Ben Garrison. Photo Rogue Cartoonist blog
It's not the first bullshit this character has spouted. Still, his story, or cartoon, deserves a mention just in case.
Ben Garrison (1957), well known Montana cartoonist and enthusiast of that right-wing that in the USA they call the "Alt Right", trump sycophant ad nauseam and avowedly anti-vaccine, told Gizmodo by mail, who has been sick with coronavirus for weeks.
According to his account, he believes he caught COVID-19 while dining at a restaurant a couple of weeks ago. Montana has seen a worrying rise in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, with about 900 new cases every day.
"Yes, it's definitely covid and we've had all the symptoms. My wife and I went out with a couple to a restaurant and the next day all four of us were sick. One of us went to see a doctor and was told he had covid."
It is not known whether he was tested or self-diagnosed, but it doesn't matter much considering the reaction and that he believes that hospitals are killing people to reduce the population for I don't know what dark world plan.
Not even the possibility of the coronavirus inhabiting his system has changed his mind about modern science and vaccines.
A cartoon of Garrison pulling another textbook conspiracy mantra, false scepticism. Believe in nothing and no one, except his far-fetched stories of nano-things, reptilians and alien tyrants infiltrating the government.
Garrison says that he and his wife are not feeling well and that he has completely lost his sense of taste and smell. Both, who are in their sixties, believe they are struggling to overcome the illness with home remedies invented by conspiracy theorists.
"Both Tina and I feel slightly better after two weeks, but it has been hard. I have lost my taste and smell, as well as the desire to eat any kind of food. I've lost about 7 kilos. Young people usually recover more quickly, but we're over 60.
When Gizmodo asked Garrison if he had been vaccinated against the coronavirus, he repeated many of the same conspiracy theories that appear in his cartoons.
"We will never take their nasty protein shots, which are neither safe nor effective. They are not real vaccines. They are gene therapy," Garrison said in his email to Gizmodo.
Delirious nonsense combo with Windows-vaccination Godwin 5G Edition
Ivermectin, zinc and beet root juice
"We are taking Ivermectin and various vitamins, including a lot of Zinc". The cartoonist also notes that he is taking beet root juice
In The Nib they dedicate this explicit cartoon of Brian McFadden to the issue and headline: "No cure for cartoonists".
Gizmodo reminds us that none of this has been proven to treat or prevent COVID-19, with monoclonal antibodies and vaccines being the only real ways to fight this pandemic, which continues to rage in many parts of the world.
Garrison has promoted ivermectin in many of his cartoons, such as this one from early September.
In the scene, a horse kicks Dr Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert. The horse, which has penny signs on its hooves, screams an appeal to "common sense" as it bucks Fauci, who is holding a syringe dotted with dollar signs and a skull on the tip of the needle.
Garrison's cartoons are so simplistic and childish that he has to put a caption on every element of the scene to get his readers to understand what it's all about.
Ben has subscribed to every conspiracy card, no matter how crazy, so no one is surprised by his position on vaccines
"The Great Reset", another paranoia that dwells in the minds of anti-vaccine and other conspiracy theorists
Be that as it may, ivermectin has not been proven to help treat the disease. Although it is being studied as a possible treatment for COVID-19, much of this research is riddled with alleged fraud, errors, oversights and questionable, unproven or outright false data.
In appropriate doses, the drug is relatively safe and a useful dewormer in its most popular use for the treatment of parasites in livestock, such as horses. Recently, some people, particularly those influenced by the very active disinformation movements on Facebook, started taking this drug for livestock in the mistaken belief that it can cure or prevent the disease
Gizmodo also recalls that, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, so far this year, ivermectin poisoning has tripled to 1,440 cases and that The New York Times reported on Sunday that in New Mexico, two people have died; their deaths were attributed to the use of ivermectin as a substitute for proven treatments for VAPID-19. State health officials said the ivermectin caused kidney failure in one of the patients.
On this one, Garrison has a point. It's time to stop the madness of the asshole cartoons
Trying to engage in dialogue with a denialist is a waste of time because when faced with any evidence against their absurd theories they will always pull out the wild card of the grand conspiracy, an even less demonstrable argument that they expound by fattening it up with even fatter lies.
A Garrison cartoon tagged on Instagram as misinformation for using a phrase in quotation marks that no one said to illustrate another of the many lies of the conspiracy/anti-vaccine people.
And Garrison continues with the same script:
"15,000 people have died as a result of covid vaccines and hundreds of thousands more have had serious side effects. The mainstream media doesn't mention a word of this, not a word. Instead, we are told over and over again the "safety and efficacy" claptrap, and urged to take the free poison. Don't do it. The CEO of Pfizer sure as hell won't do it. Neither will Bill Gates and his family.
Serious side effects from covid vaccines are extremely rare, and any American is more likely to die from COVID-19 than from vaccines. Garrison's claim that the CEO of Pfizer has not been vaccinated is simply untrue. Bill Gates has also been vaccinated, despite conspiracy theorists ' claims that he will not vaccinate for fear of side effects.
Garrison says he would never visit a hospital for treatment. At least in this he appears to be consistent.
Last week, NBC News reported that anti-vaccine Facebook groups have influenced their members not to seek hospital treatment for COVID-19 and have even directed them to take their sick family members out of the ICU.
"I would never go to a hospital. Robert David Steele did a few weeks ago and they killed him. Hospitals get extra money for covid death reports, which is necessary to keep the fear up," says Garrison
The person Garrison refers to, Robert David Steele, was a conspiracy theorist who frequently appeared on InfoWars with Alex Jones. Steele, 69, believed incredibly bizarre things, such as that NASA had imprisoned children on Mars to work as slaves. Steele, who claimed to be a former CIA officer, reportedly died of COVID-19 in August.
A conspiracy hodgepodge with nano stuff green
Garrison insists that the entire response to the pandemic is about government control, not public health, a recurring mantra among conspiracists, and repeated ad nauseam the false claim that vaccines do not prevent COVID-19:
"It's about vaccine passports, tracking, government control and tyranny."
The United States currently averages over 119,000 new cases per day and over 2,000 new deaths. And with only 55.9% of the population fully vaccinated, the disease is likely to continue to circulate in the population through the winter Source.
Garrison's cartoonss here are just a small sample of a extensive assortment with which the author illustrates the entire repertoire of the most narrow-minded anti-vaccinationists.
