Routine childhood immunization rates hit Lowest level in 10 years According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this will result in approximately 250,000 kindergarteners measles riskHospitalization is often required and can lead to death. An infant and two young children have been hospitalized in recent weeks. Measles outbreak in Philadelphia This has also spread to daycare centers.
It is a dangerous change brought about by a critical mass of people who are now in denial. decades of science It supports the safety and effectiveness of childhood vaccines. State after state has persuaded lawmakers and courts to make it easier for children. Enter kindergarten without vaccines Citing religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs.
Rising vaccine hesitancy is just one part of a broader rejection of scientific expertise that could have impacts ranging from disease outbreaks to reduced funding for research that leads to new treatments. there is. “The term ‘infodemic’ means random junk, and that’s incorrect,” said Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. “This is an organized political movement, and the medical and scientific fields don’t know what to do.”
Change views between Republicans took control Requirements for childhood vaccines will be relaxed, according to the Pew Research Center. Nearly 80% of Republicans supported this rule in 2019; Less than 60% currently do so. The Democratic Party is solid with around 85% support.Mississippi, once the proud state of the United States Highest proportion in early childhood Vaccination has begun allow religious exemptions last summer. Another leader in vaccination, west virginiais working to do something similar.
Anti-science movements have accelerated during the pandemic as Republicans and Democrats have differing views on science. Seventy percent of Republicans said science had a mostly positive impact on society in 2019, but less than half felt that way on the campaign trail. Pew November poll. Partisan rifts could widen further ahead of November’s election, as presidential candidates devote airtime to anti-vaccine messages and members of Congress denigrate scientists and pandemic-era public health policies. Highly sexual.
Dorit Rees, a vaccine policy researcher at the University of California, San Francisco School of Law, draws parallels between today’s public health backlash and early climate change denial.both The problem has progressed Nonpartisan fringe movements have grown into the mainstream as they appeal to conservatives and libertarians who traditionally seek to limit government regulation. “Even if people weren’t anti-vaccine to begin with, they will act that way if the argument is appropriate,” Reese said.
The same goes for certain actors. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the American Institute for Economic Research, a libertarian think tank, undermined climate scientists by publishing questionable reports. global warming. The institute issued a statement earlier this year. pandemic, popularly known as the “Great Barrington Declaration.” The party opposed measures to curb the spread and advised all but the most vulnerable to continue life as normal regardless of the risk of infection. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned against such an approach. will overwhelm the medical system Millions more are at risk of disability or death from the coronavirus. “It is completely unethical to leave a dangerous virus that we don’t fully understand unchecked,” he said.
Another organization, the National Federation of Independent Business, fought Regulatory measures to limit climate change for over 10 years. In 2022, we will move on to vaccines. won A Supreme Court case that overturns a government effort to temporarily require employers to require workers to either get a coronavirus vaccine or wear face masks and undergo regular testing. If the court had upheld the rule, about 1,000 to 3,000 coronavirus deaths would have been avoided in 2022. one study Estimate.
If public health becomes a political flashpoint in the run-up to the presidential election, political backlash could be funded and better organized. In the first days of 2024, Florida’s Surgeon General, appointed by Republican presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, asked to stop He opposed the use of mRNA coronavirus vaccines, echoing DeSantis’ false statements that vaccinations are “unproven to be safe and effective.”and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The independent candidate for president has announced that Del Bigtree, the executive director of the nation’s wealthiest anti-vaccination organization and rally organizer, will lead his campaign’s communications. conspiracy theory talk show. On the day of the announcement, Big Tree posted a letter spreading misinformation, including unsubstantiated rumors that the coronavirus vaccine will make people more susceptible to infection. He and Kennedy frequently combine health misinformation with terms that appeal to anti-government ideology, such as “medical freedom” and “religious freedom.”
