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I was so worried about #antivaxxers as soon as the vaccines appeared. They're going to do so much damage, I thought, leaping on every little side effect. 1/9
Sure, they're doing their merry thing. But you know who has turned out to be *way* worse than them? The people who shut down every discussion of safety/risk by screaming that if you're concerned, you're an anti-vaxxer. 2/9
In the first few weeks of the #AstraZeneca safety signal it was a jingoistic insistence that this was all political, the big bad EU had it in for the plucky British vaccine. 3/9
Then it was - including from doctors - 'there's more risk from the pill', ignoring that pill clots carry a fatality rate of 1% and are not usually complicated by a low platelet count. Thrombocytopenia by itself is not trivial. 4/9
Now it's the widespread condemnation of #NACI for acknowledging that actually, it's a bit more nuanced than we'd like, and for some people, in some places, unfortunately, #AZ is a bigger risk than COVID right now. 5/9
Not to mention our own #JCVI, who have kept maddeningly silent as the #VITT incidence rate has gone up, and second dose cases have started to appear. 6/9
You have doctors, politicians and journalists absolutely falling over themselves to shut down any concerns of #AZ risk - including by making false comparisons to less harmful risks, or those where people have given informed consent. 7/9
It is not the anti-vaxxers who will kill public confidence. It is the people who are so scared of anti-vaxxers that they can't allow for a nuanced, transparent discussion of risk. Who shut down and dismiss valid concerns. Who stay silent. 8/9
I've a feeling this will one day make for a compelling 'You're Wrong About' episode, if @RottenInDenmark and @Remember_Sarah ever want to expand their geographic remit. 9/9
