5 ms·
A lot of this has to do with social trust and politicization. For a number of reasons, going back to the early days of Tuskeegee syphilis studies, public health
by rsj_hn 4y ago
A lot of this has to do with social trust and politicization. For a number of reasons, going back to the early days of Tuskeegee syphilis studies, public health in the U.S. is viewed by large portions of the public as imperious, corrupt, unaccountable, beholden to big business and/or utopian ideologies, and is generally viewed with suspicion by many on the left and on the right. African Americans have the lowest vaccination rates by race.
But this is across the board. Prior to covid, for example, the ground zero for anti-vaccination movements was Marin County, California -- one of the most liberal counties in the nation, where only 50% of students in some schools were given smallpox/measles vaccines and there were outbreaks as a result.
Given this environment, American public health authorities should recognize their credibility gaps and embark on a program of transparency, consistency, accountability, and humility.
Unfortunately this is the exact opposite of their behavior. There remains deep ties between public health agencies and large pharmaceutical companies, public health officials continue to invest in and hold patents owned by companies that fall under their purview, there is still a revolving door between the two, there is very little transparency, no accountability for funding research in foreign labs to skirt US safety rules and congressional restrictions, public health officials were widely photographed in meetings without wearing masks (surrounded by masked servants), and they adopt imperious tones demanding draconian punishments for deviations from policy as well as calling for censorship of their critics. Fauci's declaration that "I am the science" is an example of this imperious attitude, which is frankly disastrous.
Until there is real reform, the U.S. is going to maintain a huge credibility gap vis-a-vis other nations, which will make public health efforts that much harder here, and will also lower long term public health outcomes.
- annexrichmond 4y agoIt's interesting the narratives you hear with regards to antivaxxers. My sister is vegan and is in many vegan, all-natural, etc Facebook groups. She told me there's a lot of overlap of people there and people who chose not take the COVID vaccine. One of her best friends is a teacher in Canada from Trinidad; she grew up without vaccines and similarly never gave her child the COVID vaccine These two examples just seemed very different than the typical "antivaxxer" I hear about. Although it still seems premature to call someone who only doesn't take the first mainstream mRNA vaccine an antivaxxer.
- ben_w 4y ago> Although it still seems premature to call someone who only doesn't take the first mainstream mRNA vaccine an antivaxxer. Non-mRNA COVID vaccines do exist.
- Izkata 4y agoSinovac (China) and Novavax (only just given EUA a few weeks ago) are AFAIK the only options if you want something more traditional. I think might have been one more, from India..? But J&J and AstraZeneca are adenovirus-vector, something almost as new as mRNA, and work by basically the same mechanism. Sputnik (Russia) is also adenovirus-vector.
- SanjayMehta 4y agoIndia: Covaxin is the traditional whole inactivated vaccine you're thinking of.
- detaro 4y agoAt least the former has been a common stereotype with other vaccines too. (and people I know who are into yoga have generally complained that there's a lot of influencers peddling various "natural" cures and conspiracy theories there)
- dahfizz 4y agoBefore covid, I think the "hippy dippy" vegan, naturepath, yogi stereotype was associated most strongly with anti vaxxers. Covid was politicized, and so it became a right wing stereotype to not want the vaccine. But specifically the covid vaccine. I don't think most right wing anti-covid-vaxxers are anti vax in general.
- tomjakubowski 4y agoCovid was hardly the start of the conservative antivax or alternative medicine movement. Naturalnews.com has been right-wing and antivax since 2008.