Thanks to vaccines, social distancing, and masking, New Mexico and other states are lifting COVID-19 restrictions, and Americans are slowly returning to something resembling the lives we all had before the pandemic. However, I think that the new normal may be somewhat different from what we were used to before this horrific virus took the lives of hundreds of thousands of loved ones (and still continues to do so around the world).
I must admit that I am perplexed about arguments from anti-vaxxers, and the numerous conspiracy theories and myths that continue to flood social media. I was also surprised to learn that Americans have always been skeptical of vaccines, and we do have a long history of denying science and the efficacy of vaccines. But when health professionals, epidemiologists, virologists, and medical researchers receive death threats over vaccines, things are getting a bit out of hand. Many anti-vaxxers claim that vaccines cause autism, and they are suspect of the COVID-19 vaccines. I ran into a gentleman not so long ago who claimed that the COVID vaccine will cause sterility in men and women, and it’s part of a government conspiracy to control the birth rate among middle-class Americans. I nodded my head, and replied “that’s an interesting viewpoint,” but realized that he was dead serious.
But the anti-vaxxer mentality is nothing new. Anti-vaxxers have been around for a long time. For example, in 1802, many Americans believed that the smallpox vaccine would cause them to develop bovine-like physical features because the vaccine was developed from cow serum. Proponents even circulated documents that claimed to prove that those people who had been given the smallpox vaccine had indeed developed cow-like features. Just as in 1802, today many say they won’t get vaccinated, and they don’t want their children to get vaccinated.
According to epidemiologist Dr. Rene Najera, “there were fears about vaccines from before vaccines were made.” Early in our nation’s history, some practitioners used variolation to treat smallpox. Variolation is the process of using pustules of mildly infected patients to treat sick patients. Dr. Njera noted that this process produced strong opposition and fear of complications among citizens of the day. Dr. Njera added Americans have had a history of opposing vaccines “out of ignorance, misinformation, or libertarian opinions of not having anything the government mandates put into their bodies.”
In the 1970s, pediatric neurologist John Wilson put out a press release that the whooping cough vaccine caused epilepsy and decreased mental function. This claim was later debunked. In 1998 the anti-vaxxer movement gained steam when gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a now-discredited article about the MMR vaccine in the British publication the Lancet, where he correlated the use of this vaccine to autism. Wakefield’s claim was helped by the rise of 24-hour news networks and the internet, so his claim spread like wildfire among anti-vaxxers.
Today, Wakefield is still banging the drum against vaccines, this time the COVID-19 vaccine. Although Wakefield had engaged in unethical practices while performing his 1998 study and had succumbed to undisclosed financial conflicts of interest, he continues to fuel the anti-vax narrative. It’s no secret that many conservative Americans as well as the previous administration continue to discredit the science of vaccines, and their latest target is COVID-19 vaccines. This is hard to fathom amidst a pandemic where over half a million Americans have died. But the anti-vax movement is closely allied with anti-science ideology and the fear of big government.
Americans have a long history of distrust of science and are susceptible to the fear that somehow vaccines will cause such negative side-effects as autism, bovine-like features, sterility, or changes in our DNA. These views are very much alive and continue to spread via the internet and social media. Perhaps the fear of vaccines stems from a disconnect in our educational process and the fear of the government putting things in our bodies.
One thing is certain though, science is based on fact, and the fact is that vaccines work and they save lives.