Why COVID-19 conspiracy followers are social distancing

CALGARY (CityNews) — Some anti-maskers may finally be masking up, and even social distancing, but it’s not COVID-19 that has them following public health orders, it’s the vaccine.

They’re keeping their distance from vaccinated people over fears of widely debunked “shedding” — the belief vaccinated people can “shed” the vaccine or modified cells to unvaccinated people that cause harms such as infertility or miscarriages.

“They’re saying that the actual virus is a hoax and not dangerous, but the shedding is dangerous,” said Timothy Caulfield, the Canada Research Chair on Health, Law and Policy at the University of Alberta. “I think that this is really important because it highlights so well that their message is just denial, right, it’s just denial. I think that should really be the take away from this incredible paradox.”

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Some businesses who believe in “shedding” have even gone as far as displaying signs instructing vaccinated people to stay away.

“The fact that they’re using this anti-science message to encourage people to physical distance, I don’t think that’s good, I don’t think that’s constructive. Because it still invites distrust of actual science,” Caulfield said.

Caulfield notes, understanding is a bit better this third wave, with more vaccine acceptance, and science communicators fighting misinformation.

“Still, there’s problems. A lot of Canadians are still hesitant. In Alberta in particular, we’re seeing very high hesitancy rates. So we’re going to start to bump up against that hesitancy hurdle. And I say hurdle because I think we can get over it, in the near future. So we have to keep at this and make sure that we’re providing good evidence and information.”