Last week, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene called vaccine passports a “mark of the beast” revitalizing a classic anti-vaccination narrative linking vaccines (and in this case #vaccinepassports) to End Times religious ideology. viralityproject.org/rapid-response…
She was not the first to make a link between vaccines or vaccine tracking to the “mark of the beast.” In fact, we’ve seen this narrative with many other vaccines in the past. Even Kanye West made this connection in July 2020.
We saw spikes in activity on social media platforms making this link in response to her comments, which quickly taper off afterwards. But the danger with these types of claims is in it’s longer lasting effects. 
First, considering Greene’s status and audience reach, comments like this can further exacerbate vaccine hesitancy with religious communities, particularly Christian evangelicals, who already have high rates of hesitancy.
Second, it is always concerning to see conspiratorial narrative “jump” into mainstream circles as it can be used to further promote vaccine hesitancy and conspiratorial narratives and ideology.
Third, as her tweet is still up without any disclaimers, it highlights how there is a lack of moderation when people use religious ideology to spread vaccine misinformation and promote hesitancy, especially when prominent religious leaders already support the vaccine.
Finally, vax hesitancy is already high among conservatives. These claims can continue promoting distrust of vaccines & “vaccine passports”, and allow conservative leaders to use the attention to promote other anti-vaccine passport narratives that can have wider appeal.
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