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October 8, 2024 - 6:30pm
Elon Musk doubled down on his support for vaccines in a Monday interview with Tucker Carlson.
“I’m not anti-vaccine in general,” the Tesla CEO said. “I think we want to exercise caution with the use of vaccines, but in the absence of vaccines, there’ll be a lot more people that have died.” He cited polio and smallpox vaccines as examples of this success.
However, Musk expressed concern about quality control and vaccine mandates. “That doesn’t mean that vaccines should not have any scrutiny,” he told Carlson. “We should be making sure that the quality control of vaccines is incredibly good, since we’re giving them to children.” Further, he warned that “we shouldn’t force people to take vaccines.”
In 2020, Musk said he would not take the Covid-19 vaccine when it was made available. He later came out in support of the jab, and of vaccines in general. “To be clear, I do support vaccines in general & covid vaccines specifically. The science is unequivocal,” he wrote in 2021. Musk reported in 2021 that he and his children received the Covid-19 vaccine, though two years later he said he was nearly hospitalised as a result of the third dose. He has remained sceptical of vaccine mandates and boosters.
The SpaceX founder has in the past shared criticism of earlier claims that the Covid vaccine was 100% effective. Musk also opposed the executive order forcing employers to require workers to get the vaccine or face fines, a rule he said he would have violated. The order was ultimately struck down in court before enforcement began.
During the interview with Carlson, Musk also discussed his support for Donald Trump and joked that he could go to prison if Kamala Harris wins the US election. He suggested that Democrats use anti-democratic tactics, and that if Trump loses in November the party would manipulate the immigration process to win permanent majorities in swing states. “My prediction is, if there’s another four years of a Dem administration, they will legalise so many illegals that the next election there won’t be any swing states, and this will be a single-party country,” he claimed.
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SubscribeI have no issues with the Covid vaccines. I’m sure they helped millions of elderly people and those with underlying health issues. The problem was forcing young, healthy people to take the vaccines, and the overwhelming misinformation about the effectiveness of the vaccines.
Out of interest JV, and assuming you may be similar age, did you have the BCG/TB jab as kids? We all did. Polio too, although I think that was sugar lump.
Scenario obviously different as there wasn’t a TB or Polio pandemic when I had mine, but then why did we all bother?
Clearly there is a difference but I think it’s much more nuanced than the general anti-vaxxer angle (and I appreciate you aren’t one of those).
Were those vaccines that prevented you from catching smallpox and polio? I am old enough to have had the smallpox vaccine.
‘Scenario obviously different as there wasn’t a TB or Polio pandemic when I had mine, ‘
Why was there a COVID pandemic after a mass COVID vaccination programme?
Allow me to down my ink pen for a moment.
‘did you have the BCG/TB jab as kids?’
Why is that relevant.
‘, but then why did we all bother?’
So you didn’t catch TB or polio. Why is that relevant.
‘Clearly there is a difference but I think it’s much more nuanced than the general anti-vaxxer angle’
Really. How do you know how nuanced any persons view on mandatory vaccinations was. You would need a long and in depth conversation to understand how ‘nuanced’ their view was. Are you passing judgement on all people that protested mandatory vaccines? Saying that they aren’t capable of nuance? Are only people that had the covid vaccine capable of nuance? People like you? You’re the only one capable of understanding nuance? And the people that questioned it aren’t?
I’m pretty sure there isn’t a TB vaccine. But there are super strains of TB in America and abroad. These strains are antibiotic resistant. Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies aren’t making new antibiotics, because they aren’t profitable. Back when I read The Los Angeles Times (paper version!,) they had a couple of articles about people with the super strains, who were “super spreaders,”and were forced to stay in the hospital. My memory isn’t what it used to be, but I think the courts ruled against the patients. I think Jacobson v Massachusetts (1906) was involved. That decision allowed the government to take control when there is a public health emergency. Scary.
I was wrong. There is a vaccine for tb, but I don’t remember getting it.
Actually there is lots of evidence that they did nothing, or worse than, for every age group.
The mRNA injections required that the definition of “vaccine” be changed to accommodate the difference between real vaccines and mRNA injections. The proof is in the death rate increases that have been experienced in the vaccinated nations.
There are TB vaccines. What was received as children was a TB test.
That must vary by country. I got the BCG jab about 50 years ago. “The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine used to prevent tuberculosis (TB) and other mycobacterial infections. It is particularly effective in protecting babies and young children against severe forms of TB, such as TB meningitis.”
Mr. Musk’s stuttering style (understandable, since he is the embodiment of ‘deep pockets’ in a litigious society), was thankfully less distressing to this listener during these discussions.
Listening to his perspectives as a merit-based elite on a wide range of current topics was refreshing. He was often somewhat diplomatic, offering no mention of the blueblood mindset of congenital and incidental elites, but his exposure of the simple math and compelling probabilities leading from bypassed legal immigration, to the elimination of Swing States, to a one-party nation was convincing, and disturbing. Such an outcome in coming years would have the character of a constitutional monarchy or simple oligarchy, possibly resulting in a reformed Constitution focusing on pragmatism (as an idol), and with few guiding principles supported by history.
In retrospect, the enforced Covid vaccine injections became a figurative springboard to bypass national ethics and reshape them to implement ongoing political control. But the relevance of this minor point was only structural to the larger discussion.