ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Apologizes to Jehovah’s Witnesses For Falsely Suggesting They Are Anti-Vax

Bangalore

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Apologizes to Jehovah’s Witnesses For Falsely Suggesting They Are Anti-Vax.

https://www.thewrap.com/espn-stephen-a-smith-jehovahs-witnesses-apology/

1) Didn't realize there was a JW NBA player. Is it one of those "Lou Whitaker" deals, where he really is a legit JW who is somehow threading the needle of being a sports pro while still "in good standing", or a "Serena Williams" deal, where she kinda sorta self-identifies as a JW and has attended some meetings but was never baptized?

2) The organization is decidedly pro-vaccine, but there are easily tens if not hundreds of thousands of JWS who, as individuals, have expressed themselves as quite anti-vaccine. There have been numerous BOE letters telling elders to knock it off if they are anti-vax themselves and to make sure there is no dissension in the congregation.

road to nowhere

I resent being called an antivaxxer. Mrna skeptic is correct. It get x the flu vaccine every year and regret that I got the Pfizer 2, but not the booster

slimboyfat

Oh man, I’ve heard local JWs moan about this on and on. They pretend to be angry, but really they are delighted to be misdescribed on the news—because it confirms everything the GB have been saying about the news telling lies about JWs.

In reality the news gets stuff like this wrong all the time, JWs are not being singled out here. The news is so bad, just in terms of getting basic facts wrong, before we even get to bias, I wouldn’t trust them to get anything right, especially not anything that’s actually important.

Who knows what’s really going on in Russia/Ukraine, for example. I listen to the news to hear what the rhetoric of the day is. In terms of facts about troop movements, or who said what, when, I don’t put any faith in it at all. Many news presenters would struggle to accurately report what colour socks they are wearing—am I really expected to believe they have any idea what’s going on thousands of miles away in such a complicated situation?

The news is good for finding out what the powers that be want us to think, not for finding out what is actually going on.

Mum

Some time ago, JW's (officially anyway) were anti-vaccine IN GENERAL. Maybe not everyone is aware of "new light."

Simon

Most people being accused of "Anti Vaxx" are really anti-vaccine MANDATE!

i.e. they don't believe the government should be able to force a medical procedure, particularly an experimental one that hasn't been given FDA approval with no recourse for any harm it causes, on anyone.

WTWizard

I don't think the washtowel is anti-vaccine, and not even anti-coronavirus vaccine. Not when they just about make it mandatory in order to attend in-person boasting sessions (along with the masks) at a time when coronavirus is all but gone. You don't get this torture shot, you are deemed at best "bad associations within the congregation", and they could make it "brazen conduct" if you don't get your torture shots and all boosters as soon as you are eligible. Even without putting out a directive making it mandatory.

And what about being anti-supplement? Where in the washtowel littera-trash or in their discourses does it recommend people start taking vitamins? People with dark skin need vitamin D at all times if they live outside the tropics. Lighter skin people living in northern latitudes (or far southern ones, in cases like South America) need it during fall and winter months. Vitamin C, zinc, quercetin, and elderberry extract all work wonders to make a potentially dangerous virus into a wimpy one that does nothing. Fact is, you are more likely to be hounded, or even taken for "brazen conduct", if you take the Amazon "shot" or some variant of that (which contains quercetin) than if you refuse such supplements.