Episode 481 of "Good Morning, Liberty" (Nate Thurston, Chuck Thompson) is interesting for a couple of points of discussion. (Familiar readers may know I've taken exception to their critique of Amash and their pro-Trump positions on his impeachments ( here and here)). One of the items was a kerfuffle over the weekend directed at FL Gov. DeSantis, dealing with a deadly auto accident at a pride parade in South Florida. I myself wrote an ill-timed tweet based on incomplete information at the time, pointing out a trend on auto mishaps by right-wingers (i.e., the fatal assault in Charlottesville). It turns out the elderly male driver couldn't walk with the rest of his gay chorus group and was allowed to drive behind them, accidentally accelerated the car and plowed into his group, resulting in the death of one man and injuries to another one.
The second one was more troubling as Youtube apparently sanctioned a video in which pro-liberty Congressman Massie spoke out against taking a vaccine (I'm a big fan of Tom Massie but I've twice stopped following him on Twitter over things he's tweeted, not that my current group of 7 followers is going to impress anyone). For background, Massie took an antibody test with positive results several months back, suggesting he had been asymptomatically infected in the recent past. He disses the idea of getting a shot, arguing he already has immunity against reinfection. I've written and/or tweeted on this in the past: in fact, people can be reinfected , although the risk is low (like maybe up to 1%) and reinfections tend to be more asymptomatic with low risks of infecting others. You have similar results with vaccine breakthroughs (getting infected after full vaccination), waiting period, etc. I've said I disagree with Massie's decision: we don't know much about duration of immunity, or how effective natural immunity is against more contagious variants. I myself wouldn't rule out a booster shot after my completed Pfizer regime over the months ahead.
I don't know how the GML video got flagged (the hosts suggest maybe it was some bot). Now I suspect most virologists would probably prefer my vs. Massie's opinion. but I wouldn't say Massie's position is unreasonable, engaging in misinformation worthy of censorship. I would say we had more nuanced takes on risks, based on limited information. I would not have censored Massie's take, although I disagree with it.
The good news is the GML guys appealed the suspension and won their appeal. Hopefully, Youtube will be more careful in suspending accounts in the future.
