America has hit a roadblock in the coronavirus pandemic.
A hard, very dangerous and completely unnecessary roadblock.
Put bluntly, a lot of deluded, ill-informed, shamefully scare-mongered, or simply complacent Americans have got it into their heads that either the covid vaccines are somehow more dangerous than covid itself, or the virus isn’t serious enough to warrant protection from it.
Some of these sceptics believe the insane conspiracy-theory that the US Government is using vaccines to plant microchips in their heads to control their minds. (Don’t laugh: a recent Economist/YouGov poll revealed that 20% of Americans really do suspect this.)
Many more, tens of millions of people across the United States, are hesitant to get jabbed for all manner of other reasons ranging from doubts about the vaccine’s efficacy, to a fear they impair fertility, damage pregnancy, alter DNA, magnetize you, or even actively help transmit the virus.
These unsubstantiated theories have been fuelled by anti-vaxxer whack-jobs online, and especially on social media. And they have sadly begun to have a very real and deadly influence, as I can personally attest.