this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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Here's why:
People are fucking stupid.
I'm not an antivaxxer and certainly won't recommend going unvaccinated against such preventable diseases. But IMO, it's wrong to just brush off antivaxxers as stupid. There are two reasons for this. The first is that vaccination rates are dropping. That would mean that wise people are turning stupid. No - there has to be a different explanation, which we will get into later. The second reason is that we need everyone (except those who can't for medical reasons) onboard for vaccinations to work. Herd immunity is an important thing in vaccination.
Antivax sentiments, like any conspiracy theory, comes from a distrust in authority - be that the government or the bigpharma. One reason could be religious beliefs - religion always has something to mislead people. But another reason could be that these authorities are genuinely untrustworthy. In the US for example, you could be forgiven for thinking that the big pharma is out to make money from your ailments - sometimes getting you sick in the first place. The nexus between big pharma, hospitals and medical insurance companies are genuinely out to squeeze people. Big pharma gets rich out of other people's misery and the government just doesn't do enough to stop it.
In such cases, a healthy skepticism of big pharma and government is actually warranted. But there's no clear definition of what's healthy. And people often stray into the unhealthy territory, ending up with antivax and other conspiracy theories. Antivax is just a symptom of public and private institutions losing the trust of ordinary people. And while the doctors are often on the people's side, they're also part of the system. People's trust in them depends on their personal experience.
Turning stupid? Yes, ish.
The measles vaccine was licensed in 1963, that means that the last batch of kids to remember measles hurting them are now 65+, or dead.
The parents choosing to have their kids not vaccinated simply never knew about how bad measles was, and they probably don't even have parents who remember at this point. A 20 year old having a kid right now could have a parent who's only in their 40s at this point.
We're doing the same thing with Fascism and the push towards war... Most of the population doesn't even remember Vietnam at this point.
I'm not going to completely disagree with you, since the answer isn't so black and white. You are arguing that people are turning antivax due to loss of generational knowledge of these diseases (which you are equating to stupidity). There is probably some element of truth in it.
But we also have examples to the contrary. The covid pandemic and its vaccine are certainly a product of our generation. Yet, we have people outright denying the seriousness of the disease (it's just a flu!) and completely neglecting the massive loss of lives. That is not due to generational forgetfulness, but clearly due to mistrust.
I can't be sure, but I feel that the latter (mistrust) is a more significant cause of antivax sentiments than the former (loss of memory).
I think part of the difference we saw with COVID was the symptoms being very similar to influenza. People have been brushing off the flu for decades and didn't see any reason to be bothered by something they see as similar. Not necessarily mistrust, just apathy.
That being said, the anti-vaxxers that ended up losing family members to COVID by and large became non-antivaxxers. A few persisted of course, but that direct experience changed a lot of people's minds. They have nothing in their memory, or their parents memory that could compare to that.
With measles it was a lot more visual in nature, so it was a lot more obvious what was happening. I think COVID would have been taken a lot more seriously if it had given people a rash all over their body, or if they started bleeding from their eyes or something.
Vaccination rates are dropping in the UK too, and that isn't accounted for by a distrust of big pharma or the government - because people trust the NHS.
I think stupid people were always stupid. This isn't that wise people are becoming stupid. They were always stupid - unable to form opinions of their own, in the past they did what authoritative voices locally told them to do (ie, doctors). Now they do what the loud people on the internet tell them to do.
People's belief in what's on the internet (conspiracy theories) naturally implies their distrust in the NHS' words, since both are contradictory. I still believe that mistrust is a major driver here.
However, you're right that the internet may be swaying public opinion of those who are indecisive. The rise of the internet may be partially responsible for the rise of mistrust and antivax sentiments.
Given that people do largely trust the NHS on other matters, I don't think it's a general distrust of the NHS. They're not refusing other medical care. They're just easily led by the loudest voices.