Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, social media has been inundated with fake news and dangerous Covid-19 propaganda. Worryingly, these messages are propagated as fact and often tacitly, if not overtly, endorsed by public figures and some practising health care professionals, including front line workers.
Perhaps it is not all kerfuffle as some of the dissenting views, especially on the issue of vaccination, may be an expression of conscientious objection and a reflection of an array of moral questions that arise given the means deployed to develop vaccines, including some of the now available Covid-19 vaccines. It would appear these objections that have been articulated, among other things, as “the devil or 666-infused vaccine”, have a veiled reference to the use of fetal cell lines and aspects of genetic manipulation in the development of a variety of vaccines in general and some of the Covid-19 vaccines in particular. However, the Covid-19 vaccination dissidents are advancing an unbalanced argument to the genuinely oblivious populace in the public square where there is a “fact and knowledge” gap from the mainstream.
The dissidents do not declare to their unsuspecting audience that the means used to manufacture some of the Covid-19 vaccines are not new and have always been deployed in the development of other vaccines (for example the rabies vaccine, which they do not hesitate to take when travelling to some popular holiday destination), and in an array of therapeutic settings for common medical conditions like diabetes, certain forms of arthritis, cancer, mental health and neurodegenerative conditions and this has been the case for a considerable period. Furthermore, the same argument arises in the application of genetic engineering in food crops, which has existed for millennia. Indeed, many are more than happy to indulge in “out-of-season” fruit and vegetables and processed foods, without batting an eyelid, no worrying about tempering with our genetic code.
The point is humanity is once again confronted with an existential threat from Covid-19, another pandemic (pandemics have occurred may times before and there are more to come). Public health safety is our immediate concern, especially in the context of a nation that subscribes to the concept of ubuntu. However, the public square is flooded with scare mongering, quackery and unchallenged conscientious objection while, understandably so, the advocates of the mainstream approach are engaged in the Covid-19 battle in the hospital wards, the laboratories and the lecture halls in the ivory towers. It is my humble submission that the real battle for Covid-19 lies in the public square where the Covid-19 deniers and the vaccination dissident brigade must be given a run for their money.
Indeed, members of the public are not stupid. However, we are dealing with a complex problem, even to the academically sophisticated, against the background of serious basic literacy issues. Therefore it is imperative that the public health campaign machinery for mass Covid-19 vaccination goes into overdrive in the public square even before the vaccines hit the fridges!
• Dr Thobela is a medical practitioner
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