On Thursday 5 August, the prime minister of St. Vincent, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, was hit on the head by a rock thrown by someone from among a crowd of about 200 protestors who had gathered to protest government seeming intention of mandating Covid vaccinations for its employees. As I watched in disbelief the prime minister bleeding amidst a crowd of unsympathetic onlookers, I thought: you mean of all the things to be violent about—joblessness, poverty, corruption, violent crime, child and spousal abuse—Vincentians are killing their prime minister over fear of COVID vaccine?
The governments of the region are desperate for things to return to normal. With covid to blame, the economies of OECS territories contracted by an average of 17% in 2020, that of St. Vincent by 2.7%, and that of the more heavily tourist-dependent St. Lucia by 20.4%. Yet COVID continues to impede their ability to get on with the business of spearheading economic growth and tackling the myriad of social and economic problems their countries face. Their reelection, their ability to hold on to power, depends on it.
So it is understandable that the region’s prime ministers are urging, begging, and eventually may have to mandate that their citizens take the vaccine. But what I don’t understand is the failure of the governments to address, allay their people’s fear of the vaccine? Why do they keep focusing on only what they want at the exclusion of what the populace fears. Especially since the fear of covid vaccines isn’t a phobia, isn’t irrational; it’s based on real health risk.
Shame to say I am afraid of toads, but I have never been attacked nor harmed by toads, and except for people with dirty hands sending toads for others, I have never heard of a toad harming anyone. So my fear of toads is irrational. Apparently, it is a learned behavior. My mother feared toads, and so was her mother, my grandmother.
However, unlike my fear of toads, the fear of covid vaccines can’t be cast aside as a phobia, an irrational fear.
According to the WHO, there have been reports of rare but serious cases of blood clots following vaccination with AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. As of July 15, 2021, out of every million vaccinated with AstraZeneca, four to six persons have suffered from blood clots. Regarding the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, in the US as of 7 May 2021, of the more than eight million people vaccinated, there were 28 reported cases of blood clots under review. And right here in Vieux Fort, my hometown, I’m told of at least one case of someone who died from a blood clot after taking the AstraZeneca vaccine. The WHO has hastened to add that blood clotting is a common health problem that can be caused by many factors, and that the risk of blood clots is much greater from COVID-19 itself than from the vaccines.
Since, according to even the WHO, the fear of taking the vaccine isn’t baseless, rather than simply browbeating their people into taking the vaccine, the prime ministers need to address these fears, explain that though the risk associated with the vaccine isn’t unfounded, the health risk of not taking the vaccine far exceeds that of taking it, so from a public health perspective the government would be derelict in its responsibility to keep the public safe if it doesn’t advocate for vaccination.
Now some persons’ defense for not taking the vaccine is that: what’s the point, even with vaccination, one may still contract the virus and one still has to wear a mask and observe the other COVID protocols. But these contrarians forget an important element of the virus. Long COVID. It turns out that even when one had a case of COVID so mild that one barely realized one had been infected, in the longer-term one can experience such symptoms as brain fog, fatigue, and muscle pain, to name a few, collectively called long COVID, which can last for months or longer. So it seems one shouldn’t underestimate the value of the vaccine in reducing the likelihood of contracting the virus. The safest bet is never to contract COVID.
In this modern era, we live and die by science. Science feeds us, clothes us, transports us, medicates us, dictates how we communicate with each other. We go to a doctor and before we open our mouths to list our symptoms the doctor pulls out his pen and writes a prescription, and we happily pop our prescriptive pills, side effects and all, without a plea, yet we are opposed to the COVID vaccine, indispensable for public health and designed by the same science that gave us the pills that we so happily popped.
Having done all the addressing and appeasing, the prime ministers should not be surprised if a subset of people remain adamant in their opposition to the vaccine, because some have hidden agendas, some have bought into a worldview and are under the spell of a hegemony that doesn’t allow the acceptance of the vaccine, and opposition to the vaccine helps fortify their membership, helps set them apart, helps to nourish, validate their suppositions.
