The Anti-Vaccine Movement’s New Frontier

[T_aquaticus]

We have recent examples of what happens when vaccination rates decline.

The 2019 Samoa measles outbreak began in September 2019.[5] As of 6 January 2020, there were over 5,700 cases of measles and 83 deaths, out of a Samoan population of 200,874.[4][6] Over three percent of the population were infected.[7] The cause of the outbreak was attributed to decreased vaccination rates, from 74% in 2017 to 31–34% in 2018, even though nearby islands had rates near 99%.
2019 Samoa measles outbreak - Wikipedia

Families lost young ones or have children who were injured by measles, and it was completely preventable.

Ivanajatore was one of 5707 people to have measles in the outbreak that struck the tiny Pacific nation of Samoa at the end of 2019. In just three and a half months, 83 died and 1868 were admitted to hospital. Vaccination rates as low as 31% were blamed, with Samoa becoming the exemplar of what can happen in an underimmunised population.
. . .
In the short term, the country’s only two consultant paediatricians are going out to district hospitals to follow up on children at risk of respiratory and neurological complications. At the same time, mental health teams, led by the country’s sole psychiatrist, have been visiting bereaved parents and around 300 families of children who had been in intensive care, in order to identify parents at risk of depression and substance misuse, and to prepare them to spot potential signs of delayed learning or altered behaviour in their child.
In the aftermath: the legacy of measles in Samoa - PMC

[beaglelady]

@Combine_Advisor

There’s this one in PA that drives me nuts with a little jingle

I am unfamiliar with it, but we’ve all learned to ignore advertising we don’t like. Do you think educational messages that discourage alcohol, drugs, and smoking aimed at teens actually encourage these behaviors?

[Combine_Advisor (Charles, confirmed as Thomas)]

Well I wouldn’t say encourage, but some people might get reactionary just to spite whatever’s annoying them.