Jab and flat-earthers

Tuesday 14th September, 2021

Social media, if properly used, can be a boon to a country, but in the hands of troublemakers bent on disseminating fake news, they could be as harmful, if not dangerous, as cut-throat razors wielded by mad monkeys. Unfortunately, some Sri Lankans tend to fall for baseless claims published on the Internet, hook, line, and sinker.

Reports that some Sri Lankan youth are wary of being inoculated against Covid-19 owing to false claims being circulated on social media about the vaccines have caused much concern to the health experts in charge of the national vaccination drive. The youth who fall for bogus claims that the Covid-19 jabs will adversely impact their libido and fertility, and therefore refuse to be vaccinated are making a huge mistake; they are exposing themselves to the danger of contracting Covid-19, which kills people of all ages indiscriminately. One’s libido and fertility do not survive one’s death, do they?

Anti-vaxxers are active on the Internet as never before. There is hardly anything these flat-earthers do not do to instill fear of vaccines into others. Their scaremongering is a threat to global health. What they believe in is the very antithesis of science, and nothing is stupider than to buy into their claims and remain unvaccinated.

What the Sri Lankan youth troubled by the jab scare, as it were, should bear in mind is that they have already taken several vaccines against viral diseases and benefited tremendously therefrom; they have been given the MMR vaccine, among others, to protect them against highly contagious diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella. No harm has befallen them; instead these jabs have helped them remain healthy. It is science and nothing else that has enabled Sri Lanka to eradicate the polio menace. So, why fear vaccines that save lives?

True, vaccines could have some side-effects, which are rare, but impotence and infertility/subfertility are certainly not among them, medical experts inform us. There is an element of risk in almost everything—even in the act of crossing a road; does this mean people should stop walking on roads? There are rare instances where infants choke to death on mother’s milk, but this does not mean children should not be breastfed.

‘There’s a sucker born every minute’, American showman, P. T. Barnum, is reported to have said. This is a truism if the sheer number of gullible people amongst us is any indication. There have been numerous instances of mass hysteria in this country. Some years ago, many people claimed to have seen colourful rays emanating from some religious statues. When a carpenter turned self-proclaimed native physician claimed to have found a cure for Covid-19 with the help of a goddess, thousands of people went running to his village to buy his herbal syrup. Among those he took for a ride were the then Health Minister, the Speaker of Parliament, a large number of MPs and even some doctors. A national university went so far as to grant the untested product ethical clearance. So, it is only natural that there are many Sri Lankans who believe in false claims disseminated on social media about the Covid-19 vaccines.

During the last several days, we have seen young men and women queue up near vaccination centres in an orderly manner. They have earned praise for their exemplary behaviour, and set an example to the elderly folk who shove and jostle to receive vaccines, making a nuisance of themselves to the police and health workers.

The youth who are said to be wary of being vaccinated against Covid-19 owing to misconceptions and unfounded fears ought to emulate the aforesaid intelligent men and women, stop believing in non-science, and go running to grab a jab. That is the way they can prove that they are as smart as the mobile phones they carry, and not a bunch of flat-earthers.