Vaccine avoidance often stems from irrational thinking

Vaccine hesitancy seems to be a growing problem in various parts of the world, and like most news lately, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. The underlying cause of vaccine avoidance in most cases is irrational thinking. That’s my observation. There are other causes as well, which often have merit.

A lot of fear started with disgraced British physician Andrew Wakefield, who faked a 1998 study meant to undermine vaccines.

Facebook has a been a conduit for his nonsense since 2004, when Wakefield came here. Strange that people choose to believe someone like this rather than 10,000 doctors around the world who say he’s wrong.

Another cause is distrust of science, which has brought all the wealth, technology, longevity, and comfort we have. How rational is it to distrust that which is the source of everything you have?

And how about mistrust of the medical community? Do you tell your doctor you don't trust him? How insulting and degrading it must be to spend 12 years to become an MD, and then read each day how the public distrusts you, how there are microchips in vaccines, how the NIH, the CDC, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Gates are liars, fakes etc. It must be degrading to see people dying every day and even as they die they call you a liar.

And to deny the history of vaccines is also irrational. Major diseases like polio and smallpox have been eradicated by vaccinations, but this one is bad, because Fox, OAN or FB said it was. And this passes for critical thinking?

DANIEL STRAYER

Bonners Ferry