Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

Full Version: The faces of antivaccine parents
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2015/0...-suburban/

EXCERPT: [...] it’s been just under a decade since [...] my particularly “Insolent” takedown of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s conspiracy-laden, pseudoscience-spewing super-concentrated antivaccine nonsense known as Deadly Immunity. [...] Unfortunately, some things never seem to change.

[...] periodically the issue comes up of just who makes up the antivaccine movement. The stereotype is that it’s a bunch of liberal, hippy-dippy lovers of “natural” living, but that’s not quite it. As I’ve pointed out more times than I can remember, antivaccine pseudoscience is the pseudoscience that crosses political boundaries and there are quite a few conservatives with antivaccine beliefs [...] However, a recent study [...] actually seems to confirm this particular stereotype, mainly that those who claim nonmedical exemptions from vaccine mandates tend to be white, affluent suburbanites

[...] My first reaction [...] is that it’s about as close to what I call a “Well, duh!” study that there is. Just look at the most prominent voices in the antivaccine movement. They’re almost all white and, if not affluent, at least solidly upper middle class....