Vaccines in Black Lightning

[beccaelizabeth]

A thing that bothered me every time it came up was the whole Evil Vaccines plot. Because it wasn't a vaccine, it was just a scary buzzword for medical experimentation. And it feels like every time I see vaccines mentioned in fiction they're being used to deliver secret experiments. Or they're being invented on the spot for instant testing to cure alien diseases never seen before, one of those. Never just, you know, actual preventative medicine that works.

I understand that take normal thing and make it scary is a solid basis for horror
but
I also believe that this use in fiction has contributed to real world antivax memes spreading enough to cause actual problems.

It's also absolutely unhelpful that Black Lightning called identical their old 'vaccine' and the new recreational drug that was supposed to be so instantly addictive. I mean aside from just not working for the story - why so big a difference in reactions then and now? why invest so much in making them take multiple doses if just the one worked for the experiment? - it muddles up forms of 'drugs' in a way that is again unhelpful.

So the plot was interesting
but I did not like the details on how they delivered it.

Make the poison
industrial pollution or something
not an actual helpful thing.

Comments

[anne_d]

Good grief. Of all the things they could've chosen to be evil, they chose vaccines? Are they trying to cause trouble?

[mecurtin]

I think some of them MUST be anti-vaxxers, so Yes, they are.