Montana Weirdos Fail To Ban Vaccinated People From Donating Blood

There is literally a blood shortage right now.

There's committing to a bit and then there's committing to a bit .

Anti-vaxxers have taken the "Oh, you wanna say we're a danger to public health? You want to hurt our feelings and call us stupid and callous? Then we'll say YOU'RE THE ONES WHO ARE A DANGER TO PUBLIC HEALTH!" schtick to the moon and back. They want so very badly to be the good guys in this whole scenario that they have created an entire mythology to back up their nonsense, complete with documentaries, what they pretend is popularly understood knowledge, and many, many totally not imaginary relatives dying of COVID-19 vaccine-related blood clots.

It went so far in Montana that Republican lawmakers actually tried to pass a law barring people who have had the COVID-19 vaccine from giving blood, based entirely on a bunch of sad, made-up nonsense about the vaccine being dangerous and people who have it spreading murderous "spike proteins" that can harm the brilliant "purebloods" who wisely refused to get the "clot shot," as they call it.

House Bill 645 would have made it a misdemeanor with a $500 fine for a vaccinated person to donate blood or for any donation center to accept the blood of a vaccinated person. It also would have banned donations from people diagnosed with long COVID, an interesting choice given that I am pretty sure the anti-vax people do not believe that long COVID is a thing. It seems a lot like they were perhaps just throwing that one in, in hopes that it would make them sound remotely sane to people outside of their circle.

The Food and Drug Administration has said that there is no possible way for respiratory infections to be transmitted through blood transfusions. Other experts said they would not be able to test for "gene-altering proteins, nanoparticles, high-count spike proteins from long covid-19, or other isolates introduced by mRNA or DNA vaccines, mRNA or DNA chemotherapies, or other novel mRNA or DNA pharmaceutical biotechnologies," largely because they are threats invented by crazy people that have no actual basis in any known reality.

The bill, had it been enacted, would have reduced the blood supply in the state by 80 percent — which would be a pretty terrible plan considering that there is also a national blood shortage right now. It means that people would die. Lots and lots of people.

During a hearing for the bill last Friday, supporters cited evidence-free claims that they totally know people who have died prematurely due to the vaccine. They also cited claims from the heavily debunked "documentary" Died Suddenly .

Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, vice-chairwoman of the House Human Services committee, was also a supporter of the bill and not only shared nonsense promoted in Died Suddenly , but also shared that her brother, a mortician, noticed a "blood flow" problem in his vaccinated patients. All of whom are dead.

Representative Greg Kmetz, who introduced the bill, said during the hearing, “For years now we’ve heard the words ‘safe and effective.’ Our entire planet has echoed these words. Safe and effective. We’ve seen two presidents utter these words. We have seen top government medical spokesman utter these same words. We’ve seen two Montana governors utter these same words ... many of my constituents question, just because we hear these two words ‘safe and effective’ a million-plus times, does that make them true?”

Perhaps a better question here would be, "If you just keep saying 'safe and effective' in an ominous manner, does that cease to make something 'safe and effective'?" Incredibly, the answer is no.

Dr. Christine Drivdahl-Smith, a physician who is no longer practicing for whatever reason , claimed that the vaccine could cause Mad Cow Disease, which it very notably cannot do, at all, for any reason.

“So if the spike protein can circulate in the blood for at least 30 days and act as a prion causing a fatal brain disease, wouldn’t we want to exempt those people from donating blood?” Drivdahl-Smith said.

No — because of how it cannot, in fact, do that.

On Monday night, HHS committee members voted 19-1 to table the bill, with Sheldon-Galloway the only vote in favor of keeping the bill.

Blood shortage is not just a problem in Montana right now. There is currently a very serious blood shortage all over the nation, with 47 percent of blood centers reporting that they have less than a two-day supply of blood. So perhaps this is one of those times where spite can do us some good. Perhaps this can spur us all (including me, a lady extremely terrified of needles and also blood) to get it together and go make an appointment to go donate blood, just to make these assholes unhappy.

I hear they have cookies.

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