In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. And among those diseases could be COVID-19.
Anti-vaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.
Jaclyn Peiser at WP:Hundreds of Staten Island residents holding anti-vaccine signs and waving American flags gathered on Sunday across the street from where New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) was scheduled to speak at a campaign event for local Democrats. The crowd was angry about New York City’s vaccine mandate for municipal workers, which takes full effect on Monday.
But one attendee had another worry — that the city, like the state of California, will force children to get the coronavirus vaccine. So he offered an unnerving warning.
“If they’re going to push this on the kids … I can guarantee you one thing: Town halls and schools will be f---ing burned to the ground,” the man said in a video posted by freelance journalist Oliya Scootercaster.
The crowd clapped, cheered, banged on drums and raised their American flags.
The protest on Sunday comes as conflicts over mask and vaccine mandates grow more violent across the United States. School board meetings have devolved into vitriol and chaos, while teachers, medical workers and flight attendants have been assaulted and harassed for enforcing state and federal guidelines.
The atmosphere in New York has been no exception. On Friday, six firefighters demonstrated outside the Brooklyn office of state Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D). The group told Myrie’s staffers that they will have “blood on their hands” if the mandate goes into effect. Over the past week, more than 2,000 New York City firefighters took sick days as an act of protest
