What motivates anti-vaxxers?

Poll - Total Votes: 30

An active desire to harm people

Rank stupidity

Easily led by bad people

Other - please suggest in responses

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You can only vote on one answer.

I recently had to block a user on here for spreading harmful disinformation on Covid-19 vaccinations - they claimed that "more people are killed by the vaccine than by guns".

This claim is patently false and easily refuted by looking at the extensive scientific literature on the topic (a sample of which is available here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html).

Which got me thinking: what motivates people to spread this nonsense?

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orioninthenight · M

I dont think covid vaccine refusals are antivaxxers in general. They just in particular dont want THAT vaccine.

joe438 · 61-69, M

@orioninthenight I think that's accurate. The covid shots were unproven and untested. Given the circumstances that makes sense, but it doesn't mean they don't have risk. With the lies about them being "100% effective" and stuff, it makes sense that people don't want to be guinea pigs.

LeopoldBloom · M

@orioninthenight Recently there has been more vaccine hesitancy across the board.

orioninthenight · M

@LeopoldBloom it might be a backlash after people realized from experience with the Covid vaccine that the FDA doesnt really vet vaccines that well

Subsumedpat · 36-40, M

@LeopoldBloom The reason there has been more vaccine hesitancy is that the virus has evolved into one that while still more dangerous than the regular flu is not as dangerous as when it first appeared. It was harder to hold on to your vaccine hesitancy back when a handful people you knew in school were dying on a ventilator.

joe438 · 61-69, M

@orioninthenight they used to. This has all eroded a lot of trust in the government approval process. Waiving the pharma’s liability for issues didn’t help.

Subsumedpat · 36-40, M

@joe438 only because people did not understand. There is not a lot of money in vaccines compared to medicines people take regulary. If they had not done that there would not have been a vaccine.

joe438 · 61-69, M

@Subsumedpat yes, that’s true. Then when the efficacy isn’t what was promised and Fauci and other experts changed the story fro “It fully protects you” to “keeps your symptoms mild”, we look at the situation and realize that they really didn’t know what to expect. Granted, given the emergency situation that’s reasonable - but if the govt and experts had been honest with us there we’d be a lot better off.

Subsumedpat · 36-40, M

@joe438 I dont remember them saying it would fully protect you, maybe they did and I just dont remember. I always some vaccines did like the polio or smallpox vaccines and others helped but dis not have full protection like the seasonal flu vax or the first shingles vax.

joe438 · 61-69, M

@Subsumedpat first the cdc said you can’t get sick: https://youtu.be/uKf8dVxOy0s?si=bPjNWwvw0-5KPJo4

Then they walked it back and clarified that no vaccine is 100%. I chalk it up to wanting to simplify complex matters to those of us that they consider unable to understand anything