Shame: How we were duped by anti-vaxxers

There is no easy way of saying this but I have been duped this past week and the likely culprits, according to the real victim in this, are anti-vaccine campaigners.

Earlier this week I reported that Customer Services and caretaker Fair Trading Minister Victor Dominello is retiring from politics at the NSW state election next year– which is true.

As I mentioned in this story (now corrected) the official reason given was growing health concerns for a member of his family.

However, with all the comings and goings at Fair Trading, there was speculation around that there may really have been a political reason for his retirement.

Then I read a report that the “health issue” was that he’d been diagnosed with Bells Palsy, complete with a picture of Mr Dominello with a droopy eye.

That’s a symptom of the condition, so I slotted that into the story. Only it wasn’t true.

Now, I am not in the habit of taking information from social media but this seemed innocuous enough and it looked like a genuine media release from his office. The droopy eye picture seemed to confirm it.

However, on Saturday morning I received a surprisingly friendly (all things considered) call from Mr Dominello saying that the story was complete bull and he suspected it was the work of anti-vaxxers who have targeted him in the past.

The picture of the droopy eye was an old one, explained by the fact that he did have the condition about a year ago but it was completely resolved within a matter of weeks.

The majority of people who suffer from this are completely cured, some sooner than others, as it affects people differently and varies according to how quickly they seek medical treatment.

Last year, when he first contracted the condition, anti-vaxxers had leapt on the news as “proof” that covid-19 vaccines were dangerous, despite the fact that it had been several months since Mr Dominello had been vaccinated.

For the record, every year between 3,000 and 10,000 Australians are affected by Bell’s Palsy, a sudden weakness or paralysis in one side of the face.

“It is usually temporary — most people start to get better in two weeks and are fully recovered in 3 to 6 months,” the government’s Health Direct website says, although it adds that a small number of sufferers are left with some weakness or paralysis of the muscles in their faces.

The ever-smiling Victor Dominello is clearly not one of the latter – thanks to  immediate treatment, his condition cleared up within a few weeks, he says.

I now know what the real issue is behind Mr Dominello’s retirement – and it is a family health matter – so I can only apologise unreservedly to him and the readers of this website for falling for a grubby trick by anti-vaxxers. Shame on me for being so naïve.

But here’s a thought – if you have to resort to deliberate and calculated deception and misinformation to convince people, maybe there’s something wrong with your argument in the first place.

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