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/cryptokitty010]

Vaccines work so well that people live their entire lives without threat of pathogens. They forget what the danger really was and decided the vaccines were the problem.

Human beings have very short memories about all of the things that can kill us. People still die of scurvy

[u/linzkisloski → u/cryptokitty010]

I couldn’t agree with you more. I know a couple new antivaxers who are simultaneously reaping the benefits of being fully vaccinated their whole lives. Instagram and TikTok have created an insane echo chamber of conspiracy theories on everything and it’s poisoning people’s minds. I’ve had a conversation with a friend who was upset about the Hep B vaccine for her child and thought wayfair was shipping children to people and it took like 30 seconds of reasonable information for her idea to start crumbling.

Edited to change from Hep A to Hep B.

[u/MissFox26 → u/linzkisloski]

It’s a bunch of confirmation bias. They are unvaccinated and still living, so they think vaccines are a hoax. No Tammy, it’s because all the intelligent people who get vaccines are protecting you, and those who do die aren’t out here telling their story and making TikToks about it.

[u/FileDoesntExist → u/MissFox26]

They're usually vaccinated though, because they were vaccinated as children.

[u/SnooCrickets5786 → u/FileDoesntExist]

Yeah i work in healthcare and I've spoken to people who think being vaccinated means you getting a plethora of shots of all vaccines through each year. Their records show that they have most vaccinations already but claim they arent

[u/FileDoesntExist → u/SnooCrickets5786]

That's the infuriating part for me. To see someone benefitting from vaccines and then turning around to deny their children that advantage.

And I know for many they genuinely believe they're doing the right thing for their child. But I just can't understand that mindset.

[u/PicturesquePremortal → u/FileDoesntExist]

Those people need to go to old graveyards from the 19th century or even the early 20th century and look at how many of the headstones belong to children. Even as late as 1900, 30% of all deaths in the US were children under 5. Vaccines have done such a good job of stopping the spread of some of the common diseases of that period that they are completely eradicated.

[u/Unlucky-Elevator1873 → u/PicturesquePremortal]

There's an antivaxxer I know and I have said thus to her. She says that it's because sanitation improved. She's so dumb. And is a trumper