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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Instead of vaccinations, we should give people weakened forms of those diseases!"
Right-wing activist Matt Couch appeared on The Todd Coconato Show last week, where he declared that rather than getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and taking steps to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, people should be intentionally exposing themselves to the virus as a form of self-inoculation.
Couch, who earlier this year was forced to apologize for and retract his coverage of the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich after being sued by members of Richs family, insisted that people should do what soldiers did during the Revolutionary War when they intentionally infected themselves with smallpox in order to build immunity to the virus.
They didnt beat smallpox by from hiding from it, from wearing masks, or running from it, Couch continued. They would make like an incision on their arm or their leg so they would get smallpox, and they knew that they were gonna lose some troops. So, when you hear what our founders did to win the Revolutionary War, and you realize that they self-inoculatedboth Benedict Arnold and Benjamin Franklin, they basically expressed fears that the virus would be the Armys ultimate downfall if they didnt do the self-inoculationand they listened to smart people. We didnt have virologists back then, folks, but they were smart enough even then to figure this out. So, you know, Pastor Todd, if they can figure this out in 1777 and were having a problem with it now, it makes no sense.
Self-inoculation, as Couch calls it, was really an early form of vaccination, and the smart people like George Washington knew that it was an effective way of preventing the spread of smallpox among the troops, which is precisely why he mandated that all soldiers be inoculated.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/matt-couch-urges-self-inoculation-instead-of-vaccinations-without-realizing-theyre-basically-the-same-thing/
Sleep is awfully inefficient, I think it would be better if we all had several hours of reduced consciousness.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,119 posts)I think I have a rusty knife out in the shed I'll gladly let you use to make your incision.
Oh, yeah. Tetanus.
Don't worry about it. You'll be self-inoculating yourself for that, too. No charge.
Aristus
(66,075 posts)n/t
ColinC
(8,227 posts)Chuuku Davis
(564 posts)Bacteria
getagrip_already
(14,225 posts)Which is why if you step on a nail in a field, a doctor would recommend a tetnus shot if you weren't current. Really any dirty puncture wound could be a pathway.
I don't know where the rusty association came from. Probably just an association between a sharp object and the outdoors.
ProfessorGAC
(64,413 posts)The rusty nail thing came from the most common reasons for getting a puncture wound.
It's more likely to step on a nail in some old boards or something like that, because people don't put new nails into new boards and let them lay around.
So the rusty thing got associated with tetanus instead of the bacteria which caused it.
Doctors have known for over a hundred years that rust had nothing to do with, but the likeliest cause of stepping on a rusty nail was the circumstantial evidence needed for the masses the connect the two.
Aristus
(66,075 posts)When tetanus first started to be explored clinically, a lot of the initial patients were farmers who reported puncturing themselves on exposed nails out in their barns. The common wisdom got out that rusty nails cause tetanus, when in fact, it was the animal manure (loaded with bacteria, including clostridium) on the nails themselves that was the culprit. No exposure to feces or other bearers of C. tetani, no tetanus.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)I got sideswiped by a truck, which set off my airbag and caused minor skin scuffs. They gave me a tetanus shot. I guess it was just a way to collect a few more bucks.
Timewas
(2,174 posts)That is a form of vaccination....They were inoculated with smallpox in that manner ..
EYESORE 9001
(25,808 posts)Perhaps nostalgia for archaic medical practices will bring this back too.
ck4829
(34,966 posts)There's something you really shouldn't post in the sarcasm-free zones of Twitter.
I don't recommend posting that quote several times at all.
LisaL
(44,962 posts)Because they didn't have safe and effective vaccines at the time.
Still people were willing to go through it.
"Mrs. Adams wrote that Nabby was so sore that she can neither walk sit stand or lie with any comfort. But at present all my attention is taken up with the care of our Little Charles who has been very bad. The Symptoms rose to a burning fever
and delirium ensued for 48 hours."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/12/12/abigail-adams-smallpox-coronavirus-vaccine/
MineralMan
(146,189 posts)yellowcanine
(35,692 posts)Go for it, asshole.
Corgigal
(9,291 posts)then they can give themselves their own vaccine. Done.
Mad_Machine76
(24,353 posts)viva la
(3,224 posts)Which is related but not smallpox.
Fascinating story about how orphans boys brought the vaccine to America.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/617646/
LisaL
(44,962 posts)in ICUs on ventilators and ECMOs.
democrattotheend
(11,605 posts)If so, I agree with him to an extent. Most of my unvaccinated family members say they would take a traditional attenuated vaccine. There appear to be several in use in other parts of the world or in development, but the FDA has refused to grant any of them EUA and has been slow to review their applications for full approval. Is that what this guy is talking about, or is he basically talking about coronavirus parties?
LisaL
(44,962 posts)Their efficacy is not that high. As for what he is talking about, I have no clue if he wants covid parties or dead virus vaccines.