When it’s spirituality vs. science, everyone loses

Vaccine hesitancy in religious, spiritual, and new age circles

I might be your basic white-girl hippie astrologer who tries her best to avoid appropriation and appreciate cultural exchange and reverence; but I am also Roma, or Gypsy, so I continue an awkward balance that my ancestors have treaded for some time. I run in a lot of spiritual-esque circles and I see vaccine hesitancy everywhere, but especially among the religious and spiritual. What makes me slightly strange is that I am also deeply passionate about science and math.

There seems to be two dominant thought processes behind vaccine hesitancy in these communities. The first is that God/Nature/My Body will protect me on its own with its power. The second being a deep mistrust of the government and their intentions. Both can be very valid stances to have, but I think in the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, these can actually be fun things to challenge within yourself.

First of all, the U.S. government is absolutely not trustworthy. Neither are the giant corporations who manufacture the vaccines here. Both institutions have a lengthy history of shady dealings. Our government is suspicious as Hades, and it has repeatedly shown to be ill-intended for the people. The thing is, science is in charge here and governments and corporations are being forced to cooperate and follow the guidelines of science and medicine with this crisis. The government is pretty much the only delivery system we have, for all its flaws, but they are not in charge of what is being put into our bodies.

The vaccines were researched, invented, and are controlled by the literal world’s best in science and medicine working together. Science makes mistakes because to err is human, but it does not operate like government does, it just relies on government—much like all institutions—for operating costs. But the reason we have seen so much success in science and medicine is for its strict methodology and peer review; we all trust science and medicine everyday by living in the modern world, as we should.

The other idea is that the power of god/nature will protect you; I argue that god/nature is providing you with its power using magicians we call scientists. Scientists may often be atheists, agnostics and skeptics; but I argue that science and math serve to prove the existence of god one small step at a time. For as much as it claims to do the opposite. I also think that science and technology are literal magic, created in the image of god, and that life could be more like Hogwarts—if Voldemort’s weren’t running the social show.

There are people with legitimate medical reasons not to vaccinate; but if you are not one of those people—getting your vaccine and booster shot can protect you and your loved ones. For some godforsaken reason, death and taxes are pretty inevitable in our lives, but at least we can enjoy the fact that for once we are getting what we pay for.