Slashdot Mirror
Parents Who Don't Vaccinate Kids Tend To Be Affluent, Better Educated (go.com)
schwit1 quotes ABC News: Vaccines are universally backed by respected scientists and federal agencies, but that isn't enough to convince every parent to vaccinate their children. The decision to fly in the face of near universal scientific opinion doesn't come as a result of a lack of intellect, however, as experts who have studied vaccines and immunology acknowledge that many parents who don't vaccinate their children are well-educated. They also appear to be the victims of a widespread misinformation campaign, the experts said.
Daniel Salmon, who is the director of the Institute of Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, said that existing research suggests that there are some common attributes that many parents who choose not to vaccinate their children share. "They tend to be better educated. They tend to be white, and they tend to be higher income. They tend to have larger families and they tend to use complementary and alternative medicine like chiropractors and naturopaths," Salmon said.
Salman also says outbreaks typically start when an American returns from a visit to Europe, where there are much higher rates of measles than in the U.S. But lower vaccination rates help it spread.
One study in August reported Russian trolls "seem to be using vaccination as a wedge issue, promoting discord in American society," though their campaign on Twitter failed to gain traction.
"I blame Amazon Prime," writes long-time Slashdot reader destinyland. "That 'misinformation' they're talking about is the pseudoscience documentary Vaxxed -- and Amazon is one of the top site's pushing it. The movie is not only free for all Prime members -- Amazon's actually featuring it on the front page showing free-with-Prime movies."
Daniel Salmon, who is the director of the Institute of Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, said that existing research suggests that there are some common attributes that many parents who choose not to vaccinate their children share. "They tend to be better educated. They tend to be white, and they tend to be higher income. They tend to have larger families and they tend to use complementary and alternative medicine like chiropractors and naturopaths," Salmon said.
Salman also says outbreaks typically start when an American returns from a visit to Europe, where there are much higher rates of measles than in the U.S. But lower vaccination rates help it spread.
One study in August reported Russian trolls "seem to be using vaccination as a wedge issue, promoting discord in American society," though their campaign on Twitter failed to gain traction.
"I blame Amazon Prime," writes long-time Slashdot reader destinyland. "That 'misinformation' they're talking about is the pseudoscience documentary Vaxxed -- and Amazon is one of the top site's pushing it. The movie is not only free for all Prime members -- Amazon's actually featuring it on the front page showing free-with-Prime movies."
I don't think educated the word that you're looking for. How about uselessly credentialed?
Either this 'study' is deeply flawed, or it's actually the product of the Russian trolls it speaks of, since this makes precisely zero sense, someone not vaccinating their kids against common diseases is among the obvious definitions of 'unintelligent'. Don't really give a damn what anyone thinks of what I just said, either, so don't bother.
You might be referring to the Dunning-Kruger effect. Like somebody who is top of their game in field A assumes their knowledge is sufficient in field B.
They may also be bad at stats and be completely unaware of it.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Antivaxxer kids are like dark humour - they never get old.
"Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon." -- Primer
Found one of the educated ones.
Vaccination is not a lifestyle choice, regardless of what the morons spouting anti-vaccination rumors say.
Vaccination is a medical choice. You either assist society by exterminating destructive diseases, or you literally empower your dumb-by-extension children to accidentally infect and kill children with responsible parents, who are too young to be vaccinated.
Does that mean you need to get every vaccine for your child? No. Chicken pox has a vaccine these days and it's not on the same tier as other diseases (though why risk it?). Measles though? That stuff will kill your child and, if not them, then your neighbor's younger child who cannot get it yet. Thanks to people making the decisions that you're describing, combined with immigrants coming from places without the vaccine, Washington State has had to declare a state of emergency.
I actually agree that you should be free to avoid any and all vaccinations because that's what freedom allows. But that doesn't mean that you should be afforded the tax payer-assisted opportunity to then put your child into contact with everyone else's children in publicly funded places, like public school. And it definitely doesn't mean that when your child does get those diseases that the government should assist you financially to get through it.
