Matthew Says Missinfo Can Kill
Hey y'all,
I wanted to write in about the PayPal misinformation story in 487. I totally agree that fining people over misinformation is a dangerous standard and PayPal was overstepping their bounds there.
However, the comment about misinformation not killing people really hurts. A family friend died last year to Covid. She would post articles on Facebook about how the Covid vaccine contains fetuses or mutates your DNA. I don't know why she specifically decided to not be vaccinated, but based off those Facebook posts, it seems she believed misinformation around them. She wasn't able to make a well informed decision.
This comment isn't meant to be about if someone should be vaccinated or not. She may have still died even if she was vaccinated. But, it's also likely she would be alive today if she was.
I think it's quite reasonable to discuss if and how we as a society should deal with misinformation. I just want you to understand that, at least in some cases, misinformation does kill people.
Thank you for the show. I will continue listening.