[imagesource: YouTube / The Daily Show]

South Africa is dealing with a great deal of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

A recent survey showed that just 52% of White South Africans are willing to get a COVID-19 shot.

In total, 72% of South African adults said they were willing to get vaccinated.

People are well within their rights to have concerns around the safety of the vaccine, and to seek answers to the questions that worry them.

But that’s very different from actively spreading fear and misinformation.

This past weekend, in a sickening show of disrespect for the healthcare workers and doctors inside, anti-vaxxers gathered outside Groote Schuur hospital to protest.

One woman, who spoke extensively about her battle with COVID-19 at the turn of the year, now said she no longer believes in the virus, and others concurred.

If you don’t want to take the vaccine, that’s your choice.

But if you head to a hospital, where trained professionals who have dedicated decades to helping others are hard at work trying to save lives, in order to protest, then you are an objectively terrible person.

At least protesters in New York City were kind enough to avoid a hospital, choosing instead to gather outside New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s home.

In particular, they were protesting against vaccine mandates, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah‘s Jordan Klepper was on the scene.

The segment was filmed on August 15:

Imagine saying “people are having their DNAs wiped out” with a straight face?

Parts of that segment are actually considerably less unhinged than some of his previous segments.

Of course, the big vaccine news this week was the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granting full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Hopefully, the move encourages some who are hesitant to reconsider, but in reality, you can hear the goalposts shifting from here.

For example, Fox News loved Operation Warp Speed when former president Donald Trump was in charge, but now the channel’s hosts have their doubts:

When you love warp speed but not TOO much warp speed pic.twitter.com/gjCVHT0tGC

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) August 25, 2021

As Huff Post points out, what the hosts say and what the channel does are often vastly different:

All Fox News employees were instructed [last] week to disclose their COVID-19 vaccination status to the company, a requirement that flies in the face of public remarks previously made by the network’s conservative hosts ― including Tucker Carlson, who has argued that asking about someone’s vaccination status is as invasive as asking about their favorite sex positions…

Fox News’ New York employees were also told that while masks largely remain optional for vaccinated people ― albeit “strongly encouraged in public areas throughout the building” ― they must be worn by everyone when in “small, confined spaces.” This includes the TV programs’ control rooms.

Hey, as long as their viewers stay enraged and engaged, they’ll say whatever it takes.

[sources:dailyshow&huffpost]