Vaccine hesitancy and Anti-Vaxxers

if you have spent any time on social media, chances are you will come across anti-vaxxers. Since they tend to take this as a slur, I will abide by their wish and use a more accurate term. After all, not all of them came from this side of conspiracy land from the beginning. However, not that they realize it, they are pro-disease. And from the outset, it should be said. Some are dealing with very sick children, that they believe their kids’ health challenges were caused by vaccines. So there is that, and a little empathy. However, they are victims of a slew of quacks, snake oil salesmen, and other less than reputable characters.

As much as we would like to think they are confined to the present, no they are not and before we delve into the history of this, let me say this. Most of these people are not very well educated in the science behind vaccines. Nor do they have a memory of a world where children did not make it to their fifth birthday. Nor do they remember a time when children were many times not named until after their first birthday. The reason for this was that parents were not sure their babies would make it. Diseases for which we have developed vaccines used to kill and their victims tended to be young. If a child survived, then they’d survive the next time the disease made the rounds. Not that we understood this concept until fairly recently in human history: They became…