The New Type Of AntiVaxxer Emerges During COVID Pandemic
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are doubling down on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, many online are falling into a dangerous trend.
The CDC has established that the COVID-19 vaccines are nearly 100% effective against severe outcomes from a COVID diagnosis. As CNN put it:
"More than 99.99% of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 have not had a breakthrough case resulting in hospitalization or death, according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Another way the same data has been presented is that only 0.004% of those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 have been hospitalized. The number is even lower when you look at deaths, where it drops to 0.001% of those who were vaccinated.
However, even with all of the documented success of the COVID-19 vaccines, a new group of antivaxxers has emerged.
Generally, the term "antivaxxer" is applied to a person who opposes a vaccine with animosity, or aggressively attacks vaccination efforts. Sometimes it is misused towards people who simply don't want to receive vaccines, but don't aggressively work against others getting the vaccine.
But now there's a new version of antivaxxer that has developed during the COVID pandemic. This version isn't against getting the vaccine, in fact most of these new antivaxxers have already received the COVID vaccine. However they still are opposed to the success of the vaccine.
This new antivaxxer will pushback against life returning to normal for those who are vaccinated. They post online questionable articles on "research" that paint the COVID vaccine results in a negative way. Suggesting that the vaccines are not as effective as the CDC has verified that they are.
Over this past weekend, the Lollapalooza festival held it's comeback event in Chicago. With massive musical acts taking the stage, and tens of thousands of fans finally getting back to live music festivals. The festival put together aggressive COVID policies at the gate, where 90% of attendees showed proof of vaccinations. While the others had to show proof of negative tests.
But even with the success of the vaccines presented by the CDC, and the policies that Lollapalooza put into place, this new form of antivaxxer came out loud and proud to challenged the CDC's findings.
This new group of antivaxxers appear to not want life to return to normal, even for those who are vaccinated. They appear to desire a world where no one should ever be sick again. This group may call for lockdowns because of West Nile moving forward. They may want everyone in the US to mask up during flu season every year.
Its unfortunate that a group who seems to love the idea of the COVID vaccine enough to get one themselves, can't embrace the medical success behind the same vaccine.