Major Correction: I was Completely Wrong About the Vax

As the editor-in-chief of Hoax Watch, I pride myself on being honest with the reader in all things. Part of this is admitting when I am wrong.

Still, it stings to have to admit that I was wrong about something as massive as the deadly coronavirus vax.

Sadly, I must make such an admission today.

This week, an associate contacted me with the following communication:

There is a misconception about the proper spelling of the word “vaxing”; some write it with a double x, like “vaxxing” but that is a mistake.

The digraph “xx” is pronounced like j in Spanish or the “ch” in German “ach”. It is used with computers a replacement for the letter exx, which has a single stroke going down to the right and two parallel strokes going down to the left, because computers generally can’t handle that letter. The exx is derived from the Greek letter chi, and pronounced like it; but since that Greek letter looks like our “x”, it had to be modified with an added parallel stroke when it was introduced into English.

Thus, we usually have to write the name of the oil company as “Exxon”, though its proper spelling is “e exx o n”. (Don’t make the mistake of pronouncing “Exxon” like “exon”; you will appear unsophisticated.)

The exx also gives us an unambiguous way to phonetically spell the exclamation of disgust, “yexx” or “ixx”.

Since the word “vaxing” is derived from “vaccine”, it should be written with a single “x”, as it is pronounced.

As for the ethics of vaxing, I think it is ethical to inform mobs engaged in pogroms the home addresses of Jews who have committed grave crimes such as mass sterilizing the goyim if the state declines to prosecute them.

I’ve gone around and around, and I cannot argue.

Of course, to many of us who speak English natively, “vaxed” naturally looks like “vakesd.” But if you go into the grammar, the above communication is accurate, and sound.

The past-participial form of “max” is “maxed.” “Flex” is “flexed.” “Tax” is “taxed.”

Of course, there was a cultural norm for the word “vaxxed” – it was the name of a film.

That film is actually about the theory that the MMR vaccine causes autism – a theory to which I do not personally subscribe, and which I think has actually stifled discussions of both vaccines and autism.

Regardless of the content of the film, however, the title is wrong. The word is “vaxed.”

It is with a heavy heart that I admit this supreme error, and will moving forward use the words “vax” and “vaxed.”