RE: Anti vaxers at it again?
May 16, 2014 at 10:01 am
(This post was last modified: May 16, 2014 at 10:05 am by Fidel_Castronaut.)
I suppose the qualifier is that everyone that can be vaccinated should be.
I am massively in favour of scepticism regarding any claim. However, it tends to be that the anti-vax movement actually employ very little scepticism and instead rely on arguments from ignorance and outright lies targeted at the people who will not just be sceptical of claims but also cynical.
i.e. - the MMR link to autism (which was a total fabrication) was aimed specifically at families who had children that were at the age where they would be receiving the MMR vaccination. More insidiously, it employed children who had been diagnosed as autistic at around a similar age to when they received the vaccination to create a false syllogism that they then perpetuated as stone cold fact. This has meant that billions of pounds/dollars has been spent debunking a myth, instead of funding further research into the actual causes of autism and it's potential treatments.
The entire drive by the anti-vax movement is to play on people's ignorance, and then convince them that their ignorance is founded on some sort of scientific legitimacy when in fact it couldn't be farther from the truth. Their MO is not just dangerous, it could arguably be described as totally immoral and almost evil (if one were to use such language or emotive qualifiers).
I am massively in favour of scepticism regarding any claim. However, it tends to be that the anti-vax movement actually employ very little scepticism and instead rely on arguments from ignorance and outright lies targeted at the people who will not just be sceptical of claims but also cynical.
i.e. - the MMR link to autism (which was a total fabrication) was aimed specifically at families who had children that were at the age where they would be receiving the MMR vaccination. More insidiously, it employed children who had been diagnosed as autistic at around a similar age to when they received the vaccination to create a false syllogism that they then perpetuated as stone cold fact. This has meant that billions of pounds/dollars has been spent debunking a myth, instead of funding further research into the actual causes of autism and it's potential treatments.
The entire drive by the anti-vax movement is to play on people's ignorance, and then convince them that their ignorance is founded on some sort of scientific legitimacy when in fact it couldn't be farther from the truth. Their MO is not just dangerous, it could arguably be described as totally immoral and almost evil (if one were to use such language or emotive qualifiers).