New Religions

I’ve realized that it is impossible to talk to people about vaccines at the moment, not because of the vaccines themselves, but because the question is now a matter of faith. It’s like trying to talk a Protestant into becoming Catholic or a Sunni into becoming a Shia Muslim. People’s faith is never based on objective facts and science, but in their culture and belief systems. You can’t argue faith.

What is unfortunate is that this new faith means that hospitals are full of unvaccinated COVID patients (in my area, 80% of COVID patients in hospitals are unvaccinated). Today you might die from a car accident when otherwise you might have had a chance of surviving, because your spot was taken by someone who refused to get vaccinated.

What I also find sad is what this means for climate change and any other issues that require us to agree on the facts in order to act. In our world of “alternative facts”, there are a lot of crazy beliefs out there, from flat earthers to breatharianism.

The thing I find the most disturbing is the hidden hypocrisy of the anti-vaxers. They’re anti-science but often quite happy to have an MRI if they need one, use a cell phone, drive a car, watch TV, or heat something up in a microwave. They like the science that is convenient for them, but reject the rest.

Another ironic thing with anti-vaxers is that they are ardent “individualists”, but they all need to support each other. As Frank Burns said, “Individuality is fine as long as we all do it together.” They adhere to a group in order to proclaim their individuality.

Foro, however, has a scientific mind. He knows that science is a process, not a solution. It’s making a hypothesis, trying it out, seeing if it works, adapting it or abandoning it if it doesn’t, trying again.