In the United States today, resistance to vaccines is becoming increasingly more prevalent as more parents believe that “mainstream medicine” will harm their children. The World Health Institute defines vaccine hesitancy as follows:
Vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services. Vaccine hesitancy is complex and context specific varying across time, place and vaccines. It includes factors such as complacency, convenience and confidence.
According to the CDC, there have been 101 cases of the measles in 2019 of which 54 of those cases have been reported as an outbreak in Washington state. Governor Jay Inslee declared Washington in a state of emergency on January 25 because of this problem. NPR claims that public officials blame vaccine hesitancy on these outbreaks. Washington is 1 of 17 states in the United States that does not require children to be vaccinated for school. I personally was unaware that the United States allowed states to choose whether not to require vaccinations. Because of this, parents scare other parents into believing that “mainstream medicine” could harm their child. What parents don’t see is that dying from measles is actually worse.
Distrust of vaccines may be almost as contagious as measles.
Medical Anthropologist Elisa Sob
WHO claims that efforts to combat vaccine hesitancy include using better communication strategies by healthcare workers to patients to recommend and educate the community on the safety and importance of vaccines. I think the only way to convince people that vaccines are necessary are by proving to them their effectiveness and emphasizing the devastating effects that could come from not vaccinating your child.
Vaccine Culture 