By Cutting Big Pharma Out of Vaccine Production, We Can Help Neutralize Anti-Vaxx Paranoia
The anti-vaxx movement is a menace, but it feeds off public distrust nurtured by the appalling record of Big Pharma. We need an alternative model that strips out the profit motive and works for the public good — Canada’s Connaught Laboratories show how that model could work.
There is no better time than the present to nationalize vaccine production. (Flickr)
On December 9, Health Canada announced their approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. This made Canada the third country to do so, after the United Kingdom and Bahrain. The same day this news broke, Kyle Kemper, half brother of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, appeared on the front page of the National Post to decry the vaccination campaign.
Described in the newspaper’s profile as an “antivaxxer, Bitcoin entrepreneur and Trudeau’s ‘affectionate’ critic,” Kemper is a wealthy, right-wing libertarian drawn straight from central casting. His fears about the “great reset“ and vaccines align comfortably with his passion for cryptocurrency, and suspicion of corporations and government. On his Facebook page, he describes COVID-19 vaccines as an “experimental concoction.”
Of course, not all anti-vaxxers are wealthy half-siblings of world leaders. The anti-vaxxer movement in its most recognizable form — composed of groups with a strong social media presence that are engulfed in conspiracy theories and fake science — has been growing in Canada for the last decade. According to Wellcome Global Monitor, almost 50 percent of Canadians are “vaccine hesitant.”
Sorry, but this article is available to active subscribers only. Please log in or become a subscriber.