Not automatically but there is an unquestionable link between anti-vaccines and far right ideology.
Overwhelmingly, the sources of anti-vaccine ideology have connections to the far right if you look hard enough, or not so hard as the case may be. Thatâs certainly the case in this country, Britain, and the US.
There are no political organisations of any significance at all I know of which could broadly be termed of as âleftâ or âcentristâ which do not thoroughly advocate not being vaccinated.
Meanwhile the king of the anti-vaxxers. Andrew Wakefield, is now treated like a God in right-wing circles in the US and elsewhere despite him being an utter fraud. Can you explain why Wakefield has found such favour in US right wing circles?
Very similar to my own as far as I know. He doesnât advocate mandatory vaccinations. Neither do I. But he thoroughly recommends people of all ages for which the vaccine is currently open to to get vaccinated. As do I.
I agree with you a majority of the disinformation on vaccines is coming from right wing sources. There is a very dangerous line with the far right. But automatically assuming someone is far right as they have an opposing view is also dangerous. Too often in online discourse (twitter mainly) it is used to shit down discussion and discredit people. It is an extreme view and must not be used so frequently as it will lose its effect when the true far right ideology rears its head
I havenât a clue on who Wakefield is. Iâll have an ole Google there to find out
I think engaging extremist discourse is very dangerous because it normalises extremism and quackery.
Iâve found from experience that my own feeling on who is a legitimate actor and who isnât is generally correct.
Andrew Wakefield is an English former doctor who basically made up a âstudyâ that falsely claimed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The study was a fraud and he was struck off. He then moved to the US and has found fertile ground for his conspiracy theories and pseudoscience, most especially with Elle MacPherson.
It is and December proved that once and for all. The virus was spread by much increased everyday human interaction which spread the virus to the extent it could not be kept away from the vulnerable. We will likely not have another December/January situation in this country but the potential for the virus to cause serious problems is still there until such a situation arises as the population has vaccine acquired herd immunity.
The way I look at it is itâs quite fair to give an advantage to those who have been fully vaccinated, ie. less travel restrictions. I would fully support the idea of an Electronic Green Card or whatever itâs called, and for use in the internal economy such as pubs.
I find it a bit depressing the way some (usually far right, ironically) nutcases are unironically comparing that idea to the yellow star Jews had to wear in Nazi Germany. Thankfully that also makes their âargumentsâ very easy to dismiss.
At a population level the best guess currently seems to be around 85%. It would seem that the more transmissible the dominant variant, the higher the threshold, so it could be higher.
When the original Covid variant was dominant the threshold was thought to be around 70%, but with the new more transmissible variants that has gone up. Donât blame me, Iâm just the messenger. If I had my way itâd be 5%.
I think people should be encouraged to work from home and that should be the case as long as this thing is a significant threat. I donât believe anybody who doesnât have to go into an office should be doing so currently. And very few people absolutely need to be in an office.