO way dismissing the possibility.

What I'm dismissing is the certainty. Because it may also turn out that no such thing exists. That all these convinced testimonials were from well-meaning but misinformed people.

We.

Don't.

Know.

That alone should inspire a bit more humility that is being shown by doctors, patients, everyone. Waving the "I AM VACCINE INJURED" flag because of circumstantial evidence (timing) does not proof make. Having a bunch of people saying "I had a bad reaction to the vaccine as well" when a highly transmissible airborne pathogen has been laying waste to our metabolisms for years is not science.

I got every type of vaccine (Moderna, Pfizer, and Astrazeneca) prior to getting infected. My Long COVID only manifested well over a month after testing negative — when I suffered my 1st PEM crash. I too could be crippled because of the vaccine. I don't know. It doesn't matter.

I don't care how we got here.
I care about how we get out.

When and if we discover (not hear on Facebook—actually discover the how and why) that vaccines also cause this disability, then we can talk. Until we know WTF we even have (and take it from someone who's been neck-deep in studies on the subject for over 3 years: we don't), I wish the Vaccine Injured would get off their soap boxes and focus more on getting us all out of purgatory.

I wish they'd rage against the illness, not against what they THINK maimed them. Especially when so many people are actively trying to sabotage public health. (Measles, Polio, Tylenol, name it).

It feels to me like a desperate attempt at finding a scapegoat. Because this is unacceptable, we need a reason for it. Someone to blame.

How many billions got the vaccine?

How many are as crippled as you and I?

Too few. It doesn't add up.

We need to figure out the mechanisms at play. Be it vaccine-induced or SARS CoV-2-induced, we need to figure out what's happening to us. That's all that matters.

The rest is noise.

Destructive, loud, obnoxious noise. And those screaming the loudest don't seem to realize that their greatest allies are the anti-science RFK Jr lobby. Every comment, every post starts with "I'm pro-vaccine but..."

Yeah, "I'm no racist, but..."

"I'm no homophobe, but..."

As with all things, using "but" annuls what came before it.

Thank for you reading me, whoever you are. Let's stick to the facts. Long COVID is a curse. One I hope we figure out soon.

Wanna rage about something? Focus on microplastics, PFAS, Big Oil's crippling of all climate action and Big Tech's corrupting of our relationship to the truth. Cause those are problems that are about to kick us in the teeth, no matter if we find a cure for Long COVID or not.