ROME — A deep dive into Italian anti-vaxxer social media groups leaves me stunned. For them, AstraZeneca, Pfizer/Biontech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and the others are very dangerous, lethal poisons. They keep track of all the alleged casualties of the vaccine roll-out — even if they are just a repetition of the same articles, drawn from unlikely alternative media and inflated with sensationalist language. They see side effects everywhere and don't buy the story of the "lack of correlation" between inoculation and any problem that a person may have.
They try to persuade that a eugenics experiment on a planetary scale is underway, piloted by the usual suspects who have mocked the well-deserving Donald Trump: Bill Gates (whom they call "Kill Bill"), the "Davos clique", the Bilderberg group, the WHO, Big Pharma, 5G, the "deep states', the technocratic governments steered by the most soulless multinationals and the evergreen demo-Pluto-Judaic-Masonic elites (as well as clergy-pedophiles) who move, you know, our residual existential threads.
They believe that "doctors no longer cure the virus in order to aid the billionaire vaccine business — there are precise directives from above" ; that "the pandemic, already simulated in 2017, is a planned operation by a health dictatorship and that economic, social and psychological terrorism to lead to the advent of a new satanic world order" ; that "concentration camps for forced vaccination are being rebuilt in Germany" ; that "Israel is well advanced in the work." By now we must be close to a Great Reset, subject to a remake of the Nuremberg mega-trial for those "responsible."
This is what you read if you extrapolate some of the recurring rhetoric that animates Italian Facebook pages such as "The hidden damage," which has some 8,000 followers ; "Freedom of choice for vaccines," which has more than 26,000 likes ; or Facebook groups like "Free-Vax Italia" (11,000 members) and Telegram channels like "Covid vaccine adverse events', 12,000 subscribers.
It's a strange galaxy of people who deny the need for immunization in order to return to some kind of new normal. We are talking about people who are often obsessives, who have monothematic virtual profiles. Now they are clamoring we are facing a mass massacre through a syringe, until a few months ago they fought against the "state muzzle" mask. And every four or five lines they casually wish death to those who do not think like them, the "sheep and lobotomized minds," or trolls at best. The irony.
The demon by which they seem possessed remains that of the online hater, fueled by identifiable disinformation and fake news. And by their pseudo-lawyers, doctors, opinion leaders, bloggers and gurus. "The AstraZeneca vaccine contains fetuses of aborted babies," writes one of the anti-vaxxers with the largest following. "Christians are protesting against this horror, but Pope Francis does not care about this. He worries that everyone will have the opportunity to inject dead babies into the vein."
For a good self-respecting anti-vaxxer, getting vaccinated is a bit like playing Russian roulette.
For a good self-respecting anti-vaxxer, getting vaccinated is a bit like playing Russian roulette. Anaphylactic reactions are around one corner, cerebral hemorrhages are around another, not to mention abortions and heart attacks caused by these potentially fatal injection. Fake videos proliferate, showing post-inoculation writhing and spasms. "What is certain is that between 20 and 50 year-olds, the vaccine certainly killed more than Covid," claims one user, Michele T.
Don't forget the medium and long-term side effects, as Anna E., a quiet girl with freckles, points out: "They are fine today, perhaps, but in the future? The dangers are written on the package leaflet." Chiara B. agrees: "The problem is that you get sick from the vaccine." Clara G. doubles down: "They use the military to force the people to act as guinea pigs for this experimentation with vaccines that are not tested — and just for a simple flu that doesn't exist, but that the government insists it does. Therefore, if you have a little cough, they intubate you and make treatments that sometimes kill you, they are so drastic in their reactions." Fabio F. looks at the broader picture: "My hypothesis is that the advantage of the vaccine is twofold: on the one hand this ‘terrible virus' continues to be kept alive, because the vaccinated become active vehicles for it, and therefore this farce is being helped to continue infinitely; on the other hand, those who do not have immediate side effects will develop, within a few years, nice autoimmune diseases rather than leukemia and tumors."
What about the variants? "They are more complicated to eradicate and are actually caused by vaccines, which are not at all effective against infection or disease," one writes. Rossella C., one of the most enthusiastic, adds: "They threaten you, they extort your consent, they impose false laws on an elusive obligation (which does not exist), they bully you, they treat you like cattle for slaughter, all piled up in closed schools (will they have the minimum safety requirements to be used as vaccination centers?). But what exactly for? For what? This is pure butchery… I can't wait to see you all hanging from a pole."
Luigi M backs her up: "The time has come to get a gun license." Annamaria joins in: "Ready: crossbows, clubs, Kalashnikovs." Alex P. is also on the warpath, riding on the back of paranoia: "It's all connected. This is the Fourth Reich. Gene vaccines are a non-human therapy. Don't let them screw you." Exacerbated and with very clear ideas, Valentina V. has this to add: "They are inept, with serious mental deficits. They deprive themselves of the freedom to live life for fear of being infected with this fake virus. And then they get killed by getting injected with this shit. He who is the cause of his own evil, let him weep for himself. Serves him right. Natural selection. There are too many of us."
At the end, she reveals a fundamental presentiment: "I believe that this is a moment of authentic and radical change. I have highly developed senses. A few weeks before Covid, I had a dream in which the streets were invaded by zombies. Some friends could testify to that. This is to tell you that there will be a global awakening. It will not be an easy process, nor will it be painless, but what comes next will be wonderful."
