‘Far right nationalists, anti-vaxxers, libertarians and conspiracy theorists have come together over COVID, and capitalised on the anger and uncertainty simmering in some sections of the community. They appear to have found fertile ground particularly among men who feel alienated, fearful about their employment and who spend a lot of time at home scrolling social media and encrypted messaging apps.’
Read here (The Conversation, Sept 21, 2021)
Ramping up communications to convince those on the fence, along with differentiated measures nudging more to take the shot can help get vaccination rates up, say infectious diseases experts on CNA’s Heart of the Matter podcast...
‘As someone who treats COVID-19 patients, Dr David Lye, Director of the Infectious Disease Research and Training Office at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), says he has spoken to “thousands of people”, and he always has one message for them: Get vaccinated. As a researcher and a scientist, he admits he gets frustrated when he encounters people medically able to get a vaccine but choose not to. But would he go so far as to recommend that vaccines be made compulsory?
“To be honest, I am in favour of a vaccine mandate, but I'm also aware that the impact on individuals in these times can be devastating,” Dr Lye added, pointing to the possibility of the unvaccinated getting shut out of jobs if COVID-19 vaccination was made compulsory nationally.
‘He was speaking to Supervising Editor Lin Suling, host of Heart of the Matter podcast on Thursday (Sep 16).
‘Dr Ashley St John, Associate Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School’s Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, who was also on the podcast, agreed. "If you're asking me personally, it would be nice to have compulsory COVID-19 vaccines, but I also understand there are other policy considerations … beyond just the scientific aspects.”
Read here (Channel News Asia, Sept 18, 2021)
“Compassion fatigue is the feeling, ‘It’s hard to care when you’re overloaded but still dedicated to the task,’” Dr Kernan Manion, executive director of the Center for Physician Rights, said. “Moral injury occurs when the nurse or doctor feels that, ‘The patients I’ve dedicated my life to treating are now here because of their own negligence and now they’re imposing upon me and my team to treat them, while also exposing us to continued danger from this virus.’”
These days, Meck knows that first-hand. She is seeing more children with Covid-19 at her Missouri hospital than ever before. At 46%, Missouri has one of the lowest rates of full vaccination in the country. “I don’t even get the chance to try to show you all the split-second decisions and critical thinking and compassion I’m capable of,” Meck said. “Practising mindfulness is not going to fix moral injury.”
Read here (The Guardian, Sept 18, 2021)
“Vaccine hesitancy has less to do with misunderstanding the science and more to do with general mistrust of scientific institutions and government,” says Maya Goldenberg, a philosophy expert at the University of Guelph, Ontario, who studies the phenomenon. Historically, people harmed or oppressed by such institutions are the ones most likely to resist vaccines, adds Agnes Arnold-Forster, a medical historian at the University of Bristol in England.
‘A range of recurring and intersecting themes have fueled hesitancy globally and historically. These include anxiety about unnatural substances in the body, vaccines as government surveillance or weapons, and personal liberty violations. Other concerns relate to parental autonomy, faith-based objections, and worries about infertility, disability or disease. For example, some people oppose vaccines that were grown in cell culture lines that began from aborted fetal cells, or they mistakenly believe vaccines contain fetal cells. One of today’s false beliefs — that COVID-19 vaccines contain a microchip — represents anxiety about both vaccine ingredients and vaccines as a surveillance tool.’
Read here (Science News, May 11, 2021)
‘So what will change their minds? I cannot imagine that any amount of hectoring or shaming, or proclamations from the public-health or Democratic communities, will make much of a difference for this group. “I’ve lost all faith in the media and public-health officials,” Myles Pindus, a 24-year-old in Brooklyn, said. “It might sound crazy, but I’d rather go to Twitter and check out a few people I trust than take guidance from the CDC, or WHO, or Fauci,” Baca, the Colorado truck driver, told me. Other no-vaxxers offered similar appraisals of various Democrats and liberals, but they were typically less printable.
‘From my conversations, I see three ways to persuade no-vaxxers: make it more convenient to get a shot; make it less convenient to not get a shot; or encourage them to think more socially.’
Read here (The Atlantic, May 3, 2021)
‘A majority of anti-vaccine propaganda can apparently be traced back to a handful of people. While de-platforming them is sometimes appropriate, there is a bigger, better solution...
‘Misinformation is never going to go away; it isn’t just a Big Tech problem, it’s an education problem. Instead of just yelling at tech companies, politicians should be focusing on what Taiwan’s digital minister calls “nerd immunity” – the government should be investing in education so people have the skills to identify fake news...
‘Finland, which was rated Europe’s most resistant nation to fake news last year, is one model of how you do this. In 2014, after an increase in disinformation from Russia, the government embedded media literacy in the national curriculum. Starting in primary school, kids learn the critical thinking skills needed to parse the modern information ecosystem. Students learn how easy it is to manipulate statistics in their maths lessons, for example. They learn how to distinguish satire from conspiracy theories in their Finnish lessons. They look at how images can be used for propaganda in art class. And this sort of education isn’t just given to children: Finnish civil servants, journalists and NGO workers are also trained in digital literacy skills.’
