The opposition to rushed or mandated COVID vaccination has close to zero ties to the “anti-vaccine” movement. Unless you watch CNN and MSNBC as your primary source of news, of course.
To be clear, I am not opposed to vaccines. I think the current vaccine is the best option for people at high risk of negative outcomes due to COVID. What I am opposed to is coercion by the state on something that is a personal choice. Calling this argument “antivaxx” is another example of the disingenuous way people are behaving. It’s a smear campaign that is being parroted without any critical thought.
Antivax isn't a single organized group, so being antivax can manifest in many ways. I know antivaxers who harass people who got vaccinated for Covid and protest.
Funny enough when I discussed antivaxxer and brought up polio, no one ever corrected me and said thant they are not against vaccines but only against 'untestes'/COVID ones.
You are bunching dark matter 'deniers' in with anti vaxxers? Really?
Also there really isn't much of an anti vaxxers movement if you separate people opposed to vaccine mandates vs people who think vaccines are unsafe. Separating those camps isn't often preferred for politically convenient reasons, but they believe very different things.
Personal choice and body autonomy should be something we all support. The covid vaccine works, those who get it are protected. Unprotected individuals aren't undoing the protection vaccines provide to the people who get vaccinated.
On the flip side, there are basically no institutions that campaigned against vaccine adoption, whereas there are many prominent celebrities and politicians who did.
Even if they have no direct medical vulnerabilities, anti-vaxxers are prone to rejecting or subverting public health recommendations, eg voluntarily bringing their kids to measles parties to 'get it over with'. As recently as 2 days ago Rush Limbaugh (a conservative talk radio host) was saying that Covid-19 is essentially just the common cold and the health scare was misplaced.
Questioning vaccine mandates and the alleged efficacy of rushed out vaccines does not in any way equate to being an anti-vaxxer. What would be more irrational would be the blind questioning of authorities without a particularly convincing track record.
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