Ever since the pandemic emerged, vaccine skeptics have pointed to the fact that the coronavirus vaccines were available only under emergency-use authorizations. So when the Food and Drug Administration this week fully authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, COVID-denialists and anti-vaxxers have taken desperate measures to prove their points.
#4 The Virus Is Targeting The Unvaxxed
Some employ arguments found on fake news websites, others go deep into conspiracy theories that revolve around mistrust in government and science. So in order to find out what’s at the root of the mind of vaccine sceptics and COVID denialists, we reached out to Robert Gifford, a Professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria.
Robert is best known for his “The Dragons of Inaction: Diagnosing and Slaying the Barriers to Positive Climate and Environmental Action” study. According to this theory, these dragons are a compendium of psychological barriers that hinder a person’s desired actions. Robert argues that “they have mainly been gathered to help explain why a person agrees that climate change and environmental sustainability are important problems, yet does not take enough action to effectively deal with those problems.”
#8 Why Get A Vaccine If I Don't Have The Virus
“However, the dragons may apply to other things, such as COVID denial,” he explained and continued: “In particular, without data, my opinion is that COVID denial is strongly related to Mistrust, one of the Discredence genus of dragons. Deniers do not like scientists and governments (unless they are populist governments that also are skeptical about both COVID and climate change).”
#10 Ah, Yes. The Old “Ya’ll Are Gonna Get Microchipped” Statement
The professor continued: “Of course the Mistrust dragon is rooted in the Limited Cognition genus dragons called Ignorance and Confirmation Bias (that is, lack of factual knowledge and the tendency to pay attention to media that echoes one’s existing beliefs).”
When asked what to do when encountering a COVID denier, Robert suggested keeping an extra-large distance. “That’s about all that one can do. The other approaches are futile,” he said.
#14 Vaccines Are For Dogs
#15 “Pro-Choice”
