Last week, the world got an exciting piece of news on the coronavirus front, which sent the stock market into overdrive and lifted the spirits of millions of people that has been living under a dark, viral cloud for way too long.
Pfizer has been working with BioNTech to produce incredibly successful results with a new COVID-19 vaccine and has proven to be 90% effective in a crucial round of testing. To put this success into perspective, most medical experts agreed a vaccine with 50% success rate would have been considered sufficient.
But not everyone is happy about this medical miracle , and they are lashing out at the news.
Hours after Pfizer’s Monday announcement, conspiratorial social media channels lit up with baseless claims. Some warned, without evidence, that the COVID-19 vaccine would come with ghastly side effects. This despite Pfizer indicating its candidate had produced no serious safety issues, at least so far, and an array of independent boards and other safeguards in place to prevent dangerous vaccines from reaching the public.
Others alleged, also without evidence, that the vaccine was actually a secret microchip and that Microsoft founder Bill Gates was going to use the microchips for nefarious (if somewhat unclear) purposes. Maybe mind-control, or depopulation.
Another set of critics opposed the very principle of getting a vaccine, claiming the not-yet-available shot amounted to a violation of their personal freedoms.
This reluctance to receive the vaccine has been a major concern for pharmaceutical companies and medical experts alike, and could cause major problems toward a grand reopening of the world at large.
