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As the listeners to my SiriusXM show know, I take calls from people from many different perspectives and backgrounds.
That includes many in the MAGA crowd. I’m not sure why they listen, or why they call. But I’m happy to engage in dialogue, and always eager to challenge lies and distortions. With most I wouldn’t call it dialogue though, as they try to push conspiracies, refuse to listen or answer pertinent questions, and ultimately have to be slammed, as I won’t allow misinformation on the program.
The same has gone for anti-vaxxers, whatever their political beliefs. I think it’s important to use my platform to debunk their claims with facts and allow them to expose themselves as dangerous conspiracists.
But, I have a new policy for anti-vaxxers. It arose after many other listeners called the program in recent days with heartbreaking stories about friends or relatives who had non-Covid emergencies in places like Florida, Texas, Georgia and Mississippi, where ICU beds are over capacity, as hospitals are swamped with Covid patients.
One man talked about a friend who’s son was a in car accident in Florida, had severe injuries and was in a hallway in a hospital because there were no beds. Another man called from Georgia and weeped as he relayed the story of his friend with cerebral palsy who experienced respiratory illness and had to be rushed to a hospital. The man was turned away from three hospitals, which were filled to capacity, as his wife drove frantically to find emergency care.
So the policy I have for anti-vaxxers now is: They must pledge that if they get infected with Covid and it gets bad, they will refuse hospital care. Of course, they could lie. But amazingly, they just stopped calling, for the most part.
Except for unvaccinated Roz from California (well, and Abigail from Texas, who shouted at me angrily, saying I was “crazy” for asking her and others to take the pledge). Roz called in this week claiming she was a “medical professional” because she previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry — in “marketing” — and now is a “vet nurse.”
I honestly misheard and didn’t realize she said vet nurse, and thought she’d said she became a registered nurse. She started talking about “dogs and cats” — which obviously confused me — and how people come to her for advice on clinical trials. And then she started going down the road of saying how she, as “a medical professional,” is asked by family and friends about “long-term side side effects” of the Covid vaccines — and then claimed to know of two such side effects.
I cut her off right there and demanded that she take the pledge. It was fascinating because she just wouldn’t take it, wouldn’t address it, even while announcing she was unvaccinated. She kept trying to change the subject. I had to become very forceful, as you can hear in the clip.
But Roz adamantly refused to take the pledge. So I hung up on her. These people are selfish and cruel — though some people called in afterward to say I was “rude” to her.
Listen in and let me know your thoughts.
Making anti-vaxxers pledge to refuse hospital care if they get Covid