Strange, isn't it how people can just waiver a free prevention.
About half the human population don't take the prescribed medication they are given as instructed. Even if it's free; even if it's life saving. They are more likely to adhere if they are giving meds to their pets than to themselves.
People are entirely rubbish at acting in their own best interests, let alone anyone else's. You can imagine the impact on antibiotic resistance and needless deaths. When someone asks you "why is that person not thinking rationally?" - it's because people are not rational, on the whole.
This is an interesting discussion on the connection between "wellness culture" antivaxers (Yogis, vegans, "clean eating", chiropractors, conspiracy theorists, radical misinformation) and the far right; the body as a locus of rigorous personal control.
"fitness really was kind of on the front line. I was in New Jersey for
the first few months of the pandemic and the two groups that were
organizing most in those early days were the very religious, and the
very fit. Some of the first protests against lockdowns were outside of gyms. ...
Ultra-religious people... were insisting no
matter what this was, they had to go pray. They had to be in these
collective spaces, because that was their force field. Prayer was their
protection against death or what happens after death...
And they said: “Aren’t you afraid of Covid? You’ve just been in a room
with thousands of unmasked people singing.” And the answer from one
worshipper was: “No way! I’m bathed in the blood of the Lord.” I saw these gym protests as a similar idea: my body is my temple. What
I’m doing here is my protection; I’m keeping myself strong. I’m building
up my immune system, my body is my force field against whatever is
coming...
When we moved back to Canada and started doing election campaigning, my
partner Avi knocked on a door and met a very fit person who looked like I
could have taken an Ashtanga class with her. And all she wanted to talk
about was vaccine passports and how she was opposed to vaccines. She
said: “I have a strong immune system.” And he, very tentatively, said:
“Well, yes, but not everybody does.” And she said: “I think those people
should die.”
... The 1980s: people are in the wreckage of the
failures of huge social movements in the 60s and 70s. There had
been this glimpse of collective power that a lot of people really
thought was going to change the world, and suddenly they’re living
through Thatcherism and Reaganism. And there is this turn towards the
self, towards the body as the site of control. Then
you have all of these entrepreneurial wellness figures who come in and
say, individuals must take charge of their own bodies as their primary
sites of influence, control and competitive edge.
And
so the flip side of the idea that your competitive edge is your body is
that the people who don’t have bodies as fit or strong as yours somehow
did something wrong or are less deserving of access, less deserving
even of life. And that is unfortunately all too compatible with
far-right notions of natural hierarchies, genetic superiority and
disposable people.... We live in a hyper-individualist culture.
I can't tell you how this chimes with me. Everywhere, since the beginning of Covid, I have heard and seen paraphrasing of “I think those people
should die.” It's been the most profoundly upsetting piece of the pandemic for me. I don't think the shock of that revealed heartlessness will ever leave me. Neighbours have said it often, it's been said on this forum, family and even old friends have said it. "They are old or ill or strangers so who cares?".
"People who don’t have bodies as fit or strong as yours somehow
did something wrong or are less deserving of access, less deserving
even of life."
This attitude suffuses the wellness/hippie/yoga world. And the religious world - if you got ill, it was god's will and you are clearly not "at one" with the universe. Must try harder.
I have been doing Yoga for more than 20 years for exercise nothing more. I am NOT an antivaxer, religious, or any other kind of extreme crank. Please don't make these sweeping generalised comments.
I'm not saying everyone in the yoga world feels like that, but having been in and around it for 20 years, I do find the attitudes to be common, and within the original texts, as the article echoes.
I've seen people writing that they aren't having any more Covid jabs because they haven't caught Covid so far. They aren't saying they've never had the jabs, they actually say 'not having any more'? Nuts or what.
There's now a shingles vaccine, which should help with those of eligible age to get it. I'd have liked the chicken pox vaccine to be around when my girls were young and eligible. I probably wouldn't have caught it at the age of 41, and been seriously ill, if it had been. Our health visitor was horrified when I told her the doctor at A&E had dismissed it when my OH had taken me because my entire face was in agony. She knew someone older had just died from it, and another was in hospital on a drip. These diseases aren't funny - whatever age you are.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
This is an interesting discussion on the connection between "wellness
culture" antivaxers: (Yogis, vegans, "clean eating", chiropractors, conspiracy theorists)
As you can see from the article, she is not saying that everyone who is vegan or does yoga is an antivaxer. She is describing the people she observes within the antivax groups. The article is not about veganism or yoga, it's about the anti-covid kickback and an analysis of what might be causing it.
I have been doing Yoga for more than 20 years for exercise nothing more. I am NOT an antivaxer, religious, or any other kind of extreme crank. Please don't make these sweeping generalised comments.
Me too @Allotment Boy . I practice yoga (and tai chi) for exercise, maintaining flexibility, posture, core strength etc, and relaxation/mental wellbeing. I don't think it necessarily makes my immune system any better than anyone else's (although it can't hurt) and I'll take any help I can get from vaccinations etc. You don't have to be a crank/hippy/whatever to practice yoga, you just have to be yourself.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Posts
I can't tell you how this chimes with me. Everywhere, since the beginning of Covid, I have heard and seen paraphrasing of “I think those people should die.” It's been the most profoundly upsetting piece of the pandemic for me. I don't think the shock of that revealed heartlessness will ever leave me. Neighbours have said it often, it's been said on this forum, family and even old friends have said it. "They are old or ill or strangers so who cares?".
This attitude suffuses the wellness/hippie/yoga world. And the religious world - if you got ill, it was god's will and you are clearly not "at one" with the universe. Must try harder.
I am NOT an antivaxer, religious, or any other kind of extreme crank. Please don't make these sweeping generalised comments.
I'd have liked the chicken pox vaccine to be around when my girls were young and eligible. I probably wouldn't have caught it at the age of 41, and been seriously ill, if it had been.
Our health visitor was horrified when I told her the doctor at A&E had dismissed it when my OH had taken me because my entire face was in agony. She knew someone older had just died from it, and another was in hospital on a drip.
These diseases aren't funny - whatever age you are.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border