Just read a story about a pastor in Missouri that was vaccine hesitant. He started noticing how bad things were with the un-vaccinated in his community and he and his wife decided to get it after all.
The result, several people left his congregation, he got a ton of Facebook hate messages. Apparently, the vaccine contains alien blood and is also the mark of the beast. Those were just some of the things that got thrown at him after he was a responsible adult.
What a country we are.
This involves a lot more than that. It goes really deep.
It involves preaching to a congregation, and preaching your word that is considered the word of God. The congregation relies on the preachers words for their path of life to follow. The Bible utilizes the Flock of Sheep and the Shepard analogy.
It all depends on if he was preaching those claims to his congregation as well. If he was, then that is just plain stupid on his part. That's his consequence for manipulating. IF he was preaching those claims, then he has just been exposed and the only thing that happens is the congregation leaves. They either then search for a new beginning and understanding, form their own congregation/church, or bond together under the same premise and form their own church that way. What occurred is they lost trust in their Shepard.
Culture is very important to some people and to these people it is very important. Not to be harsh or mean...but, it's like some of you do not understand this, so the only way to react is in a confused state, and when that happens, people tend to mock/make fun of what they do not know. A way of mocking is to use words that have an insulting tone attached, like Idiocy.
It's like to me, there are a lot of people who do not understand this at all. How people can hold their stand in their beliefs to the point of going against what is considered righteous with what the majority of the modern society of the time dictates.
I don't think, it is necessarily Idiocy, or that they do not care. It has a lot to do with trust, beliefs, and a certain mindset that all those has created that gives a person his identity.
Also, geography could play a role, as there are people that live in rural areas that do not see people as often as most do, this could very well play into their mindset of viruses. The population densities of areas, like rural towns vs. major cities, I am sure plays a role in how viruses spread. As is evidenced, it only takes one person to travel from a heavily infected place to bring the virus to the small town. Which is why I truly believe that with how much we humans travel, that alone played a humungous role in the spread of this virus. In reality, all travel and borders would've had to shut down right at the detection of the virus, even at that, there was people that were already on the planes before it got detected. We should not forget about the mid-fall when there were many people getting a "Harsher Flu" diagnosis and suffering from symptoms that were very similar to Covid-19 symptoms.
The situation with us humans though is the same as an animal being caged. The longer it is caged, the more it will want to be let out and freed. Visit any zoo and tell me that the animal doesn't look like it wants to escape that zoo. There is only so long that a human will handle being locked up and prevented from doing what it wants to do. The mind can't handle it either, which leads to mental issues such as depression and suicidal thoughts, as one is left to ponder and think as the mind doesn't have the outside world to focus on.
That is an issue I see with regards to having to lockdown again, can the mind of us humans handle it?
edit:
I remember reading an article about what happened here during the Spanish Flu. That small town had people that would gather by the rail station with shotguns and if anyone was discovered or known to be infected they were not allowed to get off at their town and had to get off at the next town.
Here it is:
https://news-bulletin.com/the-spanish-flu-epidemic-of-1918-in-valencia-county/