Senior Staff Editor, Opinion
New York Times
Then a stranger went through her old tweets and found confirmation that she had happily gotten vaccinated while pregnant. This person created an image showing her tweet about vaccination next to her tweet about losing her baby.
In September 2021, Amanda Makulec experienced a devastating tragedy when her nearly 3-month-old son died. Makulec, who is active on social media, decided to share the news on Twitter to avoid answering “how’s your baby?” from online acquaintances.
“Safe … and effective” the person wrote, implying a connection. The image spread across the internet. This is despite the fact that her baby’s death had nothing to do with vaccinations.
“I did not expect the moment of my deepest grief and pain to be weaponized against pregnant women and vaccines that could protect them from the worst consequences of Covid-19,” Makulec wrote in a guest essay this week about the experience.
Makulec does not say this solely as a victim of misinformation and Covid-related online bullying, but as an active opponent of it. She is a public health professional who works in data visualization. She spends her time thinking about how to present Covid-19 information in a clear way. That’s why she wanted to share her story to clarify for people that vaccines are safe and that she rejects how her grief was misappropriated in the service of anti-vaccine messaging.
“In a time filled with unknowns, people seek explanations for why terrible things happen and also to assure themselves that one person’s tragedy couldn’t happen to them,” writes Makulec. “But to do so with cruel disregard for the truth, as was done to my family, is an unacceptable new norm that’s reinforced when people demand and share information without thinking about it critically.”
Every Opinion essay at The Times undergoes rigorous fact-checking as part of the editing process. This means that myself (the health and science editor) and a fact checker had to comb through tweets calling Makulec names like “murderer” and “dumbest mother ever,” and see how they were shared. Deeply personal information had to be confirmed. This part of the process is not easy, but it’s critical. Ultimately the only way to defeat lies is with the truth.
Makulec’s advice, as someone who both thinks about how people consume information and who has been the victim of the worst type of misinformation, is always to pause and assess before engaging and sharing. “Doing so might declutter our social feeds to make space for the truth and also save a bereaved family additional pain and suffering,” she writes.
Read her full essay here.
“I did not expect the moment of my deepest grief and pain to be weaponized against pregnant women and vaccines that could protect them from the worst consequences of Covid-19,” Makulec wrote in a guest essay this week about the experience.
Makulec does not say this solely as a victim of misinformation and Covid-related online bullying, but as an active opponent of it. She is a public health professional who works in data visualization. She spends her time thinking about how to present Covid-19 information in a clear way. That’s why she wanted to share her story to clarify for people that vaccines are safe and that she rejects how her grief was misappropriated in the service of anti-vaccine messaging.
“In a time filled with unknowns, people seek explanations for why terrible things happen and also to assure themselves that one person’s tragedy couldn’t happen to them,” writes Makulec. “But to do so with cruel disregard for the truth, as was done to my family, is an unacceptable new norm that’s reinforced when people demand and share information without thinking about it critically.”
Every Opinion essay at The Times undergoes rigorous fact-checking as part of the editing process. This means that myself (the health and science editor) and a fact checker had to comb through tweets calling Makulec names like “murderer” and “dumbest mother ever,” and see how they were shared. Deeply personal information had to be confirmed. This part of the process is not easy, but it’s critical. Ultimately the only way to defeat lies is with the truth.
Makulec’s advice, as someone who both thinks about how people consume information and who has been the victim of the worst type of misinformation, is always to pause and assess before engaging and sharing. “Doing so might declutter our social feeds to make space for the truth and also save a bereaved family additional pain and suffering,” she writes.
Read her full essay here.
14 comments:
Just because I choose not to take an unproven drug does not mean I am anti vax. I support your right to take whatever drugs you want to put into your body. Don’t really care if you die either.
The 5th Circuit’s Reinstatement of Texas’ Internet Censorship Law Could Break Social Media
(Republican Greg Abbott is amok!)
talk to the racist republicans they started all these misinformation shit....
El Paya Jerry McHale will end his own life -
He wrote today: "As best as I can remember, I have suffered four significant falls in the past few months that have left me slightly injured. There is a huge hole in my living room wall after I went crashing through the thin partition one night."
The sadness of the elderly. Pitiful existence.
La mano pachona.
Why no mention of the father (husband)?
Must not be part of the story, huh?
weird.
This blog has dealt in misinformation.
fact.
Da Blimp is losing readers like crazy. his blog is nothing but disinformation. He wrote that Dr. Oz had won in Pennsylvania when that primary vote hasn't even been cast!
Loser with a Loser Blog.
The Philadelphia Inquirer announced Friday it would not endorse any Republican candidates in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate or gubernatorial primaries.
The newspaper’s editorial board said it took “no pleasure” in the move — calling it instead “a sad state of affairs.”
“With abortion rights at stake and right-leaning candidates who can’t agree on who won the 2020 election, The Inquirer Editorial Board has chosen not to endorse a Republican for senate or governor,” it revealed.
The board has historically managed to find “points of agreement” with Republican candidates they don’t necessarily support wholesale, it wrote.
But the unwillingness of most of the GOP hopefuls to accept Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, and their determination to roll back abortion rights, has cost them the paper’s backing.
The Inquirer “wanted to help provide guidance to Inquirer readers with an endorsement in the Republican primaries this year — but we couldn’t,” the board concluded. “Nevertheless, we will not stop engaging in free argument and debate until truth prevails.”
(Herald has not endorsed local Republican Carlos Cascos, and likely won't)
Only a fake news wannabe would believe anything by the New York Times.
Texans asked to turn up thermostats after sweltering heat knocks six power plants offline
Yet another racist republican success story! Wondering what's next. Maybe bus everybody to DC?
THE LYNG SACKS OF SHIT -
Fox News' Sean Hannity shared photos that falsely claimed to show "pallets and pallets" of baby formula at the southern border that were reserved for "illegal immigrants," which CNN quickly debunked, calling the "Fox and Friends" segment an "illuminating example" in "outrage creation."
FOX is anti-America. Should be off the air.
Ms. Makulec's experience just reinforces the fact that some hyenas and pigs come with two legs.
May 14, 2022 at 10:01 AM
Isn't that called predickon?
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