The challenge, like mask wearing from earlier this year, is that we are dealing with a totally new vaccine and everything about it is not totally known. What happens then is "science," as it does, keeps researching. Facts are revealed piecemeal, statistics are shared and then there becomes "an element of truth" that becomes destructive moving forward — even when new information debunks what was shared earlier. The information is out on the Internet and it gains a life of its own. Driving a stake through the heart of rumor is likely a Monty Python-like quest that is never-ending.
Here is a tidbit from one such "news item" that is a real news item and not fabricated. To set it up a bit, it was reported that people vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine developed Bell's palsy. Four people, a true story.
The rumor mill and distortion factory will take this information and declare that the "COVID Vaccine Causes Bell's Palsy!" We all know that many people only read headlines and they can even take a direct quote from a reliable news source and subject it to their deliberate distortion.
For old people, they might remember Paul Harvey, who had a radio segment he called The Rest of the Story. He would begin with news of the day and then add a "twist" at the end, thus the name of the segment.
As for the Bell's palsy bit, see this news item that is "current" for today and so the facts could change:
"While the original news article was accurate, fact-checking group PolitiFact has said that the Bell’s palsy story has become exaggerated and distorted. Scientists have said that the number of people who developed Bell’s palsy — 4 in a group of 22,000 — is consistent with the number of people who have the disease in the actual population, and may have nothing to do with the vaccine, according to PolitiFact. The Food and Drug Administration is monitoring the issue."
Unfortunately, Paul Harvey is dead and the "rest of the Bell's palsy story" will never be heard in the rumor-spreading factories of today.
It is game on!
