You are right about the "chicken little syndrome" that has been around for a long time. Rumors are not facts and they spread like wildfire, generally between people who trust one another, making them powerful even though they aren't true. For example, when we hear about all the deaths from tornadoes around the country, they are not extraordinary. I recall that there were those that rumored that the tornadoes had increased immensely because of our aboveground nuclear testing back in the 1950s. When the media reports it with exaggerated words, some people take that exaggeration and increase it through their social networks, online or not.

It's easy to dispel your Covid-19 vaccination fears that seems to be widely accepted among social circuits but bears no basis in fact. I just checked the international source of deaths, so far. United States, regardless of its size of population has the highest rate of death from the virus, per capita, than any other country, 1,161,019. In other words, approximately .3225053% of our population yet far greater than India's 440,000 deaths with a much larger population, why is that? Actually, our death rate and the world death rate was much better largely because of government action using quarantine, isolation, masking and vaccinations to wipe out the disease that was originally projected to kill 3.5% of the world population. The vaccinations, in some countries mandatory, ensure some immunity that will last a long time.

Why was our death toll much higher than all the other countries? Probably because we have a very large number of people that were susceptible to the disease through their lifestyle and illnesses. Many being kept alive by stringent measures like heavy doses of drugs and even dialysis that eventually results in death anyway. But for those that were seemingly healthy, like your friends who took the vaccine and died, their immune systems were just not ready. But the secondary reason simply was that in this country we have freedom of choice. I have heard so many who neglected to get the vaccine or believed the rumors about the vaccine and ended up getting Covid-19 and are now suffering long-term consequences. Like my younger brothers.

As a result of trials, vaccines are required to state any aftereffects, including death. I recall on Thanksgiving morning 1963, in the hospital preceding my exploratory spinal surgery with the neurosurgeon, him telling me that there was a 50% chance that I would experience some paralysis (I only had weakness in my left arm and hand) and that there was a possibility of 10% that I would die. With my parents present, although I was 20, I consented by my signature. Only to be awakened on the operating table to see if I was alive. Woke up again in my hospital bed with no function below my neck. After much pain of feeling and function coming back, and five weeks, I walked out of the hospital with paralyzed hands and arms, never to run again.

I could've gone on a campaign against any spinal surgery or even sued my neurosurgeon for malpractice. But that disclaimer that I signed made it impossible, even though my neurosurgeon told me that I was "my only failure" in thousands of operations to save people's lives from spinal injury and conditions. When my twin brother had a similar operation after being paralyzed in a ski accident, he recovered function. While I avoided further spinal surgery, I've had several surgeries and even one in 2012 that saved my life.

All this talk about the failure of the government and pharmacy corporation greed and malfeasance is mostly just talk, downright rumor. I'm sorry for your experience with those close to you. But there will probably was an underlying cause of their deaths other than the vaccine. Of the myriad vaccines that I've had ever since my childhood smallpox and polio vaccines, I have never had any side effects, including my four Covid-19 shots. Except, occasionally, a sore muscle from having the needle injure the muscle a bit that quickly heals.

Ron