Does the anti vax drama affect you?

[Onthegrapevine]

I am seeing more and more videos surfacing from anti vax folk along laughing and joking about the vaccinated being dead within the year amongst other things.

When the conspiracy theories started when there was first talk of a vaccine I honestly laughed it off, but over a year in and now I’m double jabbed it’s getting to me.

It feels like such a divide between “us and them.” Some anti vax are now claiming they are looking to “protect people” and that’s why they are “educating us.”

Prior to Covid I was aware of the conspiracy theories surrounding the flu jab etc, my own midwife even said she was “on the fence” about the flu jab when I asked when I should have mine. But those conspiracies were very sporadic and I didn’t feel bombarded with them in the way I do covid.

These are so loud, and they are everywhere.

Is anyone else feeling the same?

I find it really sad that people on both sides of the debate have turned a medical choice into a toxic issue. We should be celebrating the development of vaccines that protect incredibly well and have been rolled out faster than we could ever have imagined rather than calling each other names.

I just think they are saying stuff like that to desperately try and convince themselves they are right in not having it.
I don't really understand it, if you don't want to get it for whatever reason then ok nobody can make you, but you don't need to preach or scaremonger others to justify it. Don't have it and STFU about it.

I haven't seen any of those videos, where is it you are seeing them?

If I did see them, it really wouldn't bother me, these people are idiots. If they don't want to have the vaccine, that's their choice, but to try to scare others out of having it is really wrong and potentially very damaging.

The vaccines are safe. I'm double jabbed and have no worries about it.

Vaccination rates are very high so I would just ignore ( and paradoxically I actually am happy there are anti vaxers, we live in a democracy and have rights over what we put in our bodies)
I actually had my first jab exactly a year ago as did many of my colleagues and we are all very much still alive and kicking and not dead yet

Also, that midwife was way out of line saying that to you.

I’m too busy living my life to notice to be honest. There will always be people who hold different view points but I don’t give them much headspace. I don’t watch or read the news anymore which helps. The news is no longer “news” as it used to be, it’s just endless jumping on whatever the latest outrage is and spinning it out/inflating it to gain viewers and to keep their attention.

@pinkearedcow every other video I see on various social media apps is anti vax. The algorithm probably picking them up as I’ve googled “covid cases today.” I should delete them all really! Terrible for mental health.

@pinkearedcow I know, I was annoyed at the time. She was very “holistic” about the whole process

Watch the channel 4 antivax conspiracy documentary, shows how the antivax conspiracy theorist work,. However its not new this has been going on since the first vaccines, just since the internet its easier to spread their nonsense

I think it's ridiculous because without vaccines right now we'd be screwed.

@SallyBasingstoke Definitely not. I’ve only seen videos like that in response to false claims by anti vax people, like the shedding conspiracy theory. I’ve seen plenty of healthcare professionals responding to these types of claims and explaining why it’s not a thing.

The anti vaxx videos aren’t responding to anything specific, they’re just there to tell us all why we are going to die, develop autoimmune conditions etc - nobody is forcing them to have a vaccine so there’s really no need for them to fight this hard to be heard.

I second bruffin. Watch that documentary. It shows how there is a lot of money to be made out of recruiting people into the anti-vax movemenT.

My husband had some anti-vax 'literature' thrust on him in the supermarket car park the other day. I had a look at it. One article claimed the whole pandemic was 'an elaborate marketing scheme' to push 'genetic therapy injections'.

I'm middle-aged so I've read a lot of rubbish in my time, but this stuff takes the biscuit.

I've had both doses of my vaccination now and so have my loved ones - it does worry me that some people might be taken in by the conspiracy theorists, though.

What you see on social media is what social media thinks you want to see. You need to tell your feed algorithms to block /mute/ hide things like that, since you don't want to see it. Don't 'react' to items you don't want to see more of. You can mute pages of friends who post nonsense & just manually review their pages occasionally when you want an update on their real life events rather than opinions.

Don't seek out anti-vacc websites or cookie chain will think you want to see more of that. You are the architect of what you see on social media.

I hear lots of news people talking about ranting anti-vacc views, or vaccine hesitancy. Lots of MNers condemn the vaccine hesitant. A little bit of my Twitter feed mentions hesitancy. One person on my Facebook posts "Right to Choose" things occasionally. Gal who gave me a massage the other day, she had jab but regrets it, she has hesitancy. Almost the only people (few) I have direct social contact with are very pro-vaccine for selves & others. One person often says very angry things about vaccine hesitant.

MN is only place I am honest & say I'm in the 'Right to Choose' camp. Not worth stress elsewhere.

I know a really lovely couple and the wife told me last week they were not going to be having the jab as they were going to just 'keep themselves safe'. I can't look at them in the same light any more. She didn't elaborate and I don't know why she chose to tell me TBH.

What you see on social media is what social media thinks you want to see. You need to tell your feed algorithms to block /mute/ hide things like that

I'm not on Social Media (unless you count Mumsnet). My husband doesn't even use the internet - as stated above, we still had conspiracy material literally thrust on us in the form of good old-fashioned paper.

It doesn't bother me - just goes in the recycling - but it does bother me that people who are more gullible may be taken in.

It's a bit like the anti maskers.
Very vocal online. You would think every other person didn't wear a mask. In RL 90% plus people do wear one.
I ignore them or pity them as brainwashed.

I've never understood why anti-vaxxers shout so loud? Surely it's beneficial to them for as many of us uneducated sheep to be vaccinated as possible?

Well that’s strange. I am pretty anti vax - anti Covid vax. I’ve not seen any of these videos you talk of OP on social media or anywhere else...

I wonder if the anti-vaxxers are getting more vocal because the success of the vaccines could spell the end of their movement?

In a few years, once millions (billions even?) of people have been vaccinated, but have not dropped dead or developed horrible diseases, then the ant-vax movement will look pretty stupid (and some will lose the millions they are making out of vulnerable people).

Yes my so called best friend has turned into an anti lockdown, anti vaccine nightmare and she 'likes' a lot of stuff like this on Twitter. I feel like she thinks this way about me. She has become someone I don't recognise. When she's actually speaking to me because I committed the criMe of following 'the rules' a fraction more than she

I don't have social media or watch it, but people implying unvaccinated people should be locked in their homes treated as lepers are as dangerous as the people talking about wild conspiracy theories. From my experience , the so called " anti vaxxers " are happy for everyone to make their own choice regarding a vaccine contrary to the other side who seem to foist their views on everyone else normally resulting in abuse and bullying

No one on this thread has said any of that. We have all said that everyone has the right to choose whether to have the vaccine or not.

The whole contrary movement has become very cult-like. I’m hoping it dies down as eventually restrictions ease and people start to have fuller lives again. It’s been a strange time allowing people to hyper-focus.