Community Over Reason

If your child's well-educated pediatrician recommends certain vaccinations to protect your child, as well as other children, wouldn't it be common sense to listen? I thought the voice of reason was logic for my hometown, but as I've grown, I've learned just how much a person can be stuck in their ways.

Recently for class, we read this article on anti-vaxxers and it got me so heated, I had to call my sister, a passionate nurse, to vent. Anti-vaxxers have a variety of their own reasons to fight vaccination bills. As we've learned in class, the size of a person's platform can be the difference between getting important information out to a few people or a few thousand people.

I grew up in a small town on the Big Island of Hawai'i. Family traditions were kept strong, faith was put into old-time medicines and natural remedies, and people were stubborn. I didn't realize how much my community lacked vaccination until I got onto social media. Back home, I have old classmates who are having their own families and often post FaceBook statuses about how they refuse to vaccinate their children. Many will go as far as shaming people who do vaccinate their children, saying it's not natural. They claim people have come this far with natural remedies, so why should we put these "toxic things" in our bodies?

For years, I fought the urge to comment on those statuses that riled up whole crowds about toxins and western medicine. I really didn't become passionate about advocating for vaccines until my sister became pregnant and I realized how uneducated the people in our community actually are. On several occasions, my sister received comments on her social media posts as well as strongly-worded private messages from people she hasn't spoken to in years, saying things such as, "I see you're having a baby soon, here's why you shouldn't vaccinate your kid or circumcise!" My sister, a well-educated nurse, knows what/what not to do. Since when did this person from her high school have the right to tell her how to raise her child? Her child wasn't even born yet and anti-vaxxers didn't skip a beat to get their two cents in.

In the article on anti-vaxxers, they mentioned that when doctors and pro-vaccinators tried to speak up, they were often targeted and harassed. The same goes for my small hometown. I've watched many online conversations unravel into nasty arguments. People sure love to hop on bandwagons, and if a person's platform is large enough or they have a convincing enough spiel, most people will follow that person and trust them without ever researching their own facts. More often than not, when asked to cite sources, community members on FaceBook would reference dated Netflix documentaries or disproved cases. Even when given updated and informative resources, local anti-vaxxers are headstrong and will stick to their beliefs.

As you can understand, my sister is currently reluctant to raise her son in a town with such a strong opposition to vaccines. Thankfully, my nephew has an amazing pediatrician (who was a pediatrician to my sisters and myself as children) who, not only is well-educated and up-to-date with the latest medical information, but also goes as far to refuse patients if they do not vaccinate their kids. Community immunity is so important that he has a sign that says, "We respect everyone's choices, however, if you choose not to vaccinate, please choose another pediatrician." He said he created the sign and that policy when he had a mother of a patient who had gotten sick and passed from a preventable illness. Being against vaccinations, the mother ignored the advice of doctors for certain treatments during annual check-ups. After her daughter passed she asked our doctor, "Is there anything I could have done to prevent this?" and sadly, he had to answer, "Yes. Vaccinations could have prevented this."

While that is a tragic end, it is also very much a reality. There are people out in the community who are spreading misinformation and have a large following of people who are easily influenced and are too lazy to do their own research. When voices of fact and reason attempted to speak up, the community against vaccinations was so strong, they were able to harass pro-vaxxers to silence.

What I'm saying is, indeed, platform and voice are important and have quite an influence, but that doesn't mean the loudest voice is the most truthful voice. I guess the thing I'm trying to figure out for myself is how to help a community that doesn't even want to listen to me. It's hard when a craze overpowers common sense.

#aliidrive #community #vaccinate