Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat

by Derek Beres

Eisenstein also argued that Indigenous ways of knowing the world and healing the body challenge the principles and technologies of modern medicine, and that his white readers should somehow adopt them. In the context of COVID, however, pitting premodern Indigenous wisdom against modern public health is more of a narcissistic fantasy than an on-the-ground reality. By September 2021, the CDC found that among racial demographics, American Indians and Alaska Natives boasted the highest vaccine uptake in the United States, after an initial period of COVID devastation in their communities. “It’s embedded in our values that we don’t just think about ourselves,” said Navajo Nation member Leonela Nelson, of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health. In explaining the vaccination success, researchers cited the power of actual, pragmatic bonds that some wellness influencers only point at: respect for elders, community, and a desire to maintain tribal sovereignty.