I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one. (2015)
vox.com
vox.com
After talking to her, it comes down to distrust of the medical industry. The argument I hear is that the number of vaccines administered to children has been rising. The point of the medical industry is not health, it's profit. The process, not the vaccines themselves are the issue because the system could release something dangerous and nonessential and that would be okay as long as money is made.
Once you assume bad faith, all the data and information you could gather is worthless. It could all have been cherry-picked, or statistically manipulated. Belief in bad faith comes from distrust. Merely removing thimerosal from vaccines and doing studies disproving a lack of causality between vaccines and autism does not build trust. Scientists are flustered at the moving target the anti-vax movement presents [1]. Thoroughly disproving a theory just presents more new theories. The problem was never information.
Trust (or lack thereof) is the biggest threat to public health.
I would say the current alignment of incentive structure, is the biggest threat to public health.
As for the argument that the medical industry is for profit, well I hate to break it to you, we live in a capitalist system almost everything is for profit. These same anti-vaxxers carry around phones and use apps designed to make you use them, track you and your behaviour etc.
I'm sure you can be anti-vaxx and live off grid but it's strange how many anti-vaxxers use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.
OTOH, I fail to see the connection between anti-vaxx, off-grid and Facebook (nor is it in the article).
> we live in a capitalist system almost everything is for profit
If I count up my daily interactions, most of them are not for profit - people have families, friends, are kind and helpful to each other. Much less so when doing it for one's own benefit.
Fear comes from past experience. The mentioned phones likely make them trust the system even less, though they may consider it an acceptable or necessary trade-off or not know what it entails. If I offered to track all information about you, or jab you with a needle (no vaccine) and you had to choose one, which would you pick? Can you conceive of someone choosing differently?
I don't think you will find many instances of your idealized anti-vaxxers, which is partly the point of the article.
I live in the UK, medicine here is not a for profit industry. Does that mean having a vaccination in the UK is ok but in the US it is not? The NHS buys it from a for profit company, does that make a difference? What about aspirin/Tylenol/ibuprofen? Do anti-vaxxers avoid the use of all medicines or is it something specific about injecting a vaccine that has been made by a for profit entity that is the issue?
People are irrational, I get it, and people are free to be irrational, that is their choice. But I am also free to call out that irrationality if I want to.