A neighbor told me that even though her now-adult children had no side effects if she could go back and decide to not vaccinate them instead, she would
this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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Mexican here. It's not as pronounced in my country but some people are a bit hesitant of vaccines because of the bullshit leaking out of the US. It's usually the least educated who are often more inclined to believe.
Having said that, we have a lot more believers in homeopathy, including plenty of healthcare professionals because it's been recognized by our Health Department. Because if it's recognized and popular, it's gotta be true, right? π
Yes. America is a joke.
This is not limited to Americans. This site is dumb. Idiots everywhere are susceptible to misinformation.
Just wait until OP learns about us taking horse paste during covid
anti vaxxing is a thing that real people really engage in, they are in fact, stupid. But it is unfortunately real, just look into the resurgence in measles outbreaks and TB and shit, that's why.
ur friend very well may be joking, but i can assure it's not a complete meme.
If this is the case, try to convince your friend to talk to their doctor about vaccinations. They may decide, for themselves, that they're comfortable with it.
He is not joking and while it is most relevant in the United States it is not exclusive to us.
They sure do. It's so dumb.
We are actually that stupid.
Mostly the right-wing leaning Americans, who don't like anything that costs them money even if it contributes towards a better society. They say they hate Socialism in all its forms, but had absolutely no problem accepting stimulus handouts. They are the pure leeches of our country.
Left-wing leaning Americans tend to believe science even if it comes as a slight inconvenience to themselves, that includes things that sometimes cost them money.
This is an oversimplification. I have met plenty of people who are progressive or Democrat that believe some pretty wild things about vaccines and western medicine in general. Don't underestimate hippies.
Yeah, the whole thing first took hold in left-leaning crunchy all-natural circles.
Having lived next to them for my whole life; For Americans if it sounds too stupid to be true itβs probably true
Even if it does(it doesn't), I would rather have autism than measles or pertussis, etc.
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.
There's a number of points this comment misses. First, it wasn't pharmaceutical companies, but moms group of autistic children that approached him.
[I]n 1995, while conducting research into Crohn's disease, he was approached by Rosemary Kessick, the parent of a child with autism, who was seeking help with her son's bowel problems and autism; Kessick ran a group called Allergy Induced Autism. In 1996, Wakefield turned his attention to researching possible connections between the MMR vaccine and autism.
And the time, he was still a well regarded scientist and doctor:
At the time of his MMR research study, Wakefield was senior lecturer and honorary consultant in experimental gastroenterology at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine
This was also published in 1998 in The Lancet an important medical journal, but the controversy didn't start with this publication, but his press conference after the publication where he did advocate for single vaccines and not a combined MMR. Pretty poor form and highly criticized at the time.
The media took this and ran with it. It caused wide spread misinformation about autism and the MMR vaccine. But it was also a media outlet that began to tear apart the claims in 2004.
It wasn't retracted until 2010 and a full write up about what went wrong in the BMJ in 2011. There was a lot of criticism before then, but I was also highly cited as well.
There's a lot of lessons to be learned here and that is best done with the full story.
Don't forget Oprah Winfrey giving ~~Melissa~~ Jenny McCarthy a mouthpiece in front of every suburban mom in the US. We have her to thank for both that and "Dr" Phil.
If I recall correctly that was Jenny McCarthy, but correct otherwise (not looking to see Melissa McCarthy take the flak for that!). The amount of ugly pseudoscience and bullshit that has emerged through Oprah's platform is horrifying.
oh FFS I mixed up names, will fix it
It makes me sad that the piece of shit Andrew Wakefield is still alive while so many better people than him have died for his bullshit.
It's crazy to think about the thousands of lost lives stemming from a single fraudulent study.
You have to explain to them how vaccines work. I'm waiting for them to turn on antibiotics next. Soon we'll be shaking rattles and swallowing toads to cure diseases.
Actually, this tincture of viscous fluid from a legless reptile can cure many diseases!
I oiled it directly from the snake!
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.
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.
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.
I personally know nurses who I went to school with who are anti-vax.
Honestly, lockdown convinced me that most nurses don't have enough education.
Your average practice runs with one doctor on the books and a handful of nurses performing all the observations and making decisions by proxy.
Even if they had the education and passed the classes, I worry. Working as a nurse in a regional hospital and being anti-vax isn't a "didn't know any better" kind of problem. These people can be trained to the gills, but if they were brought up anti-vax, they're not going to do shit polio literally shows up on their own personal doorstep.
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.
The real problem isn't the FO, it's the lack of empathy until it affects them personally.
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Some idiots in America believe this, most don't.
The American peasantry believe no shortage of absurdities because every media outlet they have is owned by a billionaire telling them how to feel about what they're allowed to know.
If these people were around 50 yrs ago we'd still have polio and smallpox.
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.
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