Hacker News Reader

> "very intelligent and highly educated people who went to top universities"

Imagine trusting a "rocket scientist" to even weigh in on medical topics because they are "very intelligent" in their totally unrelated field. This is an unfortunate misconception that plagues conspiracy theory extremists who reference PhD graduates in their arguments against things like 5G brain control.... pointing to people with doctoral degrees in Music or something.

View on HN

Look I am not saying they are right. My point is these are not your average stupid uneducated person. The two families in question, the one parent has multiple PhDs from Columbia and Princeton, the other took their undergrad at Caltech. You don't get those degrees by believing any random crazy thing that crosses your path. Plus they have a first hand experience with their child that for some reason makes them believe the vaccine was responsible. If it were any other topic their background and experience would lend their viewpoint more credence than dismissal as "nutjobs". What makes this topic different? Why would they have any incentive to blame the vaccine besides some sort of convincing first hand experience? Why should we in this one instance distrust their rational capacities that have allowed them to acquire intellectual credentials the vast majority of the earth's population don't have the capacity to acquire?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com