Biopolymer, mucoadhesive disc being developed to deliver vaccines sublingually. Because it is circular and placed in the mouth, anti-vaxxer Christian fundamentalists claim this is in imitation of the Catholic host, so is a new 'Church of Covid' religion.
In the time-honoured tradition of presenting any ideas they disagree with as some form of faith or alternative religion, the infamous Christian fundamentalist site with a long record of anti-vaxxer propagandizing, LifeSite News, is trying to present the anti-coronavirus measures as 'the Church of Covid' and are casting round for any excuses to do so.
Now they are asserting that a polymer disc impregnated with the components of a vaccine and placed under the tongue, as an alternative to injection, is an imitation of the Catholic host - the wafer used to represent the body of Jesus in the Mass - with the clear implication that having the vaccine is the religious equivalent of a sacrament.
Without a hint of embarrassment at such a ludicrous stretch, the article by Michael Haynes even refutes its own claim by explaining that the 'wafer' is merely a disc of polymers such as alginate (not wafer) and is placed under the tongue, not onto the tongue like the Catholic host. In fact, the resemblance stops at the shape and size of the disc.
The article even goes on to explain that the aim of the six-person research team from the universities of Minnesota and Texas together with a scientist from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota is to produce a method of delivering cheap and easily stored vaccines in parts of the world where resources such as refrigerated storage are scarce. It depends on the fact that small molecules can be absorbed into the body via the mucous membrane under the tongue. The Catholic host is, of course, swallowed whole, not held under the tongue until it disintegrates.
As the article points out, the team's findings were published in the Journal of Controlled Release (last February). Sadly the paper itself is behind an expensive paywall but the abstract is available. In it, the authors explain that the disc is a mixture of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and alginate (ALG) and that, by varying the mixture of these two polymers they can control the dynamics of adhesion to the sublingual mucosa, absorption and disintegration time, so making it adaptable for different vaccines such as that for HIV.
The reason fundamentalist religious frauds resort to this false equivalence fallacy is because they know their target dupes will have been conditioned to assume that they alone have the one true faith, so, by default, all other faiths must be wrong. This means they can attack any idea they don't like by simply declaring it to be a religion. This in turn means they don't need to bother with a detailed refutation of different ideas, and so is an especially useful trick of sophistry when the idea you want to discredit really can't be refuted either logically or with evidence.
We see it used time and again when it comes to Atheism, Evolution, science, history, or indeed any discipline or intellectual position which challenges religious dogmas. It is intellectual indolence and dishonesty of the first magnitude and is an example of how unscupulous frauds can use religion to manipulate and control the lives of the faithful.
People of a certain mentality.... Does this fall under, "If you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail?"
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