If you look at the pros and cons and there is no medical contraindication, but you still decide that your kids should not be vaccinated, then you can't blame it on science, you're just being a dumbass. This is not a lifestyle choice, the same way giving your children cigarettes is not a lifestyle choice. That's endangering a person in your care, and in the case of antivaxxers, many others too. If you and your kids are serious threat to the well-being of a population, that population is morally justified to defend against you. People are afflicted with lifelong handicaps due to that sheer idiocy. Some even die. This is not tolerable. People who do not have their kids vaccinated should be banned from medical insurance.
Because your freedom ends when it endangers my life.
I have a younger relative who's an anti-vaxxer, and she has a master's degree in school counseling. She's not a bad person, in fact she's a good person but with overblown, romantic disposition that blinds her to her own folly on the issue.
Here's what I think happened. After Vietnam, and revelations about cigarette companies lying about lung cancer, and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, we've done a good job teaching people to be wary of authority and corporate power. We haven't, however, done such a great job in giving them something *other* than trust in authority to fall back on. We haven't taught them to be skeptical.
Disbelieving a traditional authority figure and then putting your faith in an alternative authority is not skepticism. Treating every question of fact as if it were a matter of opinion isn't skepticism either. Both these things kinds of weak-tea skepticism are just alternative forms of credulity.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Sorry to drag social media into the fray again, but it may have undue influence. The poorest, most ignorant people don't use social media much. When the doctor, or some authority, tells them to get vaccinations, they obey.
But those steeped in social media see lots of opinions, lots of controversy, lots of fake news. When an authority tells them to get vaccinations, they think they know better.
'All's fair in love and war', they say. Raising children is a very emotional activity. Parents tend to be protective and sometimes paranoid about obscure threats to their children. Rationality is sometimes overlooked when they find urgent online pleas to avoid vaxxing.
I work with illiterate adults, helping them to be readers. They are very docile and will do what doctors tell them to do. The rest of us are too smart to fall for that blind obedience trap.
...omphaloskepsis often...
Good point. I live in a somewhat rural part of Clark County, WA (where the recent measles outbreak is taking place) and know a fair number of parents who are adamantly against vaccines. They tend to fall into one of two camps. First, there is a more religious group (Apostolic Lutherans being a significant portion but a number from a variety of Christian sects) that homeschools their kids (although even homeschooled kids will have a number of interactions with regularly schooled children). Relatively few of them will go to college. Instead, they generally move into a skilled trade after getting their GEDs. These people have generally been living in the area for generations and I seriously doubt that any level of education will change their minds. Closing them off from public schools/colleges will have little effect. I read their posts on the community Facebook pages and the shortsightedness and irresponsibility makes my mind reel. While they don't like measles, the prospect of infection isn't nearly enough to make them change their minds. I question whether anything more serious would. Second, there is a large community of first generation Russian and Ukrainian immigrants, many of whom tend to look with suspicion at anything any government asks them to do. I suspect this community will come around after a generation, if not sooner, since this group, although wary of government, tends to be more pragmatic and some of the measles infections have occurred in Slavic community centers and private schools.
because there are some people that can't be vaccinated for various reasons and people who could be but choose not to put them at risk, kids who have certain disorders, newborns, women who are pregnant who may not be as well protected by their own childhood vaccinations because of changes in body chemistry, elderly people, etc, etc, etc
to address what some anti-vaxxers try to rely on, yes there is a herd immunity, but we rely on it for those that legitimately can't be vaccinated and not just those that choose not to because they are morons, besides the fact that if we get enough morons, then the herd immunity disappears anyway
Adverse effects (usually around one in a million for most vaccines for severe adverse reactions, one in ten for most mild ones). Correlation here is risk calculation and game theory, not "stupid parents".
First of all, remind yourself that wealthy parents in upper middle class tend to have only one child. That means that "all their eggs are in one basket".
I think it's closer to two children but that doesn't really change your point. Both rug rats are precious snowflakes.
What I think is missing is the alternative risk. Say there's a one in a million risk for a serous complication (I have no idea whether that's correct and what the complication might be. I do know autism isn't one of the possible complications.) What are the chances of getting measles without the vaccine? Apparently slightly higher than one in a million because we have more than 300 cases in Washington alone.
Given that measles can kill you, I'm not sure it's all that clear cut that your snowflakes are safer without the shot.