Domestic anthropologists have systematized all rumors about coronavirus circulating in the Russian segment of the Internet. Anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova, Senior Researcher at the School of Contemporary Humanitarian Research of the Institute for Social Sciences, RANEPA, told the BBC Russian Service about the main prejudices of the inhabitants of Russia in this area.
“We have already accumulated a huge base (in total – about 7 million shares). We studied 314 different stories of coronavirus rumors, of which 83 are about vaccinations. They are found in more than 2.6 million reposts in social networks, not counting messengers, ”said Arkhipova.
In the first place in popularity, according to the expert, is the confidence of citizens that vaccines cause diseases, including oncology and infertility.
The second most common is the idea of vaccination as a new mechanism of genetic control. This legend fits the belief that Bill Gates invented it for the sake of decreasing the human population. Among the popular on the Internet “coronavirus” stories, there is also the one that the Russian elites secretly buy abroad a vaccine from the Pfizer company and are vaccinated exclusively with it.
As an example of the most paradoxical mass prejudice before vaccination, Arkhipova cited the assertions of some citizens that those vaccinated against COVID-19 infect the unvaccinated with coronavirus. This view is based on the belief that the vaccine is, in fact, the virus.
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