Conspiracy Theories and Hidden Agendas
Some people have religious agendas. Take the Adventists, for example. They believe that toward the end of time, just before the second coming of Christ, there will be a new world order in which the Roman Catholic Church will join forces with protestant churches to form a confederation which together with civil authorities will enact a Sunday law (the mark of the beast according to Adventism) requiring everyone to observe Sunday as the sacred sabbath day, and those like the Seventh Day Adventist who insist on keeping Saturday as their Sabbath will be persecuted and even put to death. Some Seventh Day Adventists are therefore viewing COVID-19 with suspicion and trepidation, not because of the intrinsic dangers of the virus, but because they believe the virus is a ploy that authorities are using to begin the establishment of the new world order. With such and similar new world order beliefs it should surprise no one that some people are not only refusing to take the vaccine but are convinced COVID-19 is a hoax.
The Rastafari community and others with similar Afrocentric world views may also have a religious agenda. As adherents of a religion inspired or fortified by deeply ingrained suspicion of governments and mainstream institutions, wariness of a world dominated by Caucasians and their history of black oppression, and advocation of African nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and black nationalism, it is natural that Rastafarians would suspect COVID-19 as yet another instrument employed by the system to continue controlling and dominating Africans and their descendent. This combined with Rastafari philosophy of itals, natural levity, preferring vegetarian or vegan diets and preferring herbal medicine over mainstream scientific medicine would clearly precondition them to be resistant to taking the COVID-19 vaccine. Moreover, Rastafari being a countercultural movement, COVID-19 and its vaccines present Rastafarians and other proponents of Afrocentrism with a moment of defiance, an opportunity to draw a line in the stand.
Some people have political agendas. The Republican Party of the US being a perfect example. As the minority party, meaning a greater number of Americans classify themselves as Democrats than as Republicans, the Republican Party faces a disadvantage at the polls. So one way it has sought to reduce that disadvantage is voter suppression, increasing the difficulty of people casting their votes, especially those viewed as potential non-republican voters. In the last presidential elections, the scourge of COVID was making a strong case for online voting (as opposed to casting votes at a poll booth) which can be expected to increase voter participation. So Donald Trump and the Republicans downplayed the seriousness of COVID and opposed some of the COVID shutdowns and protocols, all in the name of restricting or legislating against online voting.
Of course, America is paying a heavy price for this Republican posture. According to the New York Times, the incidence of COVID infections is significantly higher in places with a high concentration of Republicans as opposed to Democrats because these places have lower vaccination rates. So while the number of new COVID cases was rising in Trump counties, it was falling in Biden’s. Worse, probably hundreds of thousands of Americans died needlessly because Donald Trump refused to aggressively address the pandemic.
Some people have an insecurity complex or a comfort agenda. We are living in an increasingly complex world ruled by science, which continues to advance beyond our limits of comprehension. Society and social groupings are changing at a dizzying pace, leaving us feeling rootless and alienated. In response, many people, especially those without a sound understanding of the scientific method, find solace in conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, superstition, religion even, which serve as defiance against science and mainstream establishments, and give people a sense of being intelligent and in the know, a sense of being in control.
Professor Prosper Raynold’s seminal hope hypothesis theory, which helps explain terrorism, and religious affiliation and intensity, may throw some light on this phenomenon. The theory is based on the tenet that people gain hope from either science or the supernatural or from both. In the case at hand, I will adopt the theory by positing that when people are faced with uncertainty and hopelessness and are seeking comfort and understanding they turn to either mainstream science or to religion (where in my explication religion includes conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, superstition, and the supernatural). The question then is: which persons will turn to science, which will turn to religion, and which situations will make people more likely turn to one or the other. I think we can reasonably assume that the more educated a person the more likely is the person to turn to science, and the more religious a person the more likely is the person to turn to religion since they have formed a habit of belief based on faith as opposed to evidence. And we probably can also assume that all else equal, the more fearful, hopeless, and uncertain the situation, the more likely people will turn to religion as opposed to science. For example, Professor Raynold’s research has shown that financial crises increases religious intensity and causes laypeople to shift their trust from secular institutions to religious organizations.
COVID Vaccination and the Freedom Fallacy
Apparently, the charlatans, pseudoscientists, scientists on the fringes of the scientific community, the quacks, even, understand this theory very well. They know that this is their moment to shine. They know that this moment of fear, uncertainty, pandemic, where even the mainstream scientific community is groping for answers, presents their greatest opportunity to enjoy their moment in the sun. So they come out in droves from the woodworks, preying on the unsuspecting, and the not so unsuspecting and on those with their hidden and not so hidden agendas who are less concerned about truth and collateral damage than about promoting their worldview, and are ever so thankful to the conspiracy theorists.
