As the Disneyland measles outbreak swells — the number of cases in the U.S. has ticked up
to 102 infections in 14 states, most of which link back to the the
iconic theme park — the anti-vaccination community has been having a
crisis dialog within its own ranks.
California officials have said they know the
vaccination status of 34 of the 59 people infected in the Disney
outbreak, and at least 28 were unvaccinated. Even while vaccination
rates in California are close to the U.S. average, those numbers
disguise differences among communities that have fallen below threshold
for "herd immunity" — the collective level of inoculation that protects
even the unvaccinated. Fifteen years ago, the CDC declared measles
had been eliminated in the U.S. — last year there were 644 cases
nationwide. “There is every reason to get vaccinated — there aren’t
reasons to not,” President Obama told Today on Monday, responding to the outbreak.
So how do anti-vaxxers respond to all this? Looking at
anti-vaccination and non-vaccination online forums, many on motherhood
and pregnancy sites, opinions range from dismissal to anger. Some blame
the media and the medical industry for blowing the outbreak out of
proportion or willfully concealing the real culprit — of which several
are posited. There's frustration for being called ignorant. There's
acceptance that a child might get measles, but there's also worry that
he or she could spread it to vulnerable others.
The messages are a lens into a movement that has grown enormously
over the past two decades, but which tends to communicate outside
mainstream channels. Not everyone on the anti-vaccine forums is an
absolutist — many identify as "delayed" or "selective" vaxxers, meaning
they've postponed, but haven't necessarily entirely written off,
vaccinations, or have chosen to give their kids only a few shots instead
of the full slate.
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