Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for August 25, 2021

I hope that was a Johnson & Johnson — one and done.

Doctor Rat shot #1.

I think we may need to use force against the unvaccinated.

The insurance industry has started denying claims for hospital stays for Covid. They figure you won’t be there if you’ve been vaccinated, and, if you haven’t, you should pay for it yourself. Maybe, that will scare people into getting the shots.

Neighbor Bob administered Rat a dose of distemper vaccination the hard way.

One of my close kin got vaccinated (only) because I set up the appointment, then guilted them about calling to cancel at least a couple of days in advance, so someone else would have a chance (this was back when they were being released according to some priority system)… and they’re not good at that sort of thing. Then I took them, personally, to the appointment. And prodded them to the second one.

But, bottom line, they’re still unhappy about “big pharma” and “intrusive government” and (for all I know) Bill Gates and RFID chips… so I sincerely doubt they’ll get another. (They also don’t get flu shots, or visit the doctor until they have to be hauled to the ER by friends or family).

I know two people that refused to get the shot. Until they both got Covid-19 that is, then they became believers. Prior to the last President getting elected I had no idea there were so many stupid/misinformed people in this country!

Also, if they are truly worried about tracking devices in their bloodstream due to the shot how do you tell them about their cell phones?

A modest proposal: Require anyone who isn’t vaccinated to wear a biohazard sign around their neck.

I always suspected that Rat fantasized about shooting people, but I didn’t picture this.

Now that the Pfizer has been approved the wing nuts will come up with some other lame excuse not to get it.

Yay for Rat!

There probably wasn’t covid vaccine in that hypodermic, it was BEER!

We don’t know if the guy was vaccinated or not. He simply objected to being asked. Rat is way out of line here.

That is where all the data helps. Balance the risk vs age vs reaction. For my age it was easy. For my daughter not so much. For my grandkids, again easy.

Never would’ve taken Neighbor Bob for…whatever anti-vaxxers deserve to be called.

Check the number of fully-‘vaccinated’ people who are dying of Covid-19, then call people who choose not to be ‘vaccinated’ stupid.

No surprise he reacted that aggressive: You spilled Bobs coffee, Rat!

I do not care if antivaxxers jump off a cliff. I just do not want them polluting my grandchildren.

A poor comic today. I do not know what to think about it. My body, my choice, used to be a leftist slogan. In the meantime, the left became authoritarian.

Also he’s a bit dissapointed that it did not kill him and that he even doesn’t hear secret mesages from Bill Gates.

Hey everybody, we live in a FREE country. If you’re that worried about all of this then stay home. I got vaccinated and it is none of your business. Live and let live.

Be a good nazi and take a shot !

Well that’s it for me. I left this strip it was so depressing and political and tried once more, but nope can’t do it. Ugh, used to be funny.

It is amazing how this pandemic has revealed how many people favor totalitarianism.

If unvaccinated folk did NOT pose a health risk to others, I’d say, let them get sick, it’s their choice alone.

But it’s a public health crisis. It’s still their choice, but that choice has consequences that affect other people in the community—people you know and interact with— and the healthcare system.

No matter what your reason is for your hesitancy (“owning the libs”, denying the current president a “win”, the microchip, etc), please consider getting the vaccine, especially now that the list of real consequences (losing your job, having to be tested on a regular basis, unable to travel) is growing.

Come on, Bob. The government and Big Pharma know what’s best for you. Now you don’t have the burden of having to think for yourself anymore.

Not sure I’d trust an unqualified rat to administer a medication. Is that what it’s come down to?

You have one of the best comic strips going. Please don’t start shilling for the government.

Some people who wear seat belts still get hurt in auto accidents, therefor you don’t need the vaccine. ~ Anti-Vax Anthem

You’ve gotta get that shot or else the world will never recover and we’ll have to wear these masks forever.

I’m shocked SHOCKED that Rat did the whole world a favor!

We need more Rats!

Wow. The harbinger of the plague is vaccinating someone? I never thoughts I’d sees anything like this.

If you want to know the truth and unfortunately some of you don’t the decision to get or not get the shot is not a political one. This fear of vaccines is on both sides. I live right in the middle of what you would call Trump country. People still have his signs up. And guess what? Everyone I know has gotten their shot. The only one I know that hasn’t is a 27 year old woman who is a clerk in my office and she is non-political. The media is portraying it as a left right thing so as to keep us divided as always and to get us not to look at things that make us question Biden. It is only a political issue because the politicians and and media claim it is. Half the people in America don’t get yearly flu shots.

