Allan:
The “true believers” (the anti-vaxx crowd) are between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, they are convinced of at least some of the absurd nonsense spread about the vaccine. Microchips, infertility, sudden death, demonic possession….
Take your pick.
On the other hand, they see people they know, even their fellow anti-Vaxxers, sickening and dying of COVID.
What to do?
As the desperate have always done, seize upon unscientific nonsense.
This is nothing new, of course, we just don’t expect to see that much of it in developed and supposedly well-educated populations.
There are always fringe believers who think that crystals, essential oils, chanting, burning colored candles, or sacrificing chickens will protect them… But they’ve always been a tiny percentage.
Not now. We have large segments of the population who are refusing to get vaccinated. This is unprecedented…. I well recall the eagerness for the polio vaccine, and the researchers that developed it hailed as heroes. How have we gone so wrong?
You can blame it on the sorry state of science education, the extremely polarized society, the cult of personality surrounding the Orange Buffoon…. But it’s obvious that there’s a rather large swath of the populace that is deeply ignorant.
Mark Werner
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