Challenging hate of "the unvaccinated": An imperative for sustainable post-pandemic recovery


Claus Rinner, Toronto Metropolitan University

Millions of Canadians who declined the COVID-19 vaccines were exposed to various forms of hate in the last three years. Using the August 26, 2021, Toronto Star front page (“Let them die”) and a January 15, 2024, Winnipeg Free Press op-ed (“The unwelcome unvaxxed”), I illustrate how the news media fueled, and possibly even ignited, this hatred. I argue that socially sustainable post-pandemic recovery requires agreement on three points of evidence and principle: (1) failure of the vaccines to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission; (2) falsehood of the “pandemic of the unvaccinated”; and (3) the ethical perversion of vaccination mandates.

This paper will be presented at the following session: