SUMMARY: Health misinformation, especially around COVID vaccines, leads to too many people deciding that the vaccine is really a way to control us. When people get violent at others who want mask mandates to protect children in school and when a whole pharma company fights for a drug that almost all medical professionals say doesn’t work, it’s time to rethink what our job really is.

The video on CNN of people yelling at a school board member voting for a mask mandate in Tennesee is enough to make any logical, educated person upset. As a resurgent COVID virus takes more lives and makes more people sick, it’s hard to believe that so many people could believe all the conspiracy theories about COVID vaccines.

Misinformation spreads three to four times faster on social media. Yet, Facebook has disabled the Facebook accounts of two NYU researchers and the access to data they have been using to study how misinformation spreads on the company’s platform. Facebook did not want anyone researching how they target people with posts and ads.

Within pharma, Biogen continues to push its narrative about a drug that most medical professionals say doesn’t work as more health insurers say “no” to the product. The whole pharma industry seems to be in denial about the changes in healthcare that are coming.

President Biden today is going to call on Congress to do something about drug pricing. Drugmakers, reeling from reduced doctor visits and demand for some drugs amid the pandemic, have raised prices on more than 500 medicines this year, an analysis released in January showed. Medicare IS going to start negotiations with drug companies, and it’s only a matter of time. The argument that drug companies need the money for R&D is bullshit, and most know it now.

What about a vaccine mandate?

According to Law Professor Elizabeth Dohms-Harter, the reality is, legally, no, you can’t be forced to take a vaccine. You’re not going to be physically restrained and given a vaccine by any legitimate public health authority in the U.S. at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels.

But that’s not the same as a vaccine mandate. A vaccine mandate means we’re setting a condition on you returning to society or participating in a particular activity. And that condition is you’re vaccinated.

The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that we can set vaccine mandates at the state or local level. So right now, we have Supreme Court precedents allowing that to occur.

Some employers are already mandating vaccines for employees, and today President Biden is mandating vaccinations for all Federal employees. But what about the stupid people in states like Tennesee that threatened school board members by telling them, “we know where you live”?

There isn’t yet a drug for stupidity. If there were, it would go to mega-blockbuster status in a short time. I evaluate online health resources for some clients, and some of the information I’ve read online should be illegal and the writers treated as criminals. I keep wondering when the healthcare industry will unite to fight health misinformation, but they’re too worried about their profits.

Use your outrage against what is wrong to be the change we need so very much within this industry and country. Part of our jobs now is to take an active part in the election process and call out wrong information wherever we find it. Please don’t ever give up!