The COVID-19 pandemic

[ijmorlan]

Religious, in some cases, yes. But cultural?

Yes. Not cultural in the traditional sense of the word, nor in the sense that it's part of the cultural belief. Perhaps it's more accurate to say subcultural...? Ranging from anti-vaccinators, the far right, new age health freaks. They all adhere to cultural niches.

Arguably, Indigenous cultures are hesitant as well. We have a lot of our people who were initially hesitant to be vaccinated or still are, due to what white people did to us in the past.

Sidebar: I don’t actually recognize a distinction between “cultural” and “religious”; marking a cultural practice as religious shouldn’t privilege it over practices that are not so marked, and practices which are not marked as religious are just as worthy of respect and accommodation as those that are.

As to “cultural” objections to vaccination, the modern anti-vaccinators all believe incorrectly that the vaccines are dangerous and/or ineffective. They believe they have a scientific objection. This is quite different from their culture/religion forbidding use of vaccines. Of course there is a strong cultural component to these beliefs; each person does not come up with their own conclusions entirely separate from those around them (where “around” has a rather complicated definition involving whom they interact with and in what capacity, rather than strictly geographical).

Even if the objection does rise to the level of a religious/cultural objection, I would still argue that some small group that arose just recently isn’t a bona fide world culture. Essentially, the whole concept of vaccination is too new for a valid cultural or religious objection (to the concept, not the implementation) to exist. This doesn’t mean I oppose people forming new identities, just that new identities need to form within the modern context and subject to modern constraints.

To take an example, consider RCMP headgear. It’s well established at this point that Sikhs are permitted to wear a turban instead of the standard uniform cap (and incidentally, I think they look very sharp, both in terms of just looking good and in terms of providing a visual reminder of how people from many cultures can co-exist and work together in this country). But I would hope that if a Pastafarian asked to serve in their colander they would be told to quit joshing around and put on the standard cap.