Anti-vaxxers — people who choose not to vaccinate themselves or their children against communicable diseases — have been increasingly in the spotlight in 2019, owing largely to a measles outbreak in the state of Washington.
Over 60 cases have been seen in the state, mostly among younger, unvaccinated children. As well, there have been smaller outbreaks elsewhere, and the anti-vaccination movement has shouldered some of the blame.
Although the Internet has certainly given a platform for the pseudo-science behind the movement to flourish, anti-vaxxers are not a modern problem.
A century ago, there was considerable resistance to mandatory smallpox vaccinations in both England and the U.S. I’m led to understand that in the town of Leicester, literally thousands of people gathered in an “anti-vaccination” march in 1885.
However, in those days, vaccinations were not a weakened form of a disease that allowed the body to build up a resistance. Rather, vaccines infected people with a different disease (cowpox) to build up an immunity to smallpox.
Advanced in medical science led to a change in vaccines and an allaying of fears. When polio vaccines were introduced, many were elated that the crippling disease could be avoided.
But today, the anti-vaccination movement is being listed as one of the top 10 threats to global health by the World Health Organization (WHO).
This has always been one of those prickly moral conundrums of modern society: to what extent do we protect the rights of anti-vaxxers when their actions may endanger society as a whole?
I can sympathize with their concerns, to a limited extent. A few years ago, I suffered an infection that sent me to the hospital shortly after receiving a flu shot, and I’ve always wondered if I had some kind of reaction. Since I’ve been hesitant to get the flu shot again.
But I’m not opposed to vaccinations in general, and my current reluctance about getting a flu shot is not going to last forever. I certainly don’t think it causes autism or mercury poisoning or whatever nonsense is being pushed on Facebook right now by conspiracy theorists and/or Russian trolls. (Yeah, that’s a thing. Look it up.)
It’s hard to argue on behalf of anti-vaxxers when so many of their beliefs are fueled by fake science, paranoia and misinformation.
There is already some talk of raising the bar for opting out of vaccines in the U.S., and at some point, this issue is going to come to a head in Canada and possibly Alberta. In fact, if I recall correctly, an outbreak of whooping cough in 2017 was partially blamed on anti-vaxxers.
Opposition to vaccines is a problem that builds out of the public eye, and it will only take a major epidemic to force the issue into the spotlight.
