As Lebanon is expected to sign a deal this week for supplies of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine and is set to receive the first batch eight weeks after that, individuals against vaccination have been persistent in making their opinions heard.
Some of these individuals are Lebanese celebrities who took it upon themselves to share their anti-vaccine stance on their large influential platforms.
First in the line of anti-vaxxers is Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe.
Wehbe took to her Instagram stories to share a message raising questions in regards to the fact that after 40 years of research, we still do not have a vaccine for HIV or cancer, yet a COVID-19 vaccine was developed in under a year.
However, what the pop star failed to realize is that there isn’t just one type of cancer for us to vaccinate against, and each cancer differs in condition and treatment.
Besides, there exist traditional preventive vaccines that, according to experts, do target viruses causing certain cancers, such as HPV vaccines. They may help protect against some cancers, but they don’t target cancer cells directly.
There is also the Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (or PrEP), which is a way for people, who do not have HIV but are at very high risk of getting HIV, to prevent the infection by taking a pill every day.
The second Lebanese celebrity in line is Elissa, who “agrees 100%” with a video warning about the dangers of the vaccine in altering our DNA.
The social media user who posted the video against COVID-19 vaccination then admitted that it was false and compiled of misinformation, thus removing the tweet.
Lastly, we have Carole Samaha who, back in June, posted a tweet criticizing the idea of obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine anytime soon. She labeled it as the scam of the century, with the hashtag “no to vaccination” in Arabic.
? لقاح #الكورونا هي صفقة التاريخ !!
اللعبة أصبحت واضحة?#لا_للتلقيح #لا_للتطعيم https://t.co/UKEzlOWYVC— CAROLE SAMAHA? (@CAROLE_SAMAHA) May 30, 2020
Samaha, later on, replied to the people criticizing her anti-vaccine stance by writing: “In what century are you living in? Who are you and who gave you the right to permit people to share their opinion or not? My health is related to this topic, and I’m not just a parrot who sings.”
Some celebrities even claimed alien conspiracy…
The fact remains that most governments, pharmaceutical industries, and doctors have been relentlessly working day and night for a vaccine to put an end to this global disease.
Debates around the covid-19 vaccine have been many, and often intense, mostly from groups that are against all types of vaccines in general but also ensuing from fear towards a new disease that has emerged in our times.
Should that new disease have started before our time and vaccination was required at an early age, like several we give to kids, people wouldn’t have probably resisted it.
It remains that whether people will want to get vaccinated or not against COVID-19 is a personal decision, which will also involve the health and safety of their loved ones and surrounding.
