I used to be deeply annoyed by (say) the Tony & Cherie Blairs of this world - whom to my mind, selfishly (and irresponsibly) seemed not to inoculate their children, hoping that the rest of us would generate enough herd immunity to save them from infection / harm.
Such situation was made easier for me to deal with - when it was explained to me by a very Senior Officer with American Special Forces (= They have global responsibility on behalf of the US for Pandemic Control) - who holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Stanford (= 'Makes One a More Effective/Efficient Killer) that the issue with (COVID deniers /) the vaccine hesitant in that they fall into a particular situation that lawyers notice from years of experience = that various people are 'not right in the head' . . .
This is - that they appear to be functioning humans - but with a huge gap in some aspect(s) of their intellect - which manifests itself in a lack of understanding of the world around them / an inability to comprehend particular concepts.
For every person with an IQ of 140, there is someone with an IQ of 60 (= The standard to which airports have to be able to be managed by passengers - so that only the bottom decile cannot navigate them).
As regard the 'vaccine hesitant' - They are exclusively those who have absolutely no education or other experience/expertise in natural sciences (e.g. biology and chemistry).
In addition to the Blairs, one could add Boris Johnson (and Donald Trump / JFK Jr.).
Incredibly, for these people - if they can't see a virus (or a vaccine) they have significant issues with understanding the concepts.
From an evolutionary perspective - one needs to think of a group of hominids of the plains of Africa facing a stalking wild cat.
The best thing for a group (in terms of survival) in that situation is to let the brightest within the group work out what to do, and have the 'stupid ones' stay quiet (and not run out of the group in panic at not understanding how to deal with the threat) = Since this places them at risk.
It's why Private Jones in Dad's Army is an unusual character (= he knows that there is an issue - which he does not have the intellectual ability to deal with - but panics) - rather than the evolutionary preferred trait of staying silent / inaction = he runs round shouting “Don’t Panic, Captain Mainwaring”.
However, in a pandemic situation the response is scrambled - since one is not facing (say)a visible lion, but rather the threat of a virus - which the individuals involved have (little to) no intellectual capacity to understand.
Faced with a virus (and needing a vaccine) - neither of which the deniers / hesitant understand - their natural reaction is to deny there is a problem / do nothing and try to convince others likewise.
This combines with the Dunning-Kruger effect = A cognitive bias where people with low competence in a specific area tend to overestimate their ability or knowledge in that domain.
This overestimation happens because their very lack of skill prevents them from accurately recognizing their own incompetence.
The effect was named by psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999 after they observed this phenomenon where individuals with limited expertise lacked the self-awareness to know what they didn't know.
If you want an example - Look to Trump who has absolutely no understanding of what a virus is (let alone a vaccine) - but is convinced he's a expert in the field!
It has to be a very 'brave' (small) number of individuals = Who are prepared to post on a professional website showing clear evidence of the syndrome within their makeup (because they look like absolute cretins = it’s not like Trump where they have inherited wealth behind them to smooth their stupidity?) . . .
Sadly, faced with a (potentially) deadly virus the evolutionary trait bred into humans (and 'Dunning-Kruger') is exactly the wrong thing to so = It's why Dumb Asses like 'Meatloaf' died of COVID (whatever their other gifts / skills).
A lot of their complaints tend to be about control over them, which ironically - if they understood the science and would voluntarily quarantine themselves (as much as reasonably possible) - The need for lock downs would be much lessened.
Those with the relevant intellectual impediment aren’t that hard to recognise / identify. They have a complete lack of understanding of natural sciences (biology and chemistry) - but their lack of education/qualifications never seems to prevent them believing they are experts on the issues involved.
Sadly, the traits often blend into extreme susceptibility (as is common with weak minds).
Pandemics had been successfully controlled by the CDC etc. for years (e.g. Bird Flu, SARS and EBOLA = Which managed to get to the U.S.)
It was a vastly unfortunate circumstance that COVID hit the Developed World at a time of Populist Leaders like (Boris Johnson and) Donald Trump who fall squarely into the intellectually impaired / vaccine hesitant.
The World is again a dangerous place when Trump has appointed RFK Jr. as Heath Secretary - a man without any natural sciences education of qualifications. Next time will be worse . . .
