http://www.rationalmoms.com/2009/05/29/why-do-anti-vaccine-myths-persist/ Rational moms of the world unite! Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:30:26 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.rationalmoms.com/2009/05/29/why-do-anti-vaccine-myths-persist/comment-page-1/#comment-1361 catgirl Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:25:53 +0000 http://www.rationalmoms.com/?p=697#comment-1361 Anecdotal stories have a huge emotional impact, and most of those stories come from people who have vaccinated their children simply because nearly all children receive some vaccinations. Unfortunately, I think that eventually there will be an unvaccinated child who gets autism and then also gets a devastating, easily-preventable disease. A story like that would have a huge emotional impact, but it's such a huge shame that it would have to come to that before people will listen. There are already unvaccinated children who have autism, but that doesn't change any minds because anti-vaxxers will say that vaccines are only one cause of autism and that kid got it from eating non-organic food or some other excuse. Anecdotal stories have a huge emotional impact, and most of those stories come from people who have vaccinated their children simply because nearly all children receive some vaccinations. Unfortunately, I think that eventually there will be an unvaccinated child who gets autism and then also gets a devastating, easily-preventable disease. A story like that would have a huge emotional impact, but it’s such a huge shame that it would have to come to that before people will listen. There are already unvaccinated children who have autism, but that doesn’t change any minds because anti-vaxxers will say that vaccines are only one cause of autism and that kid got it from eating non-organic food or some other excuse.

]]> http://www.rationalmoms.com/2009/05/29/why-do-anti-vaccine-myths-persist/comment-page-1/#comment-1349 jessiemarion Sun, 31 May 2009 15:40:44 +0000 http://www.rationalmoms.com/?p=697#comment-1349 It looks like she gets a lot of things right! This mistrust of doctors and authority is a huge problem. I understand the impulse to distrust authority but there is an important difference between applying a skeptical, critical eye to authority and blind mistrust. The blind mistrust of doctors and vaccines in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary is dangerous and willfully ignorant. It looks like she gets a lot of things right! This mistrust of doctors and authority is a huge problem. I understand the impulse to distrust authority but there is an important difference between applying a skeptical, critical eye to authority and blind mistrust. The blind mistrust of doctors and vaccines in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary is dangerous and willfully ignorant.

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