[teacozy]

This is getting a lot of attention on the internet and thought we could discuss.

First of all, flipping people off is not ok. But there is NO evidence that this person is a CDC employee. No one even knows his name and several people who work for the CDC say CDC employees are required to wear badges and thus do not think he works at the CDC. Third, the person in the video is not blameless in this scenario either. Many (non-vaccine) commenters on the AoA post disagreed with the woman in the video's behavior.

For example:

What does the person on the street owe a protestor? The video clearly shows this man trying to walk around the protestor and then when he's waiting for the light to change to cross the street, she gets in his face and demands his attention. Three times he quietly asks her to "go away" and she doesn't stop, doesn't respect his three requests. Finally, when she fails to engage him, she retaliates by telling him that she's going to take his picture. That's when the finger goes up and while I think it would have been better if he controlled himself and didn't respond to her provocation, I don't blame his reaction to it. She was clearly pushing his buttons.

The CDC has 15,000 employees. All of them do not work in the Immunization Safety Branch. We do not do our movement any favors when we are aggressive with people who just happen to be employees. If you want to get in DeStefano or Boyle's face, I have no problem with that. They deserve it. But this guy was just trying to cross the street. He had no obligation to talk to or listen to anyone.

and:

According to some CDC employees, they all wear badges while out and about. So, he is not a CDC employee. Further, this CDC employee told me that the rally protesters were blocking people's paths, including this guy's, accosting them verbally, preventing them from going to lunch. They may be charges filed against the rally sponsors.

and back to the first commenter

“…you cannot resort to some of the same sort of crass behavior we all complain about w/folks on the other side of the fence, and then resort to same, on our side.”

Exactly right. We complain about being bullied. This guy was bullied, shown on our side’s video that is now all over the internet.

Here is the link to the AoA post. You can see the comments there as there are quite a few people not agreeing with the actions of the woman. As the person pointed out, many people say they were treated badly by the protestors. They have video evidence that I am not sure what they are going to do with. They were blocking people, which is not allowed, and being hostile.

Here is a link to a video: https://www.facebook.com/VaxXed/videos/768793643263677/

Here we have yet another example of anti-vaxers (like the people on AoA) jumping to conclusions without evidence by claiming this is a CDC employee without even knowing his name and B) anti-vaxers expecting people to just drop whatever they're doing to engage and talk to them regardless of what they have going on in their lives. We saw this with Pan when he was confronted and chased after telling them he was busy and couldn't talk. We saw another similar video out of the UK where anti-vaxers showed up unannounced without an appointment to a hospital demanding answers and to speak to a doctor who was working. He had to threaten to call security because they would not leave. Do people really think videos like these makes the pro-vaccine "side" look bad?

For discussion, do you think stunts like this help or hinder the movement wanting policy change and/or a Thompson hearing?

 

[SchoolmarmDE]

This is getting a lot of attention on the internet and thought we could discuss.

First of all, flipping people off is not ok. But there is NO evidence that this person is a CDC employee. No one even knows his name and several people who work for the CDC say CDC employees are required to wear badges and thus do not think he works at the CDC. Third, the person in the video is not blameless in this scenario either. Many (non-vaccine) commenters on the AoA post disagreed with the woman in the video's behavior.

For example:



and:



and back to the first commenter



Here is the link to the AoA post. You can see the comments there as there are quite a few people not agreeing with the actions of the woman. As the person pointed out, many people say they were treated badly by the protestors. They have video evidence that I am not sure what they are going to do with. They were blocking people, which is not allowed, and being hostile.

Here is a link to a video: https://www.facebook.com/VaxXed/videos/768793643263677/

Here we have yet another example of anti-vaxers (like the people on AoA) jumping to conclusions without evidence by claiming this is a CDC employee without even knowing his name and B) anti-vaxers expecting people to just drop whatever they're doing to engage and talk to them regardless of what they have going on in their lives. We saw this with Pan when he was confronted and chased after telling them he was busy and couldn't talk. We saw another similar video out of the UK where anti-vaxers showed up unannounced without an appointment to a hospital demanding answers and to speak to a doctor who was working. He had to threaten to call security because they would not leave. Do people really think videos like these makes the pro-vaccine "side" look bad?

For discussion, do you think stunts like this help or hinder the movement wanting policy change and/or a Thompson hearing?

The topic of this board is vaccination policies and legislation. I do not believe that a discussion of rudeness or activist tactics falls within the scope of this board.

Moderators, can we have a ruling? @mamabear0314 @CricketVS ( both listed as online now)

 

[teacozy]

This was a protest at the CDC about a vaccine cover up asking for transparency and policy change (for example, when you click the link to the video the still is of a woman holding a sign asking for a moratorium on vaccines). I asked at the end of the post if people thought stunts like this helps with that goal. I thought it was fitting here - more fitting than in the general forum - but I would be happy to move it to VOS. I thought people might like to discuss and respond, but if not that's fine.

:shrug

 

[Administrator]

This was a protest at the CDC about a vaccine cover up asking for transparency and policy change (for example, when you click the link to the video the still is of a woman holding a sign asking for a moratorium on vaccines). I asked at the end of the post if people thought stunts like this helps with that goal. I thought it was fitting here - more fitting than in the general forum - but I would be happy to move it to VOS. I thought people might like to discuss and respond, but if not that's fine.

:shrug

This has been moved to VOS.

 

[teacozy]

Sad thing is, someone (I think it was on AoA) linked a profile of a person from the CDC who they thought he was. After it was pointed out that, for instance, the man from the CDC profile was 50 years old, has straight hair, and other glaring differences from the man in the video, they retracted and said it "likely" wasn't him after all.

That wasn't before a bunch of anti-vaccine people made memes and facebook posts using his picture linking this poor man's profile and name claiming he was the one who flipped the protester off. He has more than likely been subjected to goodness knows what kind of nastiness and harassment from the anti-vaccine community.

It's unfortunate and sad that so many in that community are so quick to jump to conclusions with virtually no evidence other than the guy was wearing a suit and was walking in the vicinity of that part of Atlanta.

 

[Dakotacakes]

This actually brings me even more comfort on vaccines. If there were truth to the claims that vaccines were poison and the CDC was an abusive fraud, there would be proof and the evidence would not include groups of people bragging about how they were able to harass a stranger into flipping them the bird and then post it on the internet.

But I do feel bad for this guy who likely just was in the wrong place at the wrong time and became the focal point of this movement.

 

[teacozy]

It's surprising how many people actually think the average person watching the video would sympathize with the protester and not the stranger minding his own business trying to cross the street asking to be left alone being harassed by a woman with a sign who then flips the bird after she states (not asks) that she is going to take a picture of him for doing nothing but try and peacefully cross the street. This isn't Canada. Let's just say she's lucky that flipping the bird is all he did...

 

[teacozy]

Semi amusing development: Looks like AoA bit off more than they could chew and removed the original post from their website replacing it with an update saying that the person they thought was him wasn't. Guess they never could find any evidence that he works for the CDC.