There is a significant portion of the unvaxxed group here in the US who wouldnt describe themselves as anti-vax per se, but as just independent thinkers who still have questions and who don’t accept the government’s direction as gospel.
Now there is a fully approved version It’s kind of amazing how so many of them have all stumbled at exactly the same time into the same new justification for remaining unvaccinated. So much of what happens in the US is based on people’s perception of Identity. It was something I first identified when I moved here over trivial things like fashion and music - if you told me what things a person a was interested in I could tell you what music they predominantly listened to and the sorts of fashion choices they make. But you see it now in so many other more important areas. People create a self-identity, take up positions based on what matches that identity, then retrofits justifications for that position.
To that point, what we see with people like this is not that they have seriously thought about the information available on Covid and the vaccines, but their sense of self of an independent thinker means they will reflexively reject the consensus and orthodoxy as positions taken by people who can’t/won’t think for themselves. The irony is the group as a whole then coalesces around a shared rationale for whatever dumb fuck position they’ve landed on that comes from independent thinker thought leaders like Joe fucking Rogan.
I can relate to a lot of that on people here in the UK as well. Perhaps not as much as there are in the US but they are still out there. I’d argue it’s not actually independent at all. Quite the opposite in fact. An urge to reject everything almost.
There seems to be a massive drive towards questioning everything, which is fine but then there’s an urge to reject it. That is often based on the source of that information. Youtube is boss, renowned scientist? Not a chance because they spoke to Bill Gates once.
A well known radio presenter over here has a term called footballification which is bang on to be fair. Basically everything else is wrong because my team says otherwise.
We are living in an era where somebodies opinion is deemed as having as much weight as scientific fact.
6+ years of scientific training and decades of research to form scientific theories is not the same as something your mate watched on YouTube.
A friend of ours has just left her job in nursing as she refused to be vaccinated (religious reasons). My response upon hearing that, was that she had to be taken out of the health system to protect the patients she came into contact with. Yet another example of a book written 2000 years ago impacting and threatening the lives of people today.
A crazy belief system replacing hard scientific evidence. Just like most of these crazy internet theories.
You were spot on there, about capturing all that’s wrong about the US.
Rallies fearing government controlling lives
He demanded schools remove all covid policies
Medical fees requiring to go fund me page
Use of unproven/uneffective treatments/remedies advocated by right-wing press (Fox News)
Believed there was little evidence for mask use, and that masks were harmful.
Texas gov banning mask mandates
Hospital cases risking and just 47% of texas vaccinated.
Captures libertarian me first attitudes, disinformation, lack of trust of professionals/experts, tribal politics and politicians aligning with views rather than what’s right, and shameful capitalist healthcare.
It’s performative arseholary. They know what they’re doing is wrong, but there has been an environment created that the only thing their voters care about is doing the opposite of what the libs want to be done.
In Florida De Santis continues making statements about actions hes going to take that are clearly unconstitutional. He then uses state money to fund legal battles in cases that a 12 year old could win against him, which should be one of the biggest crimes an actual conservative could think of. Yet he’s a hero to them because he’s fighting the libs.
yes I think you’re both right. It’s not about what is right, it’s about what keeps him in office based on the twisted consensus of his supporters. Footballification in full view. It’s so broken.
Beginning to wonder of we’re seeing the start of something that leads to some zombie movie here.
It was a case from NSW has caused recent outbreak in Auckland.
Within 12 hours the entire country was in lockdown, from tomorrow the rest of the country moves to level 3. We are quietly confident that we will contain this virus and get it back to zero cases. Will probably take 2-3 weeks.
We are doing 30-40K tests a day, and are ramping up vaccines (may family including my 12 year old just had first jab)
Fingers crossed it’s peaked. Most of those new cases currently are those within a household if infected person. The latest numbers today will be very interesting.
Actually a doubt I keep having is countries like NZ who has done so well for so long, why did not they take the period while they were having zero domestic transmission to ramp up the vaccinations…I believe it was pretty slow in terms of rate of vaccination? (might be wrong) but the moment now that cases is getting higher, they talk about ramping up vaccination which should have taken advantage of the zero cases where the healthcare system can breath easy and administer vaccination instead now where the healthcare system could possibly have more to cope and yet try to ramp up vaccination and add more load? Just a thought? (This was also a criticism levelled at countries like Taiwan previously I believe)
It’s perfectly logical that uptake of a (still very novel) vaccine will be slower when there doesn’t seem to be any immediate danger. The ideal situation in such circumstances - and something the Aus PM and NSW Premier don’t get - is to be as far behind the rest of the world as possible so that you can learn through observation not trial and error. This applies to treatment but qslo vaccination - most recent info indicates Pfizer vaccination efficacy declines rapidly and partially vaccinating a population without cases (like NZ) would paradoxically have brought more risk of infection as they just bring pressures to ‘open the borders’ allowing it to rip through the unvaccinated (like kids under 12).
Maybe, but getting a huge number of the population vaccinated during calmer times mean in future, the likelihood of the healthcare system crashing is lesser. And while the population can pressure for reopening, the government can definitely reopen in a more controlled way because now they have the baseline - which is the high vaccination rate - and can calibrate. When the vaccination rate is low, there is nothing to calibrate and meaning the only strategy to go to is to lockdown again and again. But of course, this is already the reality, ramping up is definitely the way so hopefully NZ and OZ can push it up further asap.
