February 18, 2021 - 7:45am

A newly published study by King’s College London investigates the link between lockdown scepticism and vaccine hesitancy, suggesting that people who trust prominent lockdown sceptics are less likely to get the vaccine.

Listing a full gamut of influential Covid voices — ranging from Sir Patrick Vallance to David Icke — on who respondents trust, the survey asks a series of vaccine-related questions, such as whether respondents’ vaccine scepticism would put them off a Covid vaccine:

Half (52%) of those who trust David Icke say that opposition to vaccines in general is likely to persuade them not to get a Covid vaccine, as do significant minorities of people who trust other lockdown sceptics like Denise Welch (40%), Laurence Fox (33%) and Nigel Farage (31%).

Similarly, only 40% of respondents who trust David Icke say there are certain or likely to get a Covid vaccine:

Ostensibly, these charts paint a clear and predictable story: David Icke’s anti-vaxx views are well-known and Laurence Fox has trod close before so it’s little wonder either one sit towards the bottom of the table.

And yet you could equally look at this data as proof of the UK’s unusual vaccine enthusiasm. Of all the people in the UK, you would expect followers of David Icke to be about as vaccine hesitant as they come. After all, this is a man who has made a career out of claiming the world is run by lizards and paedophiles — why wouldn’t his followers take the comparatively smaller leap with him on vaccines? And yet, if 60% of them were not ‘certain or very likely’ to take a vaccine, that looks like they are roughly evenly divided across a four- or five- point scale (the full data has not yet been released).

Compare this to vaccine scepticism in France, where as much 60% of the overall public do not wish to be vaccinated — quite possibly a higher number than even David Icke fans in the UK.

But since we’re on the subject of conspiracies, one finding that does raise questions is why 38% of people who trust Piers Morgan on the pandemic feel like ‘the real truth about the pandemic is being hidden from us’? Feel free to make your own conclusions…

 

 


is UnHerd’s Newsroom editor.

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