Opposition to vaccines is certainly nothing new, but the discourse around the topic has been especially chaotic this year.
The race for a cure for our corona-phobia (a term I totally made up to describe being both scared of the disease and sick of being in lockdown) has been intense as pharmaceutical companies have worked tirelessly to manufacture a safe and effective vaccine.
It is this speediness that has raised concerns with people who are typically pro-vax and hell with those who are against.
Chloe Lattanzi, daughter of Olivia Newton-John, is the latest public figure to share her thoughts on why she is anti-vaccines, taking to Facebook to address her concerns as the first Covid vaccines rolls out in the UK.
“Natural medicine saved my mom’s life. So natural medicine is the party I belong to,” she wrote, referencing her mother’s battle with breast cancer.
Apparently not wanting her beliefs to come across as politically motivated, 34-year-old Lattanzi added:
“Not republican!!! Not democrat! What do you do when you don’t fit in a box!? When you are a vegan, cannabis growing, LGBTQ supporting, Buddhist that doesn’t agree with vaccines?”
She also shared additional text that read, “Sorry but not being in favour of lockdowns, masks and vaccines does NOT make me a member of the radical right or a ‘radical’ of any kind. What I’m a member of is a community that supports exploring for yourself rather than blindly following politicians, scientists or doctors…”
The post attracted a lot of attention from people on both sides of the fence. Wrote one user, “If you are not in favour of lockdowns and wearing masks during a pandemic, you are basically a danger for you and others. There’s nothing much to debate about it,” while another wholeheartedly espoused Lattanzi’s stance, with a comment that read, “I’m ALL about natural.”
The former Dancing With the Stars contestant is not the first media personality to publicly oppose vaccines.
In a bizarre 60 Minutes Interview back in June, Celebrity Chef Pete Evans raised eyebrows when he insisted that he was a proponent of vaccines but chose not to use them himself. He later took to social media to express his opinion that COVID-19 is a “scamdemic” – a belief widely held by conspiracy theorists.
Evans was subsequently fired from the cast of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! Australia after posting what appeared to be a Neo-Nazi meme on his social media accounts.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought a multitude of conspiracy theories (and theorists) out of the woodwork as people debate its validity and speculate that an evil cabal of elites is manipulating global events in order to control the human race.
For those who believe the virus is real and are eagerly awaiting a vaccine, it is hoped the formula jointly developed by Pfizer and Biotech will be approved for Australian use in early 2021.