Items

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  2021-03-31

  Retiring Betsy for Alani

  This was the time my mother, brother, and myself came home with a brand new truck during the Pandemic. It was by far my favorite memory of the pandemic because not only was it the family's first ever brand new vehicle, but it was my first car purchase as well. We had an old hunk of junk 2001 Mercedes Benz SUV that was falling apart on us, which we nicknamed Betsy. She served us well as a reliable SUV, but my family and I had talked at length over the course of months that we needed a new car but couldn't possibly imagine actually getting on, especially during the microchip shortage of 2020-2021. Somehow it happened, and it will always be my favorite memory of the pandemic. Why is it called Alani? Alani in Hawaiian means Orange, and that's pretty much the main feature of the truck. A giant orange pumpkin with wheels.
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  2021-05-15

  Getting My Vaccine!

  I got my Pfizer vaccine! It's actually surreal to me to think that I got a vaccine because I was quite pessimistic about Covid in 2020. I think there was a voice in my head telling me that we're going to be in “this” for so long, and that it's going to be so bad but when I wrote my second Coronavirus journal entry, I said “I think we might get a vaccine by 2021 but I don't think it will be distributed to the public quickly until mid 2021” and I hit it right on the nail with that. I guess my prediction was pretty lucky. The progress that the United States has made with vaccines has been outstanding to be honest. I think it might be regarded as one of the most successful events in modern US history. A couple months back it was crazy for me to see that juniors in my French class we're being taken out to get the vaccine. At the time I was hearing about how Canada was lagging behind in vaccines. Even more crazy to me is that this Friday, my school opened up the gym for students 12-15 years old to get vaccinated so students in my grade got vaccinated at PE. Interestingly enough a classmate of mine was in the trial for under 15 year old kids. I'm sure that he documented his experience, but my experience with him being in the trial was that we teased him in Science class after he got his first dose. We said “oh you got the microchip” and “I bet your cellular connectivity got better”. He of course laughed it off. A lot of my humor is sarcasm, irony, and pretending to be dumb so when I said “oh you got the microchip” and “I bet your cellular connectivity got better”, it was meant (and taken) as a joke. But of course in humor, lies some truth. There are people that believe those things. There are people that are believing this misinformation from the internet. There are “Karen's” on the internet saying stupid things. There have been campaigns to fight misinformation about the vaccine and I think they've been successful, but there will always be dumb people. I think there are some famous people that are not using their influence for good, which is terrible as I think they have an obligation to support the vaccine. Someone I think that embodies this is LeBron James. I don't think he's gotten enough blow back for his comments. He is one of the most influential people in the world and his comments are damaging. His comments could indirectly be killing people. There is also some irony in his actions and his comments. It's well-known that he spends over 1.5 million dollars a year to keep his body in Tip-Top shape but he won't take a free vaccine. Anyways my experience getting the vaccine was pretty standard. I went into the hospital at 10:30, got my vaccine card (and an extra to archive), got pricked (it didn’t even hurt), waited 15 minutes and went home. Now 2 hours after I'm writing this, I haven't had any side effects other than some pain in the arm that I got it in. My dad got some bad side effects after his first dose, but not after his second, which seems to be odd because most people get worse side effects after the second dose. I’ll have to see if I get bad side effects from the first or second dose. Also if you’re reading this 50 years from now, check out if they have my vaccine card.
• 
  2020-12-15

  No, COVID-19 vaccines don’t contain Satan’s microchips (and other scary conspiracy theories aren’t true either)

  The article addresses four of the main COVID-19 vaccine conspiracies as well as expert opinions about them.
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  2020-05-29

  Coronavirus: Bill Gates 'microchip' conspiracy theory and other vaccine claims fact-checked

  This story specifically addresses and debunks the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus vaccine implants microchips into an individual's bloodstream, as well as some background ideas as to why conspiracy theories are prevalent and a rumored cow dung vaccine.
• 2020-05-22

  Half of Fox News Viewers Believe Bill Gates Wants to Use Virus Vaccines to Track You, New Poll Says

  "Misinformation is taking a dangerous hold on Fox News viewers. According to a new poll, half of all Americans who name Fox News as their primary news source believe the debunked conspiracy theory claiming Bill Gates is looking to use a coronavirus vaccine to inject a microchip into people and track the world’s population." This connects to the conspiracy theories floating around. It is a strong indication of how politics and the media affect the population during a crisis.