Ann Wason Moore: Why I have no time for anti-vaxxers

A recent study shows there’s no link between autism and immunisations, writes Ann Wason Moore. But I’ve decided to listen to anti-vaxxers from now on. Here’s why.

AT last, conclusive data that there is no link between autism and immunisations.

Phew, I guess we’re going to see the rate of vaccination uptake soar, right?

Wrong.

While a groundbreaking study released this week showed there is no link between ASD and the childhood MMR vaccine, I wonder what the data is on how many anti-vaxxers changed their views as a result?

My guess is zero.

As a passionate believer in vaccines and the lifesaving properties they protect our children with, I have little time for the anti-vax community, writes Ms Wason Moore.

Conspiracists don’t seem to respond to scientific research or expert advice and we should stop expecting them to.

As a passionate believer in vaccines and the lifesaving properties they protect our children with, I have little time for the anti-vax community. Their stance and the risk it poses to both their children and mine make my (immunised) blood boil.

I’ve tried arguing with facts and figures before, and as a result you can now find my name on a number of anti-vax websites where I’m described as “uneducated journalist Ann Wason Moore”.

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These fake news stories about me are filled with their own cherrypicked sentences from studies as well as multiple insinuations about both my intelligence and integrity.

But their vitriolic stance against me is hardly going to change my mind, nor that of fellow pro-vaxxers. So why do we think that attacking anti-vaxxers in return is going to win them over to our side? Picture: iStock

Reading them, however, I realise how my own anger has become part of the problem.

Their vitriolic stance against me is hardly going to change my mind, nor that of fellow pro-vaxxers.

So why do we think that attacking anti-vaxxers in return is going to win them over to our side?

Think about it, how many times have you changed your mind after someone has rudely pointed out all the ways you are wrong and stupid?

And it’s not just minds that we want to change, it’s potentially children’s lives. For the sake of the children, we should stop shaming anti-vaxxers.

The truth is that while the facts won’t alter their beliefs, the way we treat them could.

When I start lumping all anti-vaxxers together, I’m not thinking of them as individuals who, rightly or wrongly, have their own reasons for believing in this alternative narrative. I’m angry and I have no sympathy and, as a result, they don’t listen.

Yet when I think of individuals I know personally who have opted against immunisations, I would never describe them as “child abusers”. I know them to be caring, concerned parents who, like me, want only the best for their child. They just have a different definition of “best”. And with that attitude, they might just listen.

Indeed, a study published by Nature Human Behaviour shows that, just like pro-vaxxers, anti-vaxxers are driven by morals when making the immunisation decision.

A study published by Nature Human Behaviour shows that, just like pro-vaxxers, anti-vaxxers are driven by morals when making the immunisation decision. Picture: iStock

It turns out that anti-vaxxers place great importance on two morals in particular: individual liberty and purity.

They believe strongly in personal responsibility, freedom, property rights, and resistance to state involvement in people’s lives and place huge importance on boundaries from protection and contamination.

In other words, the more we tell them what to do, the more they will resist. And instead of focusing on the safety of vaccines, we should focus on the danger of the actual diseases.

This last tactic has been proven one of the most effective in changing minds, according to research from UCLA and the University of Illinois.

I will try not to judge those parents who have made their own decision … instead, I will listen to their reasons

“It’s more effective to accentuate the positive reasons to vaccinate and take a non-confrontational approach — ‘Here are reasons to get vaccinated’ — than directly trying to counter the negative arguments against vaccines,” says lead researcher Keith Holyoak. “There was a reason we all got vaccinated: Measles makes you very sick. That gets forgotten in the polarising debate on whether the vaccine has side effects.”

Indeed, arguing the facts not only doesn’t help, it makes the situation worse.

We’ve known that since 1979, when Charles Lord performed a seminal piece of research that revealed when you show someone factual, scientific evidence that they are wrong, they react badly. They will only accept the evidence that fits their pre-existing views.

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That’s what we now call ‘confirmation bias’. But we seem to keep forgetting.

So while I’m not changing my mind on the safety and efficacy of immunisations, I am changing my position.

Yes, I will continue to flag questionable anti-vax “research” I see on social media, even as Facebook announces that it’s diminishing the reach of anti-vaccine information on its platform after allowing misinformation to flourish.

But I will try not to judge those parents who have made their own decision … instead, I will listen to their reasons.

I will not buy into an argument about the safety of jabs, but talk about the very real and inarguable diseases their kids could be exposed to.

We may sit on opposite ends of the needle, but we all want the same thing: happy, healthy children. And that’s a fact.