Anti-Covid Vaxxers by Harlee Keen

Anti-COVID Vaxxers

harleek24 — 2025-02-26 18:56:31 UTC

Anti-Covid Vax people are individuals who resisted or completely refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine. It is considered deviant because it contradicts what health professionals were stating as what would control the pandemic. And what majority of society was doing, going against the societal norm. This Topic is worth studying because understanding their stance can improve public health policies, and explores the issues in trusting science and authority of the government.

ABC’s

harleek24 — 2025-02-26 18:57:41 UTC

Attitude applied because these people have beliefs that oppose what majority of society deemed necessary to stop the pandemic. These people often have distrust in the government, and public health institutions. Behavior also applies because they refused to get vaccinated. Some joined protests, posted on social media about it, spreading misinformation, some even used fake vaccination cards to get around it. But there is study that found most people who refused the vaccine also refused to get educated on it, leading to an uneducated stance. (Paragraph 2, News Medical)

3 S’s

harleek24 — 2025-02-26 18:58:47 UTC

Selected applies because people willingly choose to not get vaccinated. Being Anti-COVID vaccination is a choice they made, along with choosing to post, and join protests about it. You could even say “sick” applies because some medical professionals say that extreme anti-vax people are irrational and could be in “psychosis, cognitive rigidity, or nonpsychotic denial of reality.” (Paragraph 7, psychiatrist.com) The public may even view them as unwell for rejecting scientific facts.

Goffman

harleek24 — 2025-02-26 18:59:21 UTC

-Anti-COVID vax people can fit into the tribal stigma that Goffman explained. While anti-vax beliefs aren’t something you are born into it can still apply because they create a strong group of like minded people. Often viewing their group as a movement against government control. (Paragraph 1, NIH.gov)

-Anti-COVID vax people can be both discredited or discreditable depending on how open they are about their beliefs. If they are open about their beliefs like not wearing their face mask during the mandate, spreading their views on social media or joining protests that went against the mandates, they are discredited. They could also be discreditable if they chose to hide their beliefs. If they are unvaccinated and people don’t already know they can pass as “normal” in public spaces. But on the day to day anti-covid vax individuals are discreditable because their differentness cannot be immediately perceivable.

-Applying blemishes of individual character, society can label them as morally or intellectually flawed for rejecting the vaccine during a world wide pandemic. They are viewed as misinformed and gullible for rejecting scientific research, which is why blemishes of individual character applies.

Deviants view of their behavior

harleek24 — 2025-02-26 19:00:41 UTC

Anti- COVID vax people do not view themselves as deviant. They often view their actions as rational, they have a belief in personal freedom, and distrust the government. A lot of these individuals have a full time career of it, not stopping at just the COVID-19 vaccine but even not getting their children immunizations or flu shots. But some of these individuals might only refuse the covid vaccine due to the misinformation they were reading online while still accepting other vaccines. They feared the unknown side effects, due to the speed it was developed. But a lot of them didn’t stop at the covid vaccine, their beliefs were reinforced by finding like minded people on social media.

Impacts on society

harleek24 — 2025-02-26 19:01:08 UTC

In my world view people who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine affected not only them but everyone around them. Lower vaccine rates lead to higher transmission of COVID, which hospitalized and killed people. In personal experience when everyone was getting the vaccine I was in high school. My classmates whose parents didn’t let them get the vaccine were initially excluded from sports and extracurricular activities. Not being able to participate in your own community can be isolating especially for teenagers. Eventually they were allowed to participate but had to get covid tested weekly which not only costed money from the school but also signaled them out amongst a very left leaning school who majority got the vaccine. There were some positives that came out of this. Efforts to make scientific research more transparent and easily accessible to the public increased. The societal response to anti-covid vax individuals was the government mandating it for workplaces, travel, and some public places. I know for my father who didn’t want to get the vaccine he was eventually forced to get it or risked losing his job. There was a lot of public backlash, facing social-stigma. They got labels as ignorant and irresponsible, people were losing jobs, and relationships from it.

Resources/Works Cited

harleek24 — 2025-02-26 19:03:01 UTC

1. Key academic scholars are not on the side of anti-covid vax people. They view them as deviant against what scientific research says, and what the majority of society agrees with. They do understand there may be underlying reasons that they didn’t want to get the vaccine, like fear of needles or how marginalized groups have often been mistreated by medical professionals.

- Hornsey, Matthew J. 2022.nReasons Why People May Refuse COVID19 Vaccination (and What Can Be Done About It). World Psychiatry 21. Retrieved February 26th, 2025 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9077616/

- Goffman. Erving, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Touchstone (Reissue edition). 1986. 2 ISBN: 978-06716224422

- News-Medical. 2024. Cognitive Distortions and Deliberate Ignorance Lead to COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal, Study Says. News-Medical.net, September 17. Retrieved February 26th, 2025 https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240917/Cognitive-distortions-and-deliberate-ignorance-lead-to-COVID-19-vaccine-refusal-study-says.aspx

- Goldberg, Joseph F. 2021.How Should Psychiatry Respond to COVID-19 Anti-Vax Attitudes? The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Retrieved February 26th, 2025 https://www.psychiatrist.com/jcp/how-should-psychiatry-respond-to-covid-19-anti-vax-attitudes/

-Armitage, Richard. 2021. Online Anti-Vax Campaigns and COVID-19: Censorship Is Not the Solution. Public Health. Retrieved February 26th, 2025

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7834951/

Conceptilization

harleek24 — 2025-02-26 19:04:15 UTC

-We can apply the social constructionist/relativist conception to anti-covid vax individuals. This concept is that no behavior is inherently deviant until constructed by society. There has been some level of anti-vax people around, but it didn’t get stigmatized as it did before covid. The refusal of the COVID-19 vaccine was more of a public health concern than before being a personal health choice.

-Labeling theory can be applied (micro level) looking at how some anti-covid vax people might react to being labeled as that. They say they are “pro-choice” rather than “anti-vax.”

-Critical perspective is that marginalized groups have historically been neglected by the medical field. They have deep seated skepticism due to the systematic oppression they have gone through.