Eat your broccoli!

I have much more sympathy for people who lived through the Black Death now. I used to think they were all ignorant and superstitious… and then came COVID.

Just think, dumbasses of the world! What would America be like if other vaccines were not concocted for MUMPS, MEASLES, CHICKEN POX, RUEBELLA, POLIO, ETC, ETC!!! How stupid can anyone be?

Now with the APPROVAL from the FDA, what EXCUSES will they come up with next, not to get the shot?

Rat should just put a bullet in his head so he can stop obsessing over everyone else

VERY OFFENSIVE COMIC

We all need to start flagging every post that is dangerously spreading misinformation regarding the pandemic.

Rat was feeling a bit stabby.

X-Man Wolverine can’t get the vaccine; his bones are metallic which would bend the needle of the syringe (and he has a healing factor).

Rat has his convictions and for this one he should do some time.

And the mass hysteria continues.

Way to go Rat. Your bed side manner is a little rough but we can work with it. The Covid-19 pandemic of THE UNVACCINATED is a danger to us all. Anti-vaxers are allowing this virus to mutate to ever more dangerous iterations. You do not exist in a vacuum! You ARE part of a bigger organism called humanity. We all do have some responsibility to greater whole of humanity. DO NOT POLITICIZE a pandemic as it is a pathogen that can harm or kill anyone of us. We have vaccinated ourselves against things such as polio for a century. Find the truth but beware of those who peddle their OPINIONS as TRUTH for they usually have a counter productive ideology that has no concern for your or health or wellbeing. Do not surrender your intelligence to conspiracy theories. Make it a great day.

Rat for president!

Nice to see Rat get beaten up for once.

hey are you drunk while driving? how dare you ask. I am aware that this may lead to running over somebody and even getting somebody killed but how do you dare ask if I may place in danger the people around me for my own actions

are you carrying a concealed weapon? hey that’s crossing the line; is not your business if I break the law or not, even if the purpose of a gun is to shot somebody else

do you intend to go with a gun to a school? hey that’s not your business, the law (or at least the law I just made up even if there is no real law about it) says I can do whatever I can, and if you tell me otherwise you are violating my rights and my freedom, which obviously is doing whatever I want no matter what other people want or are allowed to

do you plan to use a mask? I can not breathe with that thing, so even if I may be spreading the virus being part of a society and watching over other people’s rights is against my constitutional rights. Poor me, boohoo

are you vaccinated? since there is a risk even though is way smaller (at least 100 times smaller, and even more in senior groups) than the risk of being infected and having severe symptoms including possible death, it is my choice. Of course other people are obligated to serve me and put other costumers at risk because of course, it is them who don’t have a choice, so of course you are way out of line

And many do not get the flu shot. Interesting how the seasonal flu numbers are almost nil compared to COVID numbers. Many folks cannot tolerate the vaccine. Some get the shot and have adverse reactions. Although the Delta variant has a higher rate of occurring, the actual death numbers are either not reported or extremely low. Whether to get a medical injection is a personal matter, as was the flu vaccine, which did cause many deaths. In this America with HIPA regulations, it’s no one business.

If you ask someone if they’re vaccinated and they don’t immediately say “Oh yeah, I got (name of vaccine and month” then odds are they’re unvaccinated and you should immediately leave.

Only way to deal with people like that is to inconvenience them. It’s all that seems to get through their thick skulls.

Yes, the stupid and misinformed really became obvious when Trump was president. He was the best president we have ever had, and they hated him because he did what was right and smart making them look stupid.

A study of the people refusing to vaccinate show that Blacks and Hispanics have a much higher percentage overall. Harris is on record as saying that she would take the vaccine because it is “trump’s” vaccine. She has little credibility on vaccine mandates as a result.

One could ask, I suppose.

There are all kinds of videos and documentation of Biden, Harris and Pelosi telling Americans NOT to take the vaccine while they were campaigning…

We can’t have this rat

That’s assault, and rat got what he deserved.

I thought Covid-19 was a fairy tale! Caught by someone else, but not by me. / It was out to get me, that’s the way it seemed / Covid-19 haunted all my dreams

Then I caught the bug, now I’m a believer / Not a trace, of doubt in my mind / I’m in bed, and I’m a believer! / I couldn’t leave here if I tried!

