Anti-Vaccine Influencers Think They Know the Reason for Vaccine Hesitancy
And think researching it is a waste of money...
It should be no surprise that anti-vaccine influencers don’t want anyone to do any research into the reasons for the rise in vaccine hesitancy.
It should also be no surprise that they believe they have all the answers for why people don’t get vaccinated and protected!
Anti-Vaccine Influencers Think They Know the Reason for Vaccine Hesitancy
Of course, as usual, they are dead wrong.
It’s not because vaccines are dangerous, don’t work, or aren’t necessary.
It’s because anti-vaccine influencers have been able to convince people that vaccines are dangerous, don’t work, and aren’t necessary!
In the age of the internet and social media, it has become much easier for anti-vaccine influencers to use misinformation and propaganda to scare people away from getting vaccinated and protected.
It has become so bad that the personal decision that people are making to skip or delay getting vaccinated isn’t grounded in any kind of informed consent, as it based on myths, misinformation, and out-right lies they are being told.
And that’s why anti-vaccine influencers don’t want anyone studying vaccine hesitancy!
If we can figure out why people are so easily swayed by them, when we know that vaccines are safe, effective, and very necessary, then we will get fewer people to listen to them.
We won’t have to wait for outbreaks and deaths before more people get vaccinated.
We won’t have to wait until people are more afraid of vaccine-preventable diseases than they are of all the scary stories and conspiracy theories that anti-vaccine influencers make up about vaccines.
They will understand that vaccines are safe, with few risks, vaccines work, even if they aren’t perfect, and vaccines are very necessary.
References
NIH cuts research grants on vaccine hesitancy—with mRNA vaccine studies the next target. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/anti-science/nih-cuts-research-grants-vaccine-hesitancy-mrna-vaccine-studies-next-target
Unfortunately Jenny McCarthy will be proved right…it will require the return of diseases like polio to convince parents to vaccinate. All we can do is hope people come to their senses sooner than later.
I hope someone challenges this in court. Because I doubt the NIH's reasoning would withstand the arbitrary and capricious standard for grants already awarded. They essentially gave no reason, and did not at all address the reliance interests at question.