Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
News:Politics
Guest: David Parsons (@davidlparsons) from the excellent history podcast Nostalgia Trap joins me to discuss Gerald Ford's disastrous rollout of a nationwide vaccination program in 1976 to combat a swine flu pandemic that didn't materialize. Vaccine recipients developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which is sometimes fatal, at a rate 8.8 times higher than the unvaccinated, making this event the foundation of the modern American anti-vax movement. But a closer look reveals that those numbers may not be what they seem, and certainly not what anti-vaxxers use them to mean.
Despite our interest in this poorly-remembered historical event, neither David nor your host endorse any vaccine-related conspiracies, and encourage you to do as we are doing: getting the COVID vaccine at the earliest opportunity.
The cocktail of the month is the Typhoid Mary. Has history been unkind to her? Yes, but it turns out she really was kind of a dick.
Question Cathy returns with the mailbag, where we cover the 9th Amendment, Biden's first month, and Wegman's.
Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@edburmila), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos.
Thanks: David Parsons, the bands that contribute music (Waxeater, IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.
Pop-up Stadium
018 - Amanda Litman of Run for Something / Why You Can't See Out of Your Car
Atlantropa
017 - The Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
Minicast B5: The Cannibal Food Critic
016 - Radical Suburbs / Amanda Kolson Hurley / Diamond Jim Brady
Minicast B4: The Virginia Lottery Buyout Scheme (1992)
015 - How to Hide an Empire / Daniel Immerwahr
Minicast B3: Why Chickens are Chicken but Pigs are Pork
Minicast B2: Naked Came the Stranger
014 - Dr. Rebekah Tromble / Civility on Twitter
013 - Dr. Stephen Pettigrew / The Drunken Inauguration of Andrew Johnson
Minicast B1: The White House Arsonist
012 - Folger Shakespeare Library / How to Run for Local Office
Minicast A6: Nuclear Fracking and Project Plowshare
011 - Special Midterm Election Episode
010 - Ten Cent Beer Night
009 - LIL BUB / Harold Holt
MInicast A5: Why do Trump's Suits Look So Bad?
Minicast A4: The Origins of "Filibuster"
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