Now the Adventist will never tell you they are refusing to take the vaccine because of the mark of the beast, nor will the Rastafari or Afrocentrist say it’s because the situation presents them with a moment of defiance, nor will the Republicans say it’s because they want to suppress votes, nor will those with a comfort agenda say its because it gives them a measure of control vis-a-vis the elitist scientific establishment. But they will talk about their democratic rights, their freedom, and they will lean on the conspiracy theories discounting the existence of COVID and the validity of the vaccine.
All of which is a joke. Because freedom and the right to do as one pleases have never existed in neither the human or the animal world. We are beset by all kinds of rules and norms, some set by the state, some an integral part of the culture or society. Our jobs mandate when we leave home and when we return home, which indirectly tells us when we have to go to bed and when we have to wake up. The state locks us up, murder us, or impose some other form of punishment when we break rules like killing or doing physical harm to other humans, stealing or damaging other people’s property, driving without a license, driving without a seat belt, driving on the wrong side of the road, parking in the wrong place, exposing our naked bodies in public, consuming certain substances, etc., etc. So where is the freedom and the right to do as we please? But suddenly, regarding vaccination, something to protect public health, we talk of rights and freedom!
In spinning their web, their mischief measured in death and economic ruin, the conspiracy theorists have created a headache for the medical profession, and for the prime ministers of CARICOM countries who so desperately want to return their country to a state of normalcy and back on the path of economic expansion.
Granted, even in the absence of hidden agendas and conspiracy theories, the decision to vaccinate can be torturous. In my case, I decided to wait until a sufficient number of people had been vaccinated, then because of the reported blood clots associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine and the fact that some countries, America, for example, had not endorsed it, I decided to wait longer and take the Pfizer vaccine in the US on my next visit. But then I wasn’t in the traveling mood, and even if I was, I didn’t want to travel without the protection of the vaccine. Meantime, my apprehension was growing. I thought, would it not be a travesty to contract COVID while I’m here waiting to go to the US to take the vaccine? After all, I’m a sixty-two-year-old with high blood pressure and therefore in the high-risk group. And even if I recover from a bout of COVID, how about the potential long-term health consequences? Finally, my apprehension won out, and I took my first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine on June 1.
Though the prime ministers must make a greater effort of allaying the fears of their people, they mustn’t expect that everyone will willingly opt for the vaccine. That isn’t how society works. The same way the state takes our freedom when it mandates a driver’s license to operate a vehicle on the road, and the same way it mandates seat belts if we are to be behind the wheel, and the same way it mandates a visa or passport for entry into its territory is the same way the state may need to mandate vaccination as a prerequisite to holding a government job or a job at large businesses, etc., etc. Imagine if it was optional for us to drive without a license, how many people would go get licenses.
Yes, you have your freedom not to take the vaccine, which is based on the best available scientific data, but I should have the freedom to disallow you on my plane and to disallow you to enter my country. And how about the hospitals, shouldn’t they have the freedom to refuse to treat COVID patients who had refused to take the vaccine. But they don’t have that freedom; they have sworn the Hippocratic Oath. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
For this reason, I was concerned about prime minister Pierre decriminalizing COVID protocol offenders. Now I’m sympathetic to the prime minister for seeking to be as humane and people-centered as possible, and to address the overzealousness of some of the police in accosting protocol violators, because we need to be reasonable in the application of the law.
I understand and appreciate the fear of the COVID vaccine, but I just don’t see a return to normalcy without vaccination, and I don’t see the requisite critical mass of vaccinations occurring without mandating vaccines. So the prime minister better get ready to arrest and jail some citizens, because if what happened to Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is anything to go by, mandating vaccines may cause bloodshed. Remember, that health risk is probably the least of the concerns of some of the people most against the COVID-19 vaccine. Their opposition has to do with their hidden agendas, their worldview, the very definition of themselves; notions that history has shown people are willing to kill and be killed for.
Related Links
Biography of Dr. Anderson Reynolds
Watch NO MAN’S LAND book trailer
Buy Dr. Reynolds Books Online
Buy Dr. Reynolds Books in St. Lucia
