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Source: The Independent
Hardcore vaccine refuseniks could need deradicalising like terrorists – expert
There is a small minority of antivaxxers who are 'very difficult to reach', according to one expert.
December 9, 2021
Source: The Independent
Hardcore vaccine refuseniks could need deradicalising like terrorists – expert
There is a small minority of antivaxxers who are 'very difficult to reach', according to one expert.
December 9, 2021
(Tess De La Mere/PA) (PA Archive)
A "deradicalisation" programme like those given to former terrorists or cult members might be the only way to dissuade some hardcore antivaxxers from their beliefs, according to one psychology expert.
Around six million eligible people in the UK have not received a single jab a year on from the first Covid [Editor's note: there is that magic six million number again] vaccination being given in the UK.
Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, chair in cognitive psychology at the University of Bristol, was keen to stress that many of those are likely to be "marginalised" people who are "very difficult to reach for anything", and for whom access is likely to be the biggest issue rather than psychological or ideological factors.
But for a small section of "hardcore refuseniks", he said, it may be difficult to reach them by conventional means because their beliefs are so ingrained.
He told the PA news agency: "They'll refuse anything – 'I'm not going to wear a mask', 'I'm not going to get vaccinated', 'I don't think climate change is happening’, 'Covid is a hoax', and, you know, 'Hillary Clinton is actually a reptilian shapeshifter'.
"You're getting to people who hold a cluster of very exotic beliefs – now, they're very difficult to reach."
Measures that could be used to reach more moderate people who remain unvaccinated, he said, include assigning vaccine appointments to people rather than asking them to book their own, or setting up pop-up clinics in places like supermarkets or shopping centres.
Another measure would be introducing a vaccine mandate, which he said "will disgruntle a few people" but "can be effective".
But for those with more extreme views, he said, those methods may not be effective.
He added: "In the ideal world, time and money permitting, you can engage even those people in a very slow, long-term process where you affirm their right to have those beliefs… rather than telling them something about themselves they don't want to hear, let's put it that way.
"So you tell them something positive, and then engage in what is effectively the same as a deradicalisation process for former terrorists, or cult members.
Please go to The Independent to read more.
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