Just this month, ITV posted an article stating that “anti-vaxxers,” should be “deradicalised” like “terrorists” and “punished” with oppressive Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

ITV reporters appear to be so terrified by the coronavirus that they want those who reject the vaccine to be treated as enemies of the state and cult members who need to be enlisted onto “deradicalisation programmes.”

According to the article, around six million eligible Brits have still not received a single injection of the vaccine, which is deeply upsetting to Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, chair of cognitive psychology at the University of Bristol.

Lewandowsky, who has been referred to as an expert in the ITV article, considers those who oppose getting vaccinated “marginalised” and “very difficult to reach for anything.” They are basically social outcasts who have mental problems, he suggested.

In a statement to ITV, Lewandowsky said: “They’ll refuse anything. ‘I’m not going to wear a mask,’ ‘I’m not going to get vaccinated,’ I don’t think climate change is happening,’ ‘covid is a hoax,’ ‘Hillary Clinton is actually a reptilian shapeshifter,’ he added, mocking those who refuse to abide by the covid agenda.

“You’re getting to people who hold a cluster of very exotic beliefs – now, they’re very difficult to reach,” he said.

The professor said that that the tactic to reach the “moderate” people who are on the fence but are still opposed to getting vaccinated might to be assigning them vaccination appointments without their consent.

Another initiative might be to set up “pop-up clinics” along their routes, including at supermarkets and shopping centres.

Lewandowsky also supports tyrannical vaccine mandates that will “disgruntle a few people” but that “can be effective” at changing people’s minds through force.

Then we have the “extreme” holdouts who require a much more intense punishment in order to get them to comply.

Lewandowsky said: “In the ideal world, time and money permitting, you can engage even those people in a very slow, long-term process where you affirm their right to have those beliefs.

“Rather than telling them something about themselves they don’t want to hear, let’s put it that way.”

His approach with these people is to tell them something positive that they want to hear before pulling a bait and switch with a concerted “deradicalisation” agenda.

“We’re really talking, when we get down to that small number of committed refusers, we’re talking about the psychology of cults and extremism,” he says. “And it’s a very similar psychology.”

Lewandowsky blames “online misinformation” about the Covid-19 vaccines for making so many Brits sceptical of the jab. He said that sites such as Facebook and YouTube “are not doing enough” to censor information with which he disagrees.

“One of the reasons these hardcore refuseniks exist is because they can live in their own ecosystem of misinformation,” he says.