I thought masks were more or less a given thing That others might wear them, I would not! / What’s the use in vaccines? All the shots in vain! / ’Cause I hated needles, I got pain!

And then I caught the bug! Now I’m a cadaver! / Not a trace, of air in my lungs! / I’m in Hell! I’m a believer! I couldn’t leave here if I tried!

What’s the use of crying? I’m as good as dead! They’re buyin’ marble for my head! / ‘Cause I caught the bug! Now I’m a cadaver!

Prove he wasn’t already vaccinated.

Okay Rat, do your duty!

Oh, are you related to Pizza Rat?

Oh, Ivermectin from the feed lot

All the live long day.

Ivermectin, apple flavor,

Just to keep disease away.

.

I don’t listen to my doctor

Though he’s tried to warn;

Ivermectin’s what I’m taking,

Till Gabriel blows his horn.

(Looks familiar? I posted it at Ohman’s cartoon, too. And Twitter.)

Is there anyone out there who got the vaccine and refuses to answer this question? I’ve certainly never met such a person. Everyone I know takes “I don’t want to answer” to mean “no.” So you’ve still answered the question, you’ve just done so in a way that makes me feel like you aren’t actually confident in your conviction that you don’t need a vaccine. Because if you truly believed you didn’t, why would you hide your unvaccinated status? If you are ashamed of your answer, you should rethink your stance. Otherwise, grow up and just answer the question so the rest of us can take precautions in our interactions with you.

Beneath comment… but Rat would be dead.

Damn… I ran out of popcorn

I’m surprised that Rat forgot that no good deed goes unpunished.

Child: Mommy, what’s that scar on your arm?

Mom: That’s where I got my smallpox vaccine.

Child: Why don’t I have one?

Mom: Because it worked.

Whenever someone answers “it’s personal”, it’s pretty obvious that they didn’t get the vaccine.

He didn’t reveal whether or not he was vaccinated. Rat just RE-vaccinated someone, possibly. Wasted resources that could have gone to someone needing it, because of rat-panic. Anti-vax MANDATE does NOT equal anti-vax.

Where did Bob say he wasn’t vaccinated? Why are 204 people commenting on his NOT being vaccinated when all he said was MYOB about who is vaccinated and who isn’t? You don’t know he isn’t vaccinated. You just know he doesn’t want to tell YOU. Mob mentality leading the stupid, as usual.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Bob’s response.

Funny how the right passed laws that make knowingly giving someone HIV – which is now treatable – a felony but don’t apply the same logic to an even more deadly disease that is far easier to spread?

My idea is to give out dart guns with darts that have the vaccine, and you bring in proof you “gave” someone their first vaccine you get $100. $200 if you gave a person their second vaccine. $400 if you give the same person both vaccines. $300 if you give the third booster for Pfized. $800 the two needed and the booster to the same person. If an un-vaccinated person hurts a vaccinator, it’s the death penalty. No stand your ground defense or castle doctrine.

I’m sick of people getting rewarded for getting their vaccine late. Those of us who did it as soon as we could need some compensation.

Rat vaccinated Bob and Bob got to beat up Rat.

Really, everyone wins here.

I want us to get to herd immunity as much as the next guy. Just not that way.

Rat’s reckless behavior, even if well-intended, is criminal.

Prosecute!

I don’t take the vaccine because time has shown it does not work. It does not keep anyone from getting the virus and some studies show the viral load being spread is much greater in those who have been vaccinated when they do get it.

Plus it’s not even a vaccine, as it does not contain a weakened form of the virus; it works more like a gene therapy, except that it doesn’t work correctly. In fact it’s so bad now they want you to get a booster every six months. That’s insane.

If you want to ignore all the reports of health issues caused by it and take it, more power to you, but don’t come at me insisting I put that garbage in my body. It’s my body and my choice. I’d rather take my chances with Covid that I have a 0.1% chance of dying from. And the Delta one is even more benign, that’s why the news no longer talks deaths, just cases. That’s how a virus evolves in time, it becomes less deadly, because if it kills all its potential hosts then it dies too. Like everything else that has some form of life, it wants to live too.

The good news seems to be that those of us actually using our brains only have to hold out for a few years, the opinion is a good majority of those who took this thing will die in that time. I for one plan to point and laugh.

You will never win the battle against stupidity, the gods themselves fight in vain; and if you challenge a fool in public, you take the risk that no one will appreciate the difference.

Refusing to talk about it pretty much confirms that you haven’t been anyway.