ACDP’s anti-vaxx agenda more than politics or religion

The global Covid pandemic has spawned, it is now obvious, more than just a healthy interest in, and debate on, scientific issues … it has seen the explosion of misinformation.

Most of that fake news comes from those who believe the health crisis – and the methods used internationally to deal with it – are part of some evil plot to control, or even exterminate, billions of people.

One of the most worrying aspects of that misleading information is the focus on the vaccination programme.

Anti-vaxxers have claimed, among myriad other nonsense, that the jabs kill. This, despite evidence that only a tiny fraction of a percent of people who experience adverse reactions from the shots actually die.

In South Africa, authorities have said there is no evidence to link any deaths to vaccines.

Yet, this has not deterred the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) from leaping aboard the anti-vaxx bandwagon by falsely claiming that the first nurse to receive the Covid vaccine, died as a result of the jab.

The Karl Bremer Hospital has confirmed that staffer Iris Adams has died, but that this was not as a result of the jab. The hospital added that Adams was “a valued member” of its team and “an advocate for our vaccination programme”.

In trying to defend its cynical use of the death of a courageous health worker to promote its anti-vaxx agenda, the ACDP tried to defend itself by saying it was merely “passing on” information which had already been circulating on social media.

This is a party which believes social media over science and is prepared to sully the memory of a person with lies, never mind upsetting her grieving family.

This is about more than politics – or even religion. This is about potentially misleading gullible people to their deaths just to get votes.

That is simply repugnant.