If the 20th century’s biggest battles were over democracy versus tyranny and capitalism versus communism, the 21st century’s shaping up to be a battle over truth and reality versus misinformation and fear. Each camp has pretty well retreated into its own bubble, filtering all input through a particular lens and rejecting anything that doesn’t agree with its views.
There’s no better example than the anti-vaccination movement.
This group of people reject time-tested science in favor of, well, I’m not even sure what the appeal is. And it’s left a lot of parents in a strange place, trying to do right by their kids but missing out on the obvious.
Take this mom, for example, who posted on Facebook looking for a way to protect her unvaccinated daughter from a measles outbreak.
See, she just wanted to keep her little one safe. Now, if maybe science had developed a way to prevent the spread of dangerous diseases, she might be in luck. And wow, did the folks on Facebook ever come to her aid in the most savage ways.
It might be a bit of an overstatement to suggest that her kid would die from the measles.
But it’s also not unheard of. According to the CDC , before a vaccine was readily available, about 400 to 500 deaths each year could be attributed to the measles.
Someone decided to describe the very process of creating a vaccine for the mom.
It’s a good attempt to get through to the mom! Also worth reminding folks that with a vaccine, measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. It’s only making a comeback because of anti-vaxxers.
Others pointed out that asking folks on Facebook was not the best start.
Fun fact: Facebook ads can be targeted directly at people interested in “vaccine controversies,” including to geographic locations where outbreaks are occurring.
As some pointed out, even if there was a link between autism and vaccines, autism is still better than a child dead of an easily preventable disease.
Just a reminder, there is no link between autism and vaccines. That one so-called study that Jenny McCarthy pushed was de-bunked, retracted, and the author stripped of his medical license. It’s hogwash, baloney, malarkey, and just plain wrong.
You have to love this reply that ties in that other silly conspiracy theory.
Well done. Mind you, flat earth theories are largely harmless nonsense. Anti-vaxxers are actively doing harm.
This is also a good opportunity to remind everybody that vaccines protect more than just the kid getting vaccinated.
It’s a little thing called herd immunity, and it keeps the kids who can’t get vaccinated from getting sick.
This is a time-honored tradition on Facebook.
Because we all know how well sharing a photo can funnel prayers to the Lord! And prayers work better than science.
Some people were fully prepared to take an extremely sarcastic tone with her.
To be fair, though, people in real life were eating tide pods at one point. Maybe there’s some literature out there on the effectiveness of dish soap on measles… Ha.
There’s always the cellphone method, too.
Obviously, people are poking fun at this mother’s ignorance-soaked question. It only makes it worse that she posted it on a public forum.
And one last, super dark joke to just slam it all home.
You have to hope that the mom came to her senses and got her child the vaccination she clearly needs, but sadly, it seldom works that way in these situations. If anything, she probably retreated back into her echo chamber bubble. But we can hope!
