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Strangeattractor comments on Open Thread, Feb. 2 - Feb 8, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: Gondolinian 02 February 2015 12:28AM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 03 February 2015 02:54:31AM 3 points [-]

Might it be reasonable to think of the anti-vaccination movement as people trying to take heroic responsibility without having good judgement?

Comment author: Strangeattractor 04 February 2015 09:57:57AM 4 points [-]

In Pakistan, people are suspicious of health workers because the CIA used vaccination programs as cover stories for their agents.

Some people in Africa say that being vaccinated wreaked havoc on their psychic perception, and advise others not to do it.

Some people are allergic to ingredients used to make vaccines.

Some people object to having a medical procedure forced upon them.

It is tough to track down primary sources of information on this issue. Even if you go to a university library, many of the scientific papers are from an era that has not been digitized. Vaccine manufacturers do not release all of the information that is relevant. Getting enough good information to develop an informed opinion is not as straightforward and easy as one might expect.

People encounter problems in the medical system and do not have their concerns adequately addressed.

There are a variety of reasons that people have reservations about getting vaccinated. I think that to understand this in more depth, thinking of a monolithic "anti-vaccination movement" is probably not going to help.

In other words, it is possible that some people who object to vaccines could be more or less described as "trying to take heroic responsibility without having good judgement" but I don't think that description would be applicable to people who object to vaccines as a whole.