Anti-Vax Cocktail of Ideologies, Lifestyles

Anti-vax movements around the world are bringing ideologically extreme ends of the political spectrum under one umbrella.

• Vaccinations skeptics have existed in the world for decades. But what seemed to have been a fringe movement, is seeing a lot of consolidation along with the spread of Covid19.
• Traditionally, anti-vax movements have been associated with far-right, anti-science sentiments. But around the world, we are seeing well-educated people falling for misinformation.
• In the US and Germany, for instance, the far-right and far-left are coming together to march against government-imposed Covid regulations on a regular basis.
• Calls for “freedom” and “liberty” are being thrown around as justification. In the UK, people are even calling discrimination against the unvaccinated as “medical apartheid”.
• In Germany, healing methods with no peer-reviewed science to back them up, are being used in Covid treatments. It’s subsidised by tax-payer money as well.
• In the US, influential vegan celebrities are spreading misinformation to their followers. Despite a majority of vegans not identifying as anti-vaxxers, the movement is co-opting veganism.
• As governments increasingly make it difficult for unvaccinated people to access certain services and entertainment, groups of anti-vaxxers are coming together to create parallel systems.
• In the UK, there is a movement to rent houses to the unvaccinated. In the US, there’s a dating platform only for the unvaccinated. There are even talks of anti-vax holiday resorts.
• If you were thinking about the anti-vax movement as a bunch of far-right crackpots, think again. We help unravel a larger picture in this reading.