As many people know, whether deeply invested or casually aware, there has been a prevalent anti-vaccination movement that is threatening the public health. What a lot of people don’t know, is that this isn’t the first active opposition against vaccines.
History of Vaccine Development and Opposition
According to Very Well Health, even before the first vaccine was created, a method called variolation was the first form of vaccination for smallpox. The idea was that by inhaling dried smallpox scabs (which sounds absolutely disgusting) or having smallpox inserted under the skin, it will allow the individual to contract a mild form of the disease for the body to build immunity. When Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduced this method of inoculation to England from Turkey, she strongly promoted the method as a key means to protect children against smallpox. Many pro-inoculators gathered by her side, advocating with facts and reason in relation to scientific progress, but similar to today, the pro-inoculators faced a lot of opposition from anti-inoculators that instilled paranoia with fear and heated conspiracy.
Very well health also conveys how since the 18th century, negative sentiments against vaccines only grew and altered to fit the main conspiracy of the times. Anti-vaccination leagues were formed in response to the compulsory nature of government vaccine enforcement; misconceptions that “vaccines don’t work”, “vaccines make you sick”, “there are poisons and toxins in vaccines”, “blame big pharma”, “vaccines cause autism”, etc. became the foundation of many different era’s anti-vaccination propaganda, with some persisting or pertaining to today. In addition to the temptation to give into emotionally compelling paranoia, perhaps another reason for the endurance of the opposing side is people’s tendency to believe whatever information is most easily accessible. A lot of the conspiracies that have been brought up, such as “vaccines cause autism”, should have easily been disregarded if people looked into the research paper themselves, or have even tried to read up on what other people have analyzed and discovered about the study (how it was biased, poorly set up, the data was inaccurately reported, etc.). However, once people are committed to an idea, they tend to avoid looking at the topic from the other side, and when headlines meant to instill fear are the ones that catch people’s attention first, it makes the truth that much harder to reach for the group of people. Not only in the case of vaccines, but for any sort of news, shock can override critical thinking, subsequently letting the first thing people see be the truth that they believe in.
Facebook Takes a Stance
In the face of today’s anti-vaccination movement, one surprising advocate, Facebook, has taken a surprisingly active part in combating the root of a lot of the paranoia: misinformation. It comes at a crucial time too, as according to News Medical, The World Health Organization states that “vaccine misinformation is a major threat to global health (top 10 major threats to public health in 2019) that could reverse decades of progress made in tackling preventable diseases”. Facebook’s approach to the situation is to provide a level of quality control on their social media platform, “one of the largest platforms in today’s world”. Facebook makes sure that when anyone searches for vaccine safety, they are directed to pages of credible/reliable sources, such as The World Health Organization or the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, if vaccine hoaxes recognized by the WHO and CDC show up on the platform, the group or page would be excluded from recommendations, their prevalence in News Feed and search would be reduced, and ads with the misinformation would be rejected as well. Implementing this system was a very intentional process conducted after several discussions over several months, and there are hopes for other social media collaborations over time. If every, or even a majority of, social media platforms can participate in this active movement, the effect would be incredible. Today’s world is so heavily reliant and immersed in social media, particularly amongst the impressionable youth, and they are the ones who will make up the main actionable population in the future. Thus, using the platforms that best connect with them in their generation will also have the greatest effect in reaching out.
The Magic Struggle Bus 