Deep Dive: How Anti-Vax Movement Took Hold In US

Fascinating deep dive from the New York Times:

Though the situation may seem improbable to some, anti-vaccine sentiment has been building for decades, a byproduct of an internet humming with rumor and misinformation; the backlash against Big Pharma; an infatuation with celebrities that gives special credence to the anti-immunization statements from actors like Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey and Alicia Silverstone, the rapper Kevin Gates and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And now, the Trump administration’s anti-science rhetoric.

“Science has become just another voice in the room,” said Dr. Paul A. Offit, an infectious disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It has lost its platform. Now, you simply declare your own truth.” The constituents who make up the so-called vaccine resistant come from disparate groups, and include anti-government libertarians, apostles of the all-natural and parents who believe that doctors should not dictate medical decisions about children

That’s just the opener. Read the rest.

America may lose its “measles elimination” status from the World Health Organization. Here’s how the anti-vax movement took hold in the U.S. https://t.co/mgXXHUQqu2

— NYT Health (@NYTHealth) September 23, 2019