A product of a Democratic dynasty, Kennedy’s appeal appears to be stronger among Republicans. political analysis found.DeSantis said he would. Considering Kennedy’s nomination They could run the FDA, which approves drugs and vaccines, or the CDC, which advises on vaccines and other public health measures. Another Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, vowed to gut the CDC I wish he could win.
/ Getty Images
Today’s anti-science movement gained its foothold in the months before the 2020 election, largely as Republican politicians drew support from voters who objected to pandemic measures such as wearing masks and closing businesses, churches, and schools. Ta. For example, then-President Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden for wearing a mask during the September 2020 presidential debate. Democrats also fueled the politicization of public health by blaming Republican leaders rather than blaming the country’s soaring death rate. systemic problem The result has been vulnerabilities in the United States, including underfunded health departments and deep economic disparities that put some groups at much higher risk than others.Just before Election Day, a Democratic-led Congressional subcommittee announced report He criticized the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, calling it “one of the worst leadership failures in American history.”
Republican lawmakers have encouraged COVID-19 vaccinations since President Biden took office. started to rotatequestioned the safety of the vaccine and introduced it. dozens of bills To prevent mandatory vaccination. House Republicans launched a subcommittee investigation into the pandemic, harshly criticizing scientific institutions and scientists once considered nonpartisan. On January 8th and 9th, the group Question to Anthony Fauciis a leading infectious disease researcher and has advised Republican and Democratic presidents. No evidence, committee member Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) Fauci defendant “He should go to prison for that,” said Greene, a vaccine skeptic, of supporting the research that created the coronavirus to promote vaccines. “This is like a more sinister version of science.”
Taking cues from environmental advocacy groups seeking to combat strategic and financially motivated efforts to block energy regulation, Hotez and other researchers say public health has a background in law and politics. He says that he needs supporters who can support him. These groups fight against policies that limit the power of public health, advise lawmakers, and provide legal counsel to scientists who are harassed or summoned to Congress for politically charged hearings. there’s a possibility that. Other initiatives scientific consensus to avoid double-sidedism, where the media presents opposing views as if they are equivalent, when in fact the majority of researchers and much evidence points in one direction. We aim to clearly present the Oil and tobacco companies have effectively used this tactic to sow doubts that science links their industries to harm.
Kathleen Hall Jamison, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said the scientific community needs to improve its communication. Expertise alone is not enough when people distrust the motives of experts. surely, Nearly 40% of Republicans There is reportedly little or no trust that scientists will act in the public’s best interests.
in Research published last year, Jamieson and colleagues identified attributes of public values that go beyond expertise, such as transparency and self-correction regarding the unknown. Researchers say, for example, that expectations for coronavirus vaccines can be managed by emphasizing that most vaccines provide less than 100% protection and wane over time, requiring additional shots. Jamieson said it could have been. And when the first coronavirus vaccine trials demonstrated that shots significantly reduced hospitalizations and deaths but revealed little about infectious disease, public health officials expressed uncertainty. Maybe he could have been more open about it.
As a result, many people felt betrayed, even though the coronavirus vaccines only moderately reduced the risk of infection. “We were promised that vaccines would stop infection, but that turns out to be completely untrue,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the Republican-led coronavirus subcommittee. The United States has noticed this, too.” July public hearing.
Jamison also recommends repetition. This is a clever tactic used by misinformation propagators, and perhaps explains why so many people believe that the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin treats the coronavirus. more than doubled Despite the past two years lasting evidence on the contrary. In November, the drug was all the rage again. public hearing Congressional Republicans argued that the Biden administration and scientific agencies were censoring public health information.
Mr. Hotez, author new book They fear the worst with the rise of anti-science movements. “Distrust of science will continue to accelerate,” he says.
and traditional approach Combating misinformation, including debunking, may prove ineffective.
“It’s really troubling that the credibility of the sources we rely on to get the right information is being undermined,” Jamison said.
KFF Health NewsFormerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), we are a national newsroom producing in-depth journalism on health issues and one of our core operating programs on health issues. KFF — An independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
