PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Daniel Roberts hadn’t had a vaccination since he was 6. No boosters, no tetanus shots. His parents taught him inoculations were dangerous, and when the coronavirus arrived, they called it a hoax.
The vaccine, they said, was the real threat. So when the 29-year-old Tennessee man got his COVID-19 shot at his local Walmart last month, it felt like an achievement.
A break with his past. “Five hundred thousand people have died in this country. That’s not a hoax,” Roberts said, speaking of the conspiracy theories embraced by family and friends. ”I don't know why I didn’t believe all of it myself.
I guess I chose to believe the facts.” As the world struggles to break the grip of COVID-19, psychologists and misinformation