One thing that nut-bag conspiracy theorists like 9/11 truthers, Holocaust Deniers, and anti-Vaxxers all do well it's collecting disparate facts and twisting them into a story that fits their preconceived narratives.
On the other side, we have a lot of people - A LOT of people - who still say that it's okay to lie about the severity of something in order to get people to behave properly.
To both of those types people, I say "Fuck you in the neck."
When the Covid-19 pandemic started, I downplayed its severity (so I thought) and that was wrong. However, the last year has proven me more right. I don't think that I ever would have been asked the question, "How likely is it that a person infected with Covid-19 will need to be hospitalized?" and said anything over 5%. Basically, I would have been right. I would have been among very few people who gave the right answer. More than 50% of Democrats polled thought that around half of the people infected would need to be hospitalized. Even Republicans, who are supposed to be the people who don't give a shit, overestimate that number by about three times reality.
That's not to say that this isn't a serious disease. But, look at the clash between the liars and the conspiracy theorists over the last year.
When we were first becoming aware of the virus, Fauci said that there was no need for masks, we should take care to wash our hands, and we could go on a cruise if we wanted to. A month later, we were seeing people being fined for going on drives alone and fathers being arrested for taking their kids to the park.
Of course, I noticed this. The conspiracy theorists noticed this too.
What could Fauci have done?
He could have gone on camera and said, "I'm so sorry. I underestimated the severity of the virus. This new information came up. Please take these precautions for your own safety."
Since I'm not a medical expert; but, I do have a medical professional in my immediate family, that would have made him more trustable. The problem is that, it never happened. And, the bar for justifying jailing a dude for playing with his kids in a park has to be much fucking higher regardless.
The conspiracy theorists might have still been concocting their own narratives; but, come on, the handling of this situation fanned the flames.
People notice when it's been six months since you said, "Fifteen days to flatten the curve."
People notice when you say that we can't go to a football game; but, we can get on a plane.
People notice when we've known for nearly a year that the virus doesn't live well in sunlight and you're still telling us to stay out of the Sun.
People notice when they lose jobs. People notice when loved ones die alone because of restrictions on visitation.
We emerge from this and act surprised that there are large swaths of people who know that they've been lied to for more than a year who feel hesitant about getting vaccinated?
I'm not one of those people. I'm fully vaccinated. I encourage people to get vaccinated. Fauci lied to you. The government lied to you. Pfizer didn't lie to you. The millions of people who died from the virus didn't lie to you.
Lies simply grow until they burst. There are some people who are against vaccinations because of a lie told by Andrew Wakefield two decades ago that won't die. Most of the people who are against this vaccine have been created by the lies of the state that, we're told, were for the greater good.