That people will take a conspiracy and run with it because they'll believe a publicised scare over any number of actual experts.
I saw it with the introduction of EMV (Chip'n'Pin) credit cards in the UK, and again with contactless cards a few years later, and you still see it with Apple/Google pay.
They're not safe, people will steal all your money, you shouldn't have to use your PIN in public, they'll get cloned, I microwave all mine just to be sure. All while ignorant of the real improvements these technologies bring.
I imagine anyone reading this that's ever worked with/around vaccines and vaccinations is thinking "you don't say!" right now...
But it seems to me those conspiracies often only affect a small (but vocal) minority of the people.
I recall a similar issue when they started to introduce a prescription database in Austria. There was a lot of fearmongering in the media, doctors spreading pamphlets against dangers of surveillance, etc.
But when I talked to people about it, nobody really cared about it. People might have read some article in the newspaper, but I don't know anybody who actually bothered to opt out of the system.
I think the problem is that journalists like reporting on controversies, so they end up writing a lot about issues that only bother a few people, and if you read the article it looks likes it's a major issue when it's really not.
Perhaps so, though I've met a few older people who just don't trust contactless payments, even after I've explained that a fingerprint protected phone is more secure than any card they might have used.
And with some things it just takes time for that reactionary impulse to wear off.
OTOH I brought up vaccines for a reason - sometimes such things don't go away.
I saw it with the introduction of EMV (Chip'n'Pin) credit cards in the UK, and again with contactless cards a few years later, and you still see it with Apple/Google pay.
They're not safe, people will steal all your money, you shouldn't have to use your PIN in public, they'll get cloned, I microwave all mine just to be sure. All while ignorant of the real improvements these technologies bring.
I imagine anyone reading this that's ever worked with/around vaccines and vaccinations is thinking "you don't say!" right now...