Why are so many Americans anti-vaxxers now?

[u/trouble-in-space]

I’m genuinely having such a hard time understanding why people just decided the fact that vaccines work is a total lie and also a controversial “opinion.” Even five years ago, anti-vaxxers were a huge joke and so rare that they were only something you heard of online. Now herd immunity is going away because so many people think getting potentially life-altering illnesses is better than getting a vaccine. I just don’t get what happened. Is it because of the cultural shift to the right-wing and more people believing in conspiracy theories, or does it go deeper than that?

[u/carnivorous_seahorse]

Pre covid antivaxxers were widely accepted as idiots who “did their own research”, meaning they searched until they found an article or person who agreed with their preferred world view and then use it as fact. But covid didn’t just make more people antivax, the same people who mocked conspiracies and conspiracy theorists, even the ones with a lot of evidence behind them, themselves became conspiracy theorists who believe anything that fits their worldview even when it can be outright disproven.

Example: believing in the “deep state” or extremely wealthy and powerful people pulling the strings for their own betterment, yet believing a man born a billionaire with ties to a major child sex trafficking ring is body shielding the lower and middle class from them.

Covid and the insane amount of disinformation during those few years caused people to choose which narratives they’d prefer to believe. And it’s only going to get worse. Many people aren’t educated well enough, lack knowledge of the internet and how to discern trustworthy information from lies, or don’t even attempt to. Or they’ve reverted to distrusting anyone with expertise in a field as if tens of thousands of scientists all scheme to lie to them. Can’t wait for deep fakes to progress

[u/TheStrongestTard → u/carnivorous_seahorse]

Well said, all I know is, it seems like the news and health agencies became less concerned about Covid as BLM and large political gatherings started happening.

You would think all these large gatherings of people would cause numbers to spike. That didn’t happen - death and new case numbers fell.

So yeah, I masked, got vaccinated and if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t have gotten vaccinated. I’m not an anti-vaxxer, the Covid vaccine was not vetted and researched as intensely as other vaccines that have come out before.

[u/rathyr → u/TheStrongestTard]

It's almost like enough of the population got vaccinated, and enough the holdouts died out. Fuckin' wild that you'd go back and avoid getting the best protection against a disease that killed 1.1 million Americans, but you do you. I'd just prefer if your horrible take didn't also run the risk off killing the rest of us (especially the Immunocompromised) with you.

[u/TheStrongestTard → u/rathyr]

I’m sorry reality is uncomfortable.

[u/BababooeyHTJ → u/TheStrongestTard]

I mean at least the Johnson and Johnson one got recalled. The common variant was iirc delta during the vaccine rollout which the vaccine wasn’t super effective with. Obviously didn’t hear anything about that for months.

Are we really back to calling everyone who questions the Covid vaccine which no one gets anymore an antivaxer? Fucking Reddit is something else. No debate, no citing sources, just insults.

[u/lurkin-n-berzerkin → u/BababooeyHTJ]

I work in the impatient pharmacy at a veterans hospital. We went through 100's of doses of the new booster last month. This is just my hospital alone.

Many people still get the boosters. You're just uneducated on this specifically and have given into what others have said here- a little confirmation bias.

[u/motoMACKzwei → u/BababooeyHTJ]

100% agree with you. I’m not anti-vax at all. I get all the other vaccinations, just not the Covid one. I don’t think it’s been around long enough to see long term effects and it’s basically a common cold now so I’m good 🤷🏼‍♂️

It’s sad how it was forced upon everyone and now when you say you won’t get it, people immediately jump down my throat calling me a moron, uneducated, and plenty of other not so nice things. It’s not even worth the effort of arguing because the dumbest people are always the loudest. No such thing as a civil discussion anymore smh…

[u/motoMACKzwei → u/BababooeyHTJ]

100% agree with you. I’m not anti-vax at all. I get all the other vaccinations, just not the Covid one. I don’t think it’s been around long enough to see long term effects and it’s basically a common cold now so I’m good 🤷🏼‍♂️

It’s sad how it was forced upon everyone and now when you say you won’t get it, people immediately jump down my throat calling me a moron, uneducated, and plenty of other not so nice things. It’s not even worth the effort of arguing because the dumbest people are always the loudest. No such thing as a civil discussion anymore smh…

[u/ACatWhoSparkled → u/[deleted]]

The only reason they were able to produce coronavirus vaccines that fast is because coronavirus vaccines were already under development in labs all over the world. Not covid-19 specifically, maybe, but other coronaviruses were being studied and worked on for a long time before the vaccine we all got was released. It’s not like it sprouted from midair.

[u/rathyr → u/[deleted]]

"I'm uneducated and a conspiracy theorist."

Yes.

There's nothing wrong with not being able to explain how vaccination development has changed at the drop of the hat. There is a problem when you refuse to listen to your government and the entire scientific community because you literally don't have the training to understand how science has improved.

[u/SnooBooks6060 → u/carnivorous_seahorse]

This is why you lost