Read here (The Guardian, Mar 30, 2021)
‘So, the New Normals are discussing the Unvaccinated Question. What is to be done with us? No, not those who haven’t been “vaccinated” yet. Us. The “Covidiots.” The “Covid deniers.” The “science deniers.” The “reality deniers.” Those who refuse to get “vaccinated,” ever.
‘There is no place for us in New Normal society. The New Normals know this and so do we. To them, we are a suspicious, alien tribe of people. We do not share their ideological beliefs. We do not perform their loyalty rituals, or we do so only grudgingly, because they force us to do so...
‘No, the Unvaccinated are not the Jews and the New Normals are not flying big Swastika flags, but totalitarianism is totalitarianism, regardless of which Goebbelsian Big Lies, and ideology, and official enemies it is selling. The historical context and costumes change, but its ruthless trajectory remains the same.
‘Today, the New Normals are presenting us with a “choice,” (a) conform to their New Normal ideology or (b) social segregation. What do you imagine they have planned for us tomorrow?’
Read here (Off Guardian, Mar 29, 2021)
‘Late last year, a semi-retired British scientist co-authored a petition to Europe’s medicines regulator. The petitioners made a bold demand: Halt COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. Even bolder was their argument for doing so: They speculated, without providing evidence, that the vaccines could cause infertility in women.
‘The document appeared on a German website on Dec.1. Scientists denounced the theory. Regulators weren’t swayed, either: Weeks later, the European Medicines Agency approved the European Union’s first COVID-19 shot, co-developed by Pfizer Inc. But damage was already done.
‘Social media quickly spread exaggerated claims that COVID-19 jabs cause female infertility. Within weeks, doctors and nurses in Britain began reporting that concerned women were asking them whether it was true, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists. In January, a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a non-profit organization, found that 13% of unvaccinated people in the United States had heard that “COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to cause infertility.”
‘What gave the debunked claim credibility was that one of the petition’s co-authors, Michael Yeadon, wasn’t just any scientist. The 60-year-old is a former vice president of Pfizer, where he spent 16 years as an allergy and respiratory researcher. He later co-founded a biotech firm that the Swiss drugmaker Novartis purchased for at least $325 million.’
Read here (Reuters, Mar 18, 2021)
‘Efforts to crack down on vaccine misinformation now, though, are generating cries of censorship and prompting some posters to adopt sneaky tactics to avoid the axe. “It’s a hard situation because we have let this go for so long,” said Jeanine Guidry, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies social media and health information. “People using social media have really been able to share what they want for nearly a decade.”
‘The Associated Press identified more than a dozen Facebook pages and Instagram accounts, collectively boasting millions of followers, that have made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccine or discouraged people from taking it. Some of these pages have existed for years. Of more than 15 pages identified by NewsGuard, a technology company that analyzes the credibility of websites, roughly half remain active on Facebook, the AP found.’
Read here (APNews, Mar 12, 2021)
‘This is a brief article to help us understand that there will be some expected deaths after receiving Covid-19 vaccination, especially in the elderly. The aim of the article is to pre-empt the anti-vaccine lobby and any attempt to damage our national Covid-19 vaccination programme. We will use data from the United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) to explain what we mean...
‘It is important for the public to understand this as we embark on our national Covid-19 vaccination programme. Some of our loved ones may die after the vaccination but this will likely NOT be due to the vaccination. As members of the public we should stay abreast of the science and data as it emerges and not fall prey to rumours or anti-vaccine propaganda.’
Read here (The Malay Mail, Feb 23, 2021)
‘One of the most notable things about the COVID-19 pandemic has been how fast two science denialist movements made common cause and, in essence, fused to become one movement. I’m referring, of course, to the antivaccine cranks/grifters and COVID-19 deniers/minimizers/antimaskers/cranks/grifters, who rapidly formed an unholy alliance that ultimately added QAnon conspiracy theorists to the mix to form one of the most toxic groups of conspiracy theorists ever seen.
‘Note that by “toxic,” I don’t just mean toxic personalities, but I also mean toxic to science, medicine, public health, and the politics of trying to respond to the pandemic, with antivaxxers frequently augmenting COVID-19 deniers at various rallies and events, all the while crying “censorship,” infusing the COVID-19 denialist movement with antivaccine pseudoscience and conspiracy theories, and even launching a pre-emptive disinformation war against COVID-19 vaccines.’
Read here (Genetic Literacy Project, Jan 7, 2021)
‘To try to understand why anti-vaccine sentiment is so prevalent in the United States, I recently spoke by phone with Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine, and the co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development. In March, he will publish a book called “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.” During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the historical reasons for vaccine skepticism among many Black Americans, how doctors can speak the truth without appearing political, and how the fight over vaccines became so similar to the fight over every political issue in America.’
Read here (The New Yorker, Dec 18, 2020)
‘The next, crucial step in beating the pandemic? Having conversations with our vaccine-shy loved ones...
‘Uncomfortable relatives are my specialty. As a doctor, I’ve been trying for years to get my family and friends to follow prudent medical advice. It hasn’t gone so well. A decade ago, they’d say, “You’re just in medical school.” Then I was “just in residency.” Now, unfortunately, I’m a pathologist, which doesn’t exactly scream “people person.” I have had some successes, though. Last year, after a hundred gentle conversations, I finally convinced my parents to get the flu vaccine. (Verdict: “It wasn’t so bad.”) A couple months later, Covid-19 struck. I try not to feel completely responsible for this irony...’
Read here (Wired, Dec 7, 2020)
‘Proof of COVID-19 vaccination will be a non-negotiable condition of international air travel, according to the Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. Anti-vaxxers will be grounded in the brave new world, with Mr Joyce confirming vaccination will be a requirement to fly internationally.
‘Mr Joyce has repeatedly warned that international air travel won’t resume until there’s a vaccine available for staff and travellers, but on Monday night he went a step further, telling A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw that as soon as a vaccine becomes available it will be a condition of travel. “For international travellers, we will ask people to have a vaccination before they get on the aircraft,’’ he said.’
Read here (News.com, Nov 23, 2020)
‘Indians are the keenest on getting vaccinated whenever a Covid-19 vaccine is available, even as people in 10 out of 15 countries showed a growing reluctance about getting vaccinated, according to a global survey.
‘In the World Economic Forum/Ipsos survey of 18,526 adults from 15 countries, 73 per cent said they would get a Covid-19 vaccine if available, down from 77 per cent in August. While vaccination intent has remained unchanged at 87 per cent in India since August, it has declined in 10 of the 15 countries surveyed, most of all in China, Australia, Spain, and Brazil.
‘Globally, the two main reasons for not wanting to get a Covid-19 vaccine are concerns about side effects (cited by 34 per cent) and concerns about clinical trials moving too fast (cited by another 33 per cent). In India also, 34 per cent respondents.’
Read here (Deccan Herald, Nov 6, 2020)
‘Just about every minority group residing in the United States can point to what feels like a reasonable basis for suspicion. For African Americans, there is not only the notorious Tuskegee study, which withheld syphilis treatment from rural Black men, but also experiments that used enslaved women to perfect surgical techniques and studies that tested new drugs in poor neighbourhoods without adequate consent. The Latino community can point to a syphilis study in Guatemala that was even more unethical than the Tuskegee one, and to pharma companies basing tests of the first versions of birth control pills, which caused significant side effects, in Puerto Rico (and also in Haiti). Attempting to pass smallpox to Native Americans via contaminated blankets is an infamous episode in Colonial-era history, and the US government has underfunded the Indian Health Service since its 1955 founding, depriving reservation dwellers of what should have been guaranteed medical care.’
Read here (Wired, Nov 2, 2020)
‘We [a group of prominent scientists] recently surveyed 13,426 people in 19 countries. We included two of Africa’s most populous and visible nations, Nigeria and South Africa, which are among the most affected by COVID-19 on the continent. Overall, we found that 71.5% of participants said they would take a “proven safe and effective vaccine” while 14% would refuse it outright. An additional 14% said they would hesitate to take the vaccine.
‘But that average figure is deceptive. It was raised by favourable responses from two Asian countries that also recorded very high trust in government health recommendations. More than 80% of Chinese respondents and 75% of South Koreans said they would accept a vaccine. South Africans came closer than any other country to the 70% standard, at almost 65%. But only 46.3% of Nigerians said they would do so. This is slightly higher than the results we found in Spain, Sweden, Poland, Brazil and Ecuador.’
Read here (IPS News, Nov 1, 2020)
‘QAnon, the US-based conspiracy about a Satan-worshipping, paedophile cabal secretly running the world, is taking root in Europe feeding on fears stirred up by the coronavirus outbreak, analysts say. Anti-vaxxers, white supremacists and government sceptics in Europe are starting to buy into the ill-defined but pro-Donald Trump conspiracy that emerged across the Atlantic in 2017.
‘Dozens of European QAnon offshoots have sprung up online, while protesters have brandished Q-themed messages at demonstrations in Berlin, London and Paris denouncing face masks and other measures to curb the pandemic. “While the conspiracy’s growth in the US has been an outward and visible process, what has gone less noticed is QAnon’s extensive root growth and spread in Europe,” fake news monitor NewsGuard warned in a report in July. It identified the Covid-19 crisis as a “catalyst”.’
Read here (South China Morning Post, Sept 15, 2020)
The worldwide rush to rollout the Covid-19 vaccine has created a large group of “vaccine hesitant” people -- over and above the hardcore anti-vaxxers. “Anti-vaccination sentiment is going into the mainstream,” says Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “A lot of people you never would have imagined are now saying that maybe the anti-vaccination lobby has a point.”
‘Concerns about vaccinations vary from country to country, but they are often held by people not normally associated with fringe views or conspiracy theories. Many are highly educated, and they are just as likely to be liberal as conservative. “If you want to map where the anti-vaccination movement is strongest, just look for your nearest Whole Foods,” says Barry Bloom, a professor of public health at Harvard University, referring to the high-end supermarket chain.’
Read here (Financial Times, August 20, 2020)