We’ve seen it time and time again: ‘doctors’ preaching the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccine. These ‘doctors’ claim that the vaccine can cause anything from cancer to autoimmune disease to miscarriages, and that it can “alter your genetic coding, turning you into a viral protein factory that has no off-switch.”
At the forefront of these claims are 12 influencers known as the ‘Disinformation Dozen.’ These influencers, which include physicians, conspiracy theorists, and entrepreneurs, are responsible for up to 65 per cent of anti-vaccine content. They use short infographics, posters, and easily shareable videos to spread misinformation — often with no credibility or research behind it.
All of their assertions can be easily disproved. Yet, these anti-vaccine influencers somehow have large followings and influence millions and millions of people.
The Disinformation Dozen isn’t the only group rebelling against science. From the Flat Earth Society to climate change deniers, there have always been those who choose to ignore science and logic. When science reaches a conclusion that conspiracy theorists disagree with, those theorists pursue the outlandish. Mistrust in the government has led to a disbelief in the moon landing — and in the 2021 film Don’t Look Up, ignorance in science leads to the extinction of humanity.
Don’t Look Up, a satirical film, follows the story of two astronomers as they desperately try to warn the public about a comet destined to hit Earth in six months. They spread the word to politicians and to the public through the media yet they are never taken seriously. Further, the president only cares and attempts to act on their information when it benefits her — when she is trying to get re-elected. Due to the lack of action, the comet strikes the Earth as predicted, triggering an extinction-level event.
The film, which was first announced before the pandemic, was initially set to parallel the story of the climate crisis. However, in the current setting of anti-vaxxers and misinformation, the message is still clear. As science becomes politicized, it cannot cause effective change, and informing and educating people about science becomes useless.
As the vaccine has become increasingly associated with the Democratic party in the US, far-right radicals have displayed strong opposition to the vaccine. A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation certainly found this to be true: for every unvaccinated Democrat-leaning individual, there existed three unvaccinated Republican-leaning individuals.
A September 2021 Gallup survey found similar results: 92 per cent of Democrats, 68 per cent of independents, and 56 per cent of Republicans were vaccinated. These numbers held despite small levels of variation among race and ethnicity throughout all of the categories. These figures display a common trend: disapproval of the COVID-19 vaccine among right-wing voters.
Regardless of the reasons behind vaccination disparities, the simple fact is that these disparities slow our recovery from COVID-19 and prevent a healthy transition into our normal social lives. In the US, Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci was certainly aware of this when he took up his position on vaccines and health mandates. In the first few months of COVID-19, he was careful to avoid alienating either party. He made great strides to prevent politicizing the pandemic, emphasizing that “public health is something that has really nothing to do with politics.”
Science is objective — it’s either true or it’s not. When scientific truths become associated with certain political ideologies, those with clashing beliefs will choose to ignore the evidence they provide and seek out alternate radical content that aligns with their beliefs. In Don’t Look Up, people discredit and parody the science behind the comet. In the context of COVID-19, they choose to follow the Disinformation Dozen.
The politicization of COVID-19 and its vaccine has allowed the Disinformation Dozen to thrive. Anti-vaxxers feed off their content, where they feel comforted among those with similar opinions and beliefs.
However, the problem with vaccine misinformation is that it creates ambiguity in information and thus leads to divides in political opinion. As such, it has now become difficult to find any agreement among Democrats and Republicans amid the pandemic.
During such a politicized pandemic, where some conspiracy theorists have openly called mask mandates acts of suppression and believe that COVID-19 was engineered by governments, it is crucial that we separate our pandemic response from our political parties and affiliations. If not, the fight against COVID-19 will no longer be about convincing people that vaccines work — rather, it will be about convincing them that their entire political ideologies are incorrect.
Don’t Look Up has made this message more than clear. Whether it’s about a deadly comet, a warming Earth, or a rapidly spreading virus, science must remain politically impartial in order to drive real innovation.
Vincent Zhang is a second-year financial economics student at Innis College.
