What comes to mind when you think of yoga? Is it a wealthy white woman coming out of a $70 class with a green juice in hand? Despite that pervasive image, I don’t think that’s what the 5000 year old practice intended its ‘brand’ to be. Sacred traditions have long been exported from Asia to the west, including practices like yoga, Ayurveda, gua sha and cupping. What was once traditional practice is now an ‘industry’, worth an estimated $ 84 billion. While none of this is ‘new’ news, the past two years have added a particularly cruel twist: Now, white wellness communities have positioned practices like Ayurveda and essential oils as replacements for the COVID-19 vaccine, while origin country India is crying out for access to the vaccine.
Why wellness groups adopt Eastern practices
The consistent message from wellness groups is the benefit of a ‘non-toxic life’ and finding so-called natural ways to combat illness – including COVID. One of the alternatives often suggested to prevent or treat the disease is Ayurveda, an ancient Indian belief system meaning “the Science of Life”, rooted in sacred Hindu texts. Ayurvedic practices include vegetarianism, meditation, yoga, and the use of herbs and spices for alleged medical benefits. Other methods of ‘combating the virus naturally’ exported from Asia include traditional Chinese medicine — including acupuncture and moxibustion and using essential oils – and Japanese water therapy and even drinking “magic dirt”.
Obviously, not all yoga practitioners and holistic coaches are anti-vaccine. Many actively promote vaccines in addition to holistic and natural medicine.
However, there have been clear links between groups focused on anti-vaccine messages and those dedicated to alternative health practices, according to a study published by George Washington University’s Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics. The study identified a number of Facebook groups that focused on posting and spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The report showed that links from those groups were often posted in wellness groups, and vice versa.
When COVID-19 vaccines came into the picture and started to become available, people inevitably turned to the Internet to inform their medical choices. Many ended up finding ‘answers’ in these wellness groups and from influencers that were already a part of their daily scroll.
Vaccine disparity and privilege
Ironically, some of the countries from which these ‘preventative methods’ originate actually want access to the COVID vaccines, and have suffered intense vaccine disparity during this pandemic.
When the vaccine rollout first began, wealthy nations cut deals directly with vaccine-makers, buying up a disproportionate share of early doses — undermining Covax, the World Health Organization-backed effort to equitably distribute shots. Full vaccination rates in the United States, France and Australia stand at 65%, 77% and 79%, respectively (at time of writing). Compare that to only 56% of India’s 1.4 billion people.
A team at Duke University’s Global Health Innovation Center estimated that the world’s poorest 92 countries will not be able to reach a vaccination rate of 60% of their populations until 2023 or later. China, now having achieved an 87% vaccination rate, has pledged to supply 1 billion doses to African nations. Within poorer nations like India, there are additional layers of vaccine inequality, with women being left behind. A total of 1.63 billion vaccine doses have been administered in India, according to CoWIN, India’s official vaccination website. Of these, 830 million were given to men, compared with 792 million to women — a difference of over 38 million doses. Many women lack access to health information and transport, driving the disparity.
All the while, wellness influencers in countries like Australia are actively trying to decrease vaccination rates by telling followers to use co-opted Eastern medicine instead.
You don’t have to choose one
Wellness influencers who promote Eastern practices as a rejection of modern medicine are missing the point. In reality, they are meant to work together, side-by-side. You do not have to choose one or the other.
When it comes to Ayurveda, The National Health Mission of India has recently collaborated with The Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy (AYUSH). The partnership encourages cross-referral of cases from AYUSH systems to conventional medical systems, and vice versa. AYUSH has confirmed that Ayurveda is great for upkeeping a healthy lifestyle and immune system, but cannot be solely relied on to combat communicable diseases like COVID-19.
The nuance and history of these practices has always been there, but get lost when wellness warriors conflate different philosophical and health ideologies, messily re-interpreting them for unfamiliar audiences under the guise of “alternative medicine” (as in, an alternative to medicine).
If there was ever a time to start correcting the record on the Eastern practices that form the backbone of the white, Western wellness industry, it’s now. Wellness influencers and brands who have millions of followers and significant financial resources to create awareness about the intense vaccine, health and medical disparities happening in the countries that they have benefitted from.
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