By Gaia Santoro Lecchini<\/p>\n
Since 2012, the above image has spread around the Internet. It appears to be a list of side effects for a vaccine that mentions among possible reactions \u201cautism.\u201d It originated in two places. First, it can be traced to an anti-vaccine site called <\/span>Great Mothers Questioning Vaccines<\/span><\/a>, a site that also included an article with the title, \u201c<\/span>Garlic Proven 100 Times More Effective than Antibiotics<\/span><\/a>\u201d \u2013\u2013 a story for another time. Second, it appeared on a Romanian website called <\/span>Bucovina Profunda<\/span><\/a>, a site dedicated to upholding the traditional values of the Romanian Orthodox Church, while also taking PayPal donations.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 2016 the picture surged through anti-vaccination sites. It came to the attention of the fact-checking site Snopes, which determined that it was \u201cFalse.\u201d The highlighted portion is supposed to prove that autism and SIDS are \u201cside effects\u201d of vaccines, specifically the vaccine for \u201c<\/span>Tripedia, Diphtheria and Tetanus Toxoids and Acellular Pertussis Vaccine Adsorbed\u201d (DTaP). Yet, as the Snopes article points out, the anti-vaxxers managed to not include <\/span>\u201ccrucial context.\u201d<\/span><\/a> Underneath the highlighted text, a disclaimer states that these events are \u201creported voluntarily\u201d and do not \u201c<\/span>establish a causal rela<\/span>tionship to components of Tripedia vaccine.\u201d In other words<\/span>, there is no medical or scientific evidence that these \u201cvoluntary\u201d reports are connected to the vaccine. It\u2019s fake news.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The current debate over truth, specifically if there is any in today\u2019s polarized world, is marked by populism \u2013\u2013 the public emphasizing the political voice of \u201cthe people\u201d over that of \u201cthe elites.\u201d Fear of fake news and the control behind it stands as part of the movement\u2019s foundation. This isn\u2019t a new worry \u2013\u2013 concerns about fake news hold deep roots in American democracy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sophia Rosenfeld\u2019s \u201cDemocracy and Truth\u201d, narrates the path of democracy\u2019s attempt at equally representing the ideas of the educated elites and the experienced masses.<\/span> Distrust in elites has been consistent. The \u201ccommon sense\u201d of the crowd has conspired for centuries that there are \u201c<\/span>no legitimate trustworthy sources of disinterested information, only […] lies and biased claims to advance hidden causes.\u201d Experts have fallen prey to this theory, their objectivity questioned. Perhaps this is an indication as to why conspiracy has proven popular among our culture: people can \u201clocate themselves on the side of the savvy.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The story of the anti-vaccination movement is lengthy and has populism written all over it. From the eighteenth century to the present, skepticism toward vaccinations has been as consistent as it is dangerous. Many fronts assaulted vaccination. One of them was religion-based: Clergymen claimed vaccinations not only impeded the work and plans of God but challenged his very omnipotence. Parents were another, their concern based on the process of inoculation. In fact, the Raggedy Ann doll was created by a father who believed the paralyzation and death of his child were due to vaccine administration. It was later recorded that she died from a heart defect. Another, perhaps more influential, front was the backlash to government control, fueled by distrust in its agenda. As vaccinations continued to prove themselves reliable, governments shifted from the promotion of vaccines to the enforcement of mandatory vaccinations. Large parts of the public fought to oppose this, demanding their autonomy from the government<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We continue to see this frustration translated into <\/span>modern-day opposition<\/span><\/a>; parents and government control especially. School vaccination requirements spread throughout the United States and the same call for autonomy rang. A subset of this anger has been shifted towards the pharmaceutical industry. A distrust of \u201cexperts\u201d and what their true \u201cscheme\u201d is, can be seen within the argument that these industries are \u201cprofit-obsessed,\u201d and that vaccinations aren\u2019t as important as they claim. Although counterintuitive, an aid to this claim lies in the fact of vaccine success. People are less worried about the risks of diseases because there are generations living who haven\u2019t experienced them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yet the biggest, and entirely incorrect, modern-day fear that has arisen against vaccines is the idea that they cause autism. Vast amounts of evidence contracts this. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has conducted nine studies since 2003 that prove there are <\/span>no links between vaccines and autism.<\/span><\/a> But there are people who do not believe the evidence. The skepticism defeats it; experts and their studies are simply hiding the truth from the public, all for profit. Thus, Americans are increasingly delaying or foregoing vaccinations for their children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Recent <\/span>reports<\/span><\/a> note that the United States might lose its \u201cMeasle Free\u201d status given to it by the Worl<\/span>d Health Organization in 2000. This achievement was an incredible triumph for public health in the United States. Measles had been \u201ca leading killer of children globally.\u201d Before the vaccine was introduced in the U.S., Americans suffered four million cases a <\/span>year<\/span><\/a>. The <\/span>CDC reports<\/span><\/a> that from January 1st to October 1st, 2019, however,\u00a0 \u201ca total of 1,249 measles cases and 22 measles outbreaks were reported in the United States. [Representing] the most U.S. cases reported in a single year since 1992\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The anti-vaccination movement continues to hold many supporters, not only in the United States but in\u00a0the world. The belief in one\u2019s own knowledge over that of an expert\u2019s is a main contributor to it. These populist notions are intensified by fake news. Stories, like this picture, spread among the worrying public and act like kindling. These numbers that the CDC reports highlight the consequences of this distrust \u2013\u2013 they are a clear indication of cause and effect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Gaia Santoro Lecchini Since 2012, the above image has spread around the Internet. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3889,"featured_media":87,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[28,16],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-vaccines","tag-fake-news","entry","tgrid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3889"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/fys169-f19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}