Ask Lemmy

Back in the 90s a British doctor called Andrew Wakefield was bribed by a pharmaceutical company that made separate vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella to come up with a study to discredit the combined mmr vaccine. He found a bunch of parents in an antivax society and twisted the results of a very weighted questionnaire to demonstrate a link between MMR and the 'tism. It was quickly discredited, but the damage was done. He was stripped of his medical licence after that.

It's Poe's law- sometimes it's a joke, sometimes they're serious, and it's nearly impossible to determine which at any given time.

Some idiots in America believe this, most don't.

Our "leader" is an anti-democratic felon rapist who incited an insurrection and illegally attempted to overturn an election.

It's not a joke.

Americans are stupid as fuck.

Not American, but at least a few do. And they're exporting it. My old English teacher back when I lived in the Dominican Republic was an American missionary who taught to fund her religious activities. Guess what beliefs about science and politics she was spreading along with her beliefs about baptism of the spirit?

Yes, people truly believe this. It seems obviously bonkers to you and I, because we have at least average critical thinking skills. The people who believe these things have way below average critical thinking skills. And there A LOT of these people. Just look at your normal bell curve chart.

I shit you not; my dental hygienist just confided in me that 5g towers scared her while she was taking my xrays. She thought they had adverse effects on the body. She has an associate's degree. She mentioned they were thinking of dropping thee lead jacket requirement for patients and was shocked when I said yeah I totally agree.

There's a reason why there comparisons out there about x-ray exposure comparing a flight to number of dental xrays. She's better off not getting it multiple times a day, but my annual xrays do no harm to me.

I personally know nurses who I went to school with who are anti-vax.

They are not joking. They are 100% conspiracy-theory loving, in it for the propaganda weak-willed individuals who will buy anything that shows the man is holding them down, and through some simple choices they themselves can make, they have an edge on the world in their own minds.

I told her that I had a HAM radio license and a background in electronics and science and that understanding exposure to ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, there's no serious effects from cell phone towers and that even if there was one in the room with her, the worst that would happen is heat.

It's a very real belief, lot of folks here weren't around to know the "before times" and nothing is ever real until it happens to them.

Let's put it this way, the new FBI director sells supplements to make you immune from "vaccine shedding", AKA being around vaxxed people.

It’s all too real even today, however that might not be the cause of current measles outbreaks.

Measles was eradicated from the US years ago, thanks to high vaccination rates. However that means most people have never seen measles so there is a fringe belief that it’s not harmful or the vaccination is more harmful, and vaccination rates have been declining to the point we could get a larger epidemic.

We do have localized measles outbreaks many years but they’ve usually been attributed to a new infection from overseas and a very local community insufficiently vaccinated. Sometimes the population is from places where they’re not vaccinated, sometimes it’s a vulnerable population. While yes, it can also be from fringe anti-vax groups, I really think the bigger fear is whether those fringe groups open a path to much wider outbreaks or epidemics.

So this happened…

Not just USA.

They actually believe it. Despite no actual link being found. Despite the author of the OG article admitting that he falsified data.

People here also believe that mRNA vaccines will rewrite your genes, that the COVID vaccine sequesters in your testicles and makes you sterile and magnetic, that vaccines are less effective than "natural immunity", that vaccines will feminize you and make you compliant to authority, and that vaccines are ineffective.

I have legitimately heard all of those arguments against vaccines in the wild. For the record, vaccines are one of the oldest and most effective preventative measures we have. There is a reason why the mortality rate for children isn't +30% anymore, it's vaccines, and vaccination programs.

People are stupid and subscribe to tribalism. It's very real.

People heard about the original, now discredited study, which came out around the time autism diagnosises were increasing. People then either didn't hear or chose not to believe that the OG study was discredited.

Well, my mom believes it and she's not even American.

As an American that lives 20ish miles from the boarder of Idaho state (on average poor, uneducated, and conservative population), let me tell you its fucking real. Those people are ignorant and proud. It is depressing.

I know many who believe vaccines cause autism yes

United States citizens have reasons not to trust their government with their health. Trust takes a lot time to build, and recent administrations haven't been building it.

The irony is it was all started with a guy trying to spread FUD over existing measles vaccines to try getting his own vaccines picked up.

At a job in Silicon Valley I had a boss who had an autistic child and my boss told me directly that when they vaccinated their child, the child's behavior changed, and caused autism.

I have other friends in SV who are huge vaccine skeptics.

So, yes, even in deep blue areas there are anti-vax people. There are also Trump flag flying people in SV too.

There are people around the world who don’t believe in it. It’s not specific to Americans. You are basing this off one person on both the ends.