She noted that her husband “watches a lot of those youtube videos” which reeks of conspiracy theorist. All it then takes is one or two family members to get in their ear with the same beliefs and it becomes embedded, which it sounds like it has in this case.
And yeah, bloody scary.
Send them some alternative viewing.
Not clicking on that.
A lot of it is also down to historical blindness, insofar as the personal stories of kids dying at 2 from preventable diseases are now multiple generations ago and not many people living remember what it was like.
I could go on about this for hours but so much of modern malaise is about a general romanticism re. the authentic past. No doubt the past was full of terrible things, but our support of progress in science has over extended to faith in all forms of progress which can be damaging and alienating (ie. modern corporate destruction).
The end result is that genuine grievances/suspicions about the modern world are funnelled into the wrong channels, ie. fucking vaccines, rather than lining the coal barons up against a wall.
Case in point: several cases of polio have been found in PNG due to lapses in immunisation.
I totally agree. I’ve been listening to this for the past couple of weeks http://thispodcastwillkillyou.com/. It’s interesting hearing all the stories of various diseases wiping out 50-90% of entire societies, and how some vaccines have eradicated or massively reduced the impact.
like up until about 80-100 years ago, if you have 4 kids, theres a good chance 2 will be dead before 5. That kind of trauma is now forgotten in the first world.
It’s disturbing that people frame these issues as ‘opinions’ or ‘theories’. Leads to there being a suggestion that an alternative ‘theory’ is equally valid (or should at least not be dismissed outright), or that ‘everyone is entitled to their own opinion’. People disagree all the time. It’s not offensive to say I disagree with you and then we stop talking about it and move on. But it’s another level of social awkwardness (generally embarrassment for one or both parties) to tell someone that they are factually wrong. It’s what’s needed in this case though I think.
the local chiroquack is a flagrant antivaxxer, it takes all my restraint not to let the dog shit in their waiting room every morning.
as above we have such a gifted presence where we don’t die from polio or get smallpox or have our bones snapped by tetanus that these things don’t seem like an issue to many people.
“i get all the vaccines except the flu shot” is so fecking common these days.
“I always get the flu afterwards” - no you fucking don’t.
“its only 25% effective” - not fucking vaccinating is zero percent effective
“the flu isnt that bad and is easily treatable” (straight out of first year biomed kids mouth) - you know what the yearly road toll in australia is? ~1500. you know how many people die of the flu? ~3000. three thousand people. they should have TAC style ads of people in ICU with the flu.
fuck.
cards on table i have never got the flu shot. guess I’m an asshole, fml.
false, not getting one and arguing against it are different things. go get one. save an old person. or a baby.
Whenever I see this thread pop up I think it’s about some faulty crankset.
