This Time article from March 2014 is very interesting and not surprising to me in the less. People continually out smarting themselves. I also believe these are the first people to fall prey to the Anti-GMO junk.
Researchers found a backlash effect when presented with scientific evidence that vaccines don't cause autism
Nothing, Not Even Hard Facts, Can Make Anti-Vaxxers Change Their Minds
Maybe there should be a vaccine for stubbornness, because it sure seems tough to cure. A new study shows that when presented with four different scientifically proven arguments that vaccinations are safe, some anti-vaccination parents seemed even less inclined to innoculate their kids against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) once they saw the evidence.
OH BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE....GO FIGURE
Measles cases at highest level in nearly 20 years, CDC reports
More people have been infected with measles in the United States during the first four months of this year than have been infected in the first four months of the past 18 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A colleague of mine recounted a conversation she had over the phone when she worked at the CDC. The caller simply had a couple questions. Can you tell me how many vaccine reactions there were to x (name of vaccine)? So she looked up the number in the adverse event database and gave the number. (The database does not distinguish between vaccine site swelling and life threatening anaphylaxis.) Can you tell me how many cases of x there were last year? Zero. Click.
ReplyDeleteIf we scientists don't take a moment to understand the concern behind the questions and address them, we will not be able to help people make the best possible decisions for their children and their communities. It concerns me that people are willing to put pre-borns, newborns, elderly and those undergoing chemotherapy at risk of deadly diseases that can be prevented by vaccinating everyone else who is healthy. If your child has an immunosuppressing disease, you depend on (almost) everyone else being willing to vaccinate their child so your child will have the benefit of "herd" immunity. When vaccines are successful, the number of vaccine reactions should out number the number of cases of disease.
I think there are a lot of reasons for the result found in the study. Better understanding of and application of risk communication best practices might lead to a different result.