In the office where I work, there were a group of people talking about this. These were relatively well educated, upper middle-class people who, even in the face of this evidence that vaccinations are important and can save lives, were still spreading the long proven false lies that vaccinations were dangerous and could possibly cause autism.
A couple of my coworkers tried to point them in the right direction, I stayed out of it, one because I knew it wasn't the time, nor the place for such a discussion and because I knew these people to not be likely to change their views based on past conversations.
In the course of the conversation I heard the following problematic statements:
- The link between Vaccinations and Autism wasn't "really" disproven, that's just what the health organizations want you to think. There still could be a link, they just don't know for sure. (spoiler alert, they know and there isn't) - Vaccinations aren't necessarily bad, but it's the "cocktail", i.e. the number of included vaccinations at a time given to a child that's the problem. Vaccinations should be spread out more. (This has also been proven to be false and spreading them out can make them less effective) - What's herd immunity? Are there people who really can't have vaccinations? Are there really that many people who rely on that? (My Brother-in-law has Guillain-Barré Syndrome and can't get the flu vaccine, he very much relies on herd immunity, like many others in his situation) - These diseases aren't that dangerous... they said while talking about a situation where 40 people have died due to lack of vaccinations. - "I don't trust drug companies, there's big money in vaccinations, that's why they push them."
On and on it went, it was all I could do to keep from beating my head against my desk. One older coworker pointed out that when he was a kid his parents were terrified of polio and had him vaccinated the moment it was available, that these diseases were dangerous and could be eliminated if people were properly vaccinated... This fell on deaf ears unfortunately.
One possibly mitigating factor here, in terms of the people being 'anti-vaxxers' is that there was a scandal earlier:
"The World Health Organization estimated that in 2018, only 31 percent of infants in Samoa received the measles vaccine, a drop from 60 to 70 percent in previous years. The WHO attributed the extremely low rate in part to a public health scandal: Last year, two infants in Samoa died within hours of receiving the MMR vaccine. The country temporarily halted its vaccine program, but the vaccine did not cause the deaths. Two nurses improperly mixed the vaccines with a liquid muscle relaxant instead of water. The pair were sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter."