COVID Conspiracies

In this six-part series, Postmedia journalists from across the country will dive deep into why conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers have flourished during the pandemic, how their false claims hurt us, and what we can do about it. Hosted by Monique Beaudin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the pandemic began more than a year ago, there wasn’t much hope of a vaccine against a disease that had just emerged in humans. Now, though, millions of people around the world are getting vaccinated against COVID-19 every day. But not everyone will get the shot. While the vast majority of Canadians say they’ll get vaccinated, there are still about 21 percent of people who are vaccine hesitant. About seven percent of them say they will not be vaccinated. As COVID spread around the world, so too did the anti-vaccination movement. In today’s episode, reporter Dalson Chen, of the Windsor Star in Windsor, Ontario, takes us for a journey into the history of the anti-vax movement. And explains why it is still going strong today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the coronavirus spread around the world over the past year, something else spread along with it — conspiracy theories. You’d see them on Facebook. Or maybe your family or friends shared them with you. Even political leaders sometimes spread them. There’s a long history of conspiracy theories flourishing in human society. It’s part of the way we cope with new information. In today’s episode, the Windsor Star’s Dalson Chen is back to look at covid conspiracies and where they came from. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back at the end of 2019, if someone had told you that a global pandemic was going to sweep the world in 2020, would you have believed them? Could you have imagined that people all around the world would get sick and that nearly four million would die of a disease no one had heard of? That planes would be grounded, restaurants closed and even haircuts would be off limits? It would have seemed far-fetched to most of us in 2019. So maybe it’s not that surprising that some people have been easily swayed by the conspiracy theories that have flourished with the pandemic. In today’s episode of Covid Conspiracies Jennifer Bieman of the London Free Press looks at why so many of us have turned to outlandish theories to try to understand what has happened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve heard about some of the people who refused to follow public health rules. There are the anti-maskers, the people who can’t seem to stay two meters apart from others and those that set up illegal gyms for their workouts. And then there are the religious institutions. Public-health officials in Canada and the United States have intervened to shut down different religious groups that persisted in holding gatherings despite legal orders to ban them. While a few pastors publicly repeated conspiracy theories about COVID-19, other pastors took a different approach. To engage with the skeptics in their congregations. In today’s episode, the National Post’s Tyler Dawson takes a closer look at churches and COVID conspiracies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed an enormous cost on, well, everyone. Lost lives, lost jobs, delayed schooling, stress and anxiety. Some people think there’s another cost too — the cost of COVID conspiracy theories. It’s almost like a second virus, infecting peoples’ minds instead of their bodies. And the cost to humanity is going up as conspiracy theories like anti-vaccination campaigns just prolong the pandemic. Today, Phil Tank of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix takes a closer look at what COVID conspiracy theories are costing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the pandemic first started back in early 2020, few people imagined we’d have an effective vaccine against the disease. Now we have several, and countries that are reaching high vaccination levels are seeing the disease decline. If only there was a similar treatment for COVID conspiracy theories, which continue to circulate even as the pandemic eases in some wealthy countries.  Researchers say there are ways to neutralize conspiracy theories. But they’ll take time, and a lot of education.  Today, in our final episode, Phil Tank of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix looks into a cure for conspiracy theories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices