For several days now, people walking past the ProPrint copy shop at 6th and Monroe, across the street from the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, have been seeing posters in the front window which warn of alleged harm resulting from the vaccines used against COVID-19.
Owner Carter “Skip” Hamilton is friendly and glad to talk about the posters, but wary of being misrepresented. “I’ve been in some dogfights in the past,” he said. “I want to be very careful how I’m characterized.”
In a world where the term “anti-vaxxer” has been coined to collect everyone from parents unwilling to risk autism in the shape of a DPT vaccination to people who sincerely believe that mRNA technology will change their genetics, it’s a fair concern.
“I’ve had my vaccines throughout childhood,” Hamilton said. “My three sons had their vaccines. I am not an anti-vaxxer.”
So where does he get the information he presented on his store windows?
Hamilton says he has been a self-taught web researcher ever since he developed a serious health condition which required his becoming his own source of information. These research skills came to bear as the world came to know COVID-19 and vaccines became available. His primary source on the web became Dr. Peter McCullough, who prefers a treatment protocol of stronger at-home care over hospitalization for COVID patients.
When asked about his sources, Hamilton pointed to one of the posters, which featured a group of head shots of physicians, biologists, and medical researchers. “They represent (a collective) 450 years of experience,” he said. “They say the public is not getting informed consent. There’s been a tremendous amount of censorship in the twenty months of the pandemic.”
He pointed to another poster. “These fifteen thousand deaths — that’s right off the CDC website — why is there no open discussion about it? Censorship is a plague on a republic.”
When asked if he worried about public opinion, he said, “I don’t think that’s an issue.”
When asked about concerns about the posters harming his business, he said, “I knew it would affect my business. Of course the risk concerned me, but where were my values?”
“What happened to free speech?” he asked with a gesture that was eloquent of weariness and dismay.
The Research
The conclusion that the COVID-19 vaccines are too dangerous to be used are based largely on data from the Vaccine Adverse Effect Reporting (VAERS) website, which is maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is a site where any person can post.
It is at the input end of the process — in other words, what data is entered — where conclusions are drawn. VAERS was created because of a backlash against vaccines in the 1970s due to a concern about a whooping cough vaccine which was eventually proved to be groundless — but not before the “anti-vax” movement had formed and gained quite a head of steam.
Since VAERS was put in place, there have been several errors created in vaccine studies which have been corrected. While the errors have since been corrected, the erroneous results are still being quoted. Some data are simply being misinterpreted.
The data in VAERS was collected through individuals who are not necessarily scientists. Rather anyone who has something to say about a vaccine is welcome to enter their reactions or perceived reactions into the collective.
VAERS is not the only place in which false information can be propagated. One of the first studies of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines accidentally used an incorrect number for the total number of vaccinations which had been done in the study area, resulting in a conclusion that adverse effects were happening to one person in 1,000 — when it was actually one in 25,000.
And Today
Hamilton, has been an Oathkeeper for years, raised his family in Corvallis, was a Boy Scout leader for 15 years and has been a business owner for even longer. Now, he has felt that he had to “censor” himself and his business by taking down the signs, because he worried it would negatively impact the business he has worked to build. He worries that someone who perhaps had just gotten the vaccine might see the signs and choose to not do business with ProPrint.
Another sign on Hamilton’s window read “Biden is a Clear & Present Danger to the United State.” As a Vietnam veteran, he was troubled at the situation left behind in Afghanistan when President Biden pulled our forces.
“This has nothing to do with Democrat or Republican, nothing to do with liberal or conservative,” Hamilton said. “After watching the investigation, what he did ultimately makes it clear to me that thousands will be lost.”
He also worries that Corvallis will judge him for that sentiment.
Ultimately, Hamilton believes the questions about vaccination remain in each person’s own hands. He said, “I didn’t advocate for or against getting the shot. I am against a vaccine mandate.”
By John M. Burt
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