The guitarist, who is British, previously railed against COVID-19 vaccine mandates on a podcast with the U.S. presidential candidate and conspiracy theorist.
I agree with everything here except that the right wing anti-vax nonsense began with trump and Covid. That definitely accelerated things, but there was a strong anti-vax sentiment in the Republican Party even before trump.
During the GOP primary debates for the 2016 election, every single candidate cast doubt on the standard childhood vaccine regimen. The candidate who came closest to supporting vaccinating children was Rand Paul. And even though he definitely knows better, he argues vaccines should be given at a slower rate to “spread out” the effects.
I think the aversion to vaccines comes from the republican mistrust of science and expertise in general. This “know nothing”ism has been growing for a while - see Sarah Palin in the 2012 election.
I agree with everything here except that the right wing anti-vax nonsense began with trump and Covid. That definitely accelerated things, but there was a strong anti-vax sentiment in the Republican Party even before trump.
During the GOP primary debates for the 2016 election, every single candidate cast doubt on the standard childhood vaccine regimen. The candidate who came closest to supporting vaccinating children was Rand Paul. And even though he definitely knows better, he argues vaccines should be given at a slower rate to “spread out” the effects.
I think the aversion to vaccines comes from the republican mistrust of science and expertise in general. This “know nothing”ism has been growing for a while - see Sarah Palin in the 2012 election.