Yes, I had a very severe reaction to my second Moderna shot. But part of being a responsible scientist with a large platform is not extrapolating my personal experience to the entire population.
I also have a rare autoimmune condition called Parsonage-Turner syndrome (diagnosed in 2013), so I may have been particularly vulnerable to side effects.
Given my bad experience with the first mRNA vaccine I've ever taken, I have made the personal decision to avoid them in the future.
However, it would have been incredibly unscientific and highly irresponsible of me to take this personal experience of mine and start telling millions of people online to not get vaccinated for COVID.
There's a reason quack alternative medicine practitioners plaster personal testimonies all over their websites. They sound convincing to a lot of people. But it's purely manipulation. Personal testimony, even a large collection of them, isn't a substitute for real, population-level data.
I am not an expert on vaccines, the COVID vaccine, or epidemiology in general. So when I experience a serious side effect taking something with a non-zero rate of serious side effects, I understand that my personal experience likely isn't an indication that we're all being lied to about safety.
You should understand that as well.
The impulse to extrapolate a very negative personal experience to the entire population is very strong. But responsible scientists, and especially those with large public platforms, should resist that impulse.
There were "assigned" toilets, outside the main toilet area, for "menstruating girls".
Why not go the whole hog and have the girls stay away from school for the duration of their period?
Incredible that some kind of lawyer somewhere must have advised that this was all tickety-boo
Since Andy Burnham wants to be the next Labour leader, here’s a reminder:
Andy accused victims of Pakistani-Muslim grooming gangs of trying to “propagandise” the issue.
He tried to block the grooming gangs inquiry in Manchester and nationally.
He claimed that Pakistani-Muslims grooming gangs are a “thing of the past” despite clear evidence that little girls are still being victimised to this day, including in his local area.
And what does he call the LITTLE GIRLS who were raped under his watch?
Not children.
Not little girls.
“Young women.”
Even on the most basic level, Burnham tried to shift the blame onto victims and refused to acknowledge that they were children.
Countless little girls were raped, exploited and even murdered by Pakistani-Muslim grooming gangs, while powerful men like him turned a blind eye.
Andy Burnham belongs in prison, not Parliament.
And certainly not in 10 Downing Street.
@GerryHassan@Rokewood The repugnant anti-democratic Scottish National Party. Soft on fraud (Murrell), rapists (Sturgeon) and paedophiles (Linden). Exactly the sort of evil people the US & good Scots with other allies fought & defeated at D Day.
I can do this all day. 17 years gives so much fodder.
I want AI to succeed, and have been positive about many systems (Claude Code, AlphaFold, AlphaGeometry, Cicero, etc).
It’s not AI that I hate; it’s bullshit and greed that I despise. Not my fault that field has been taken over by the latter two—that’s what I am trying to fight.
Trans activists used the slur TERF as a means to intimidate, shame, and silence all women who disagree with their ideological worldview.
But the plan backfired on them in the most spectacular way.
By labelling every woman who lives in reality a TERF, they created an army of proud TERFs who will, without a shadow of a doubt, defeat them.
There’s a delicious poetic justice to this that warms my terfy heart.
Link to full interview with @SNewmanPodcast below
<I’m also a black lesbian who is frequently mistaken for a man. And I’ve never voted right of Labour, fwiw. Your assessment is pure fantasy. The Code is accurate guidance to the law. If you don’t like the law, take it up with parliament. Don’t mistake the map for the territory.