I have co-workers at the hospital who don't like the flu shot. It always boggles my mind that we all received education about vaccines and are there to advocate them, and yet there are still people who give all kinds of bullshit things out like:
"Oh but I get the flu every year anyways"
"I always get sick when I get the flu shot"
"I never get the flu"
"It doesn't even cover everything so it doesn't even matter."
I'm very pro-vaccine. Viciously so. It takes everything I have to try having a stance of empathy and understanding for people who are against vaccines. I think they're so far removed from reality and global issues that they can't tell their scarf from their sphincter.
Much as I hate Vox, there is a nice cute article here about empathy going loads farther than criticism.
I thought all anti-vaxxers were idiots. Then I married one. - Vox
It makes sense. I saw some stupid picture on facebook floating around as well where "worst case scenarios" were being asked of pregnant ladies wanting natural births, and the responses were like, "A c-section" or "needing an epidural" .. and the whole group was horrified this lady said, "That myself and the baby die." Because having babies seems so routine, people forget it is still a thing that people can die from it. Just like vaccines are so routine, people forget that people die from these diseases and that they're terrible. Match that with a ton of fear-mongering.. and it's enough to sweep up anyone.
I got swept into a slew of things last year--organic food, "clean eating", calorie restrictions before that.. It was all because of fear-mongering. I thought, "What can it hurt to try it?" The reality is it hurts a lot.. it hurts myself, and others, to not put logic and science and analysis before emotional outbursts like panic and fear. The reality is, almost every important situation calls for a logical plan that is backed by standards and science.. and when people react out of pure fear alone, bad things tend to happen. Raw emotion with no logical backbone is flippant and dangerous. It hurts people for the rest of their lives sometimes--ask anyone with an overly emotional trigger-happy mother or father.
And the only way to move the vaccine movement further is to stop the fear. Vaccines and their supporters need to be a place of comfort and not harsh criticism. Vaxxers need to stop the hate, much as it pains me to do so, and take the harder road towards true recovery by empathizing and being ready to help others no matter what. People get tired of being afraid constantly eventually.. and when they do, we need to be a place for them to come. If I knew the only other road between me and McDonalds was Hippy-veggie-menu-farm where they'd scoff and snoot and scoot their feet around about what a loser I am for wanting a Mcdouble I might just eat the mcdouble out of spite, even when I really want to eat hippy-veggie-food-farm.
Anti-vaxxers are not stupid, for all that's worth. It really takes me getting my head around that, because I've supported stupid causes before and I felt stupid as a result. I felt duped, but I take responsibility for my own laziness and stupidity during those times as well. So, it's hard for me to change my empathy to truly be other peoples' empathy. It's not empathy for myself, it's for others.. so I can't treat them like I treat myself. That's the hardest obstacle for me. But I'll get there. Because I really don't want to be the INTJ-forum equivalent of a vaccine supporter.
