Opinion

How do we reach the anti-vaxxers?

A grief-stricken poem drives home the human cost of the coronavirus pandemic, leading Paul McNamee to ask how we can get anti-vaxxers to think again.

If you have time, read Up Late, by Nick Laird. And if you do, take a seat first. Maybe grab some tissues. You’ll need them.

Laird is a Northern Irish writer and poet. He’s one of the best to come out of Ireland for years. With Up Late, he becomes a great one. It’s a poem about the death of his father Alastair who died from Covid in March. Up Late was published last week.

Gently, and not so gently, Laird details the death and the grief, his father “clawing at the mask and exhausted” as the final hours come. He writes of the separation, of his widowed father stricken, alone in a ward, connected only by a Zoom call. It is, he says simply, a terrible disease.

You can never tell where the thing that knocks you sideways will come from. Which is probably how it manages to knock you sideways. The toll of death from Covid, and the families devastated, have been a constant with us since March last year. And yet somehow it is a poem that punches through.

Article continues below

Current vacancies...

Search jobs

I discovered Up Late the same day those balloons tried to storm the BBC in London to teach the BBC what’s what about the Covid lie and the big pharma vaccine conspiracy. Patience for them is stretched rather. The national schadenfreude felt when we discovered the operational wise guys had stormed the wrong building rippled for awhile.

But so does anger at those “truth-telling” foot soldiers. It takes a certain kind of privileged arrogance to be so convinced you know things experts don’t – about something that saves lives – that you feel entitled to invade a news organisation to hammer home your point. All this happens as the debate still rages about how to get the vaccine in big volumes to developing nations.

Vaccine reluctance can be met with positive information. That is hard when Russian anti-vax troll farms are peddling misinformation on a global scale. It’s not clear if the I Am Legend anti-vax conspiracy that gripped last week, suggesting vaccinations turned recipients into zombies, was birthed from one of those accounts. But the fact that it gained traction at all illustrates the scale of the problem. Some people prefer to believe outlandish things.

The story of Francis Goncalves’ family was another horrible tragedy. His family were wiped out when they refused the vaccine, falling victim, Goncalves said, to anti-vax misinformation and conspiracy. Will his story move any waverers enough to change their minds? Possibly? Will Nick Laird’s Up Late? I hope so. If nothing else, people will discover a great piece of literature.

As of last week, more than 75 per cent of adults in Britain were double-vaxxed. It means the anti-vaxxers are small in number but, clearly, they exist and they are loud. The vaccination of children becomes the next battle line. While I try to be open to argument I cannot rationalise any opposition to something that protects the health of children. It’s going to be a bumpy few weeks.

Paul McNamee is editor of The Big Issue

Support the Big Issue

For over 30 years, the Big Issue has been committed to ending poverty in the UK. In 2024, our work is needed more than ever. Find out how you can support the Big Issue today.
Vendor martin Hawes

Recommended for you

View all
Social care is on its knees. It's no wonder public dissatisfaction is at a record high
social care
Evan John

Social care is on its knees. It's no wonder public dissatisfaction is at a record high

Investment in social housing is an investment in people
John Bird

Investment in social housing is an investment in people

Two-child limit on benefits is cruel and unfair. Politicians must rethink ahead of general election
two child limit/ three kids
Martin O'Neill

Two-child limit on benefits is cruel and unfair. Politicians must rethink ahead of general election

Some people might find my middle-aged life boring – but it's real. There's beauty in the humdrum
Sam Delaney says old people can still enjoy live music
Sam Delaney

Some people might find my middle-aged life boring – but it's real. There's beauty in the humdrum

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know