Psychiatrist Dr Mohammad Farris Iman Leong Abdullah said they also choose to refer to unverified news on the internet and to be misinformed about the vaccines, before spreading them to others.
He said psychologically, those who refuse to take the vaccine are people who only care about their interests and own opinions.
“They don’t trust the authorities and experts.
“They also believe that through prayers alone, God will grant their wishes. They believe they will not get infected and always be safe,” the Sungai Petani Pantai Hospital specialist told Bernama.
He said the group would then try to influence others to believe that there is no need to take the vaccine.
He said according to a study, most of the anti-vaccine groups comprised people aged 25 to 34 and those in the 35 to 44 age bracket.
“These groups of people like and tend to use social media, such as Facebook and WhatsApp, to get others to believe them,” he said.
Farris said there is also a small number of anti-vaxxers who have come to their own conclusions that the vaccines are unsafe and could cause chronic illnesses.
Universiti Utara Malaysia’s School of Applied Psychology, Social Work and Policy dean Abdul Razak Abd Manaf said too much information on the vaccines, being shared on social media, had caused public confusion, leaving some groups to choose not to trust the authorities.
“Many are confused about the meaning of vaccines. This may be because we rarely face such pandemics. The lack of understanding on the vaccines will then lead to various negative perceptions about them.”
He said many negative stories about the side effects of the vaccine, which have been widely shared on social media, have also led some people to distrust the effectiveness of the vaccine.
“When there are too many negative stories about the effects of the vaccine, such as people are still being exposed to Covid-19 even after being vaccinated and some die after taking the vaccine, some in the community will tend not to believe that vaccination can help protect them from Covid-19.
“Some of them also choose to rely on unverified viralled information they receive to protect themselves from the virus,” he added.
Razak also said the anti-vaccine groups were made up of negative and close-minded individuals who refuse to accept other people’s opinions because they think they are always right.
“Therefore, we have to change the negative preconceived thoughts or ideas on the vaccine through a cognitive approach and put in more effort to challenge such incorrect thoughts and emotions,” he said.
Meanwhile, police have described as fake a message which quoted Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani as asking the public to report anti-vaccine groups to a police portal.
A Skandaguru, from the Bukit Aman corporate communications unit, said the fake message, which had gone viral on social media, asked the public to report “anti-vaccine instigators” via https://ereporting.rmp.gov.my/register.aspx.
“The portal mentioned in the fake message is actually the portal for Royal Malaysia Police’s pilot service project in several locations for people to make online reports on non-criminal cases or those requiring further investigations,” he said in a statement today.
He advised the public to stop circulating this message.
“Anyone having doubts (on the authenticity of messages) can enquire with PDRM through the official Facebook account or other official social media platforms of the police force,” he said.
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