It’s been little more than a week since the World Health Organization recognized the new COVID variant codenamed Omicron, but discussing the implications has already become a sensitive topic.
Indeed, the latest strain of the pesky disease and many of the global health organizations’ reactions have managed to wind a lot of people up, some of whom are seemingly inclined to believe that the emergence of this new variant — which may turn out to be even more infectious than the Delta variant — provides the opportunity for vaccine companies and other beneficiaries to exploit the population.
Debate that however much we might, it still came as a shock when television host and political commentator Trevor Noah recently and uncharacteristically criticized Moderna’s claims that we need new vaccines to fight off the new variant.
“Almost all the Omicron cases have been mild so far,” Noah said on Thursday’s edition of the Daily Show. “But on the other hand, the guy who stands to gain millions of dollars from new vaccines, says we need new vaccines, huh?”
Suffice to say, Noah’s comments raised a few eyebrows, for lack of a better word, even among his fans, who despite the comedian’s insistence that he identifies with neither of the US political parties, have always believed him to be left-leaning.
For instance, one person went so far as to suggest that he might get fired for them:
Another opined, “I actually really really want Trevor Noah’s ‘I’m just saying’ to cause a massive backlash. It will put him in a terribly awkward position which he deserves to be in after being such a terrible person for years.”
At least one said, crassly, that Noah has arrived at “basic common … sense.”
The Libs of Tik Tok (sic) account declared, “Trevor Noah finally gets it!!” and added some fire emojis for emphasis.
Of course, some people were more supportive of Noah’s justified skepticism. As one person pointed out, “You can support vaccines and still question the motive of companies at the same time.”
Another person took it further, noting, “u can be suspicious of Big Pharma AND believe in vaccines just like u can be of Big Tech while using phones to read this.”
Social media being what it is, Trevor Noah will undoubtedly receive a lot of scrutiny over these comments. That being said, it could also be argued that the entire segment was merely a comedian’s take on vaccine hesitancy, of which there’ve been many.
