Thoughts on how to approach an anti-vax sibling

[Psai]

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More than anything, I'd say to make sure she knows it's her choice and don't let her feel like she's being a bad mother either way. People don't like be told they're wrong. Ask her why she's against it and listen to her, I mean REALLY listen, and let her know that you understand her concerns (even if they are completely ridiculous and wrong). When people believe you understand their position or what they're going through, they're more likely to take what you have to say seriously and not just as a lecture. Especially if she thinks you're an advocate to her who is really trying to help her do what's right for her kids and not just shove some treatment in her face.

I've found the best way to deal with people like that is to concede that they could be right (even when you know they're 100% wrong) and then weigh the pros and cons with them. It's all about tweaking their perspective just enough for them to doubt their beliefs into wanting to learn more for themselves. Then you just have to make sure they look at legitimate info and not vaxxinations-are-the-antichrist.com

I remember when I used to be like this

"Oh you're thinking about quitting smoking? That's great! Here's all the options available for you to stop smoking, blah blah blah"

 

[Stagg737]

I remember when I used to be like this

"Oh you're thinking about quitting smoking? That's great! Here's all the options available for you to stop smoking, blah blah blah"

Trust me, I don't have the patience to deal with every anti-vax person this way. If I end up in a private practice for peds or something like that I just won't see anti-vax people. I do think that is the best way to get an anti-vaxxer to understand why they're wrong though. Especially since their whole argument is usually rooted in emotions rather than logic. Smoking is a little different, I think the majority of smokers realize it's completely unhealthy for you. They either don't have the will or they don't care enough to quit.

 

[xffan624]

Pardon my input here as an ignorant premed but I have a question people seem to ignore regarding vaccines; everyone is so concerned with those who choose not to get vaccinated because they put their children at risk. With the concept of herd immunity, shouldn't everyone's children who DO get vaccinated be safe if the vaccinations are completely effective? Why don't we just let the anti-vaxers run their course and get weeded out with these diseases? Or is there something that I'm not getting here. (I get the part about children with compromised immune systems or who can not otherwise be vaccinated, but they themselves are also a very small percent of the population)

The problem is there have been enough non-vaccinated in the last couple years that herd immunity is no longer working. It only works if a certain percentage of the population is vaccinated. With measles, that number is pretty high as it is easily transmitted. The vaccine, in general, will protect you, but it's not a magic cure. It gives your immune system a massive head start in fighting and most likely defeating the virus, but like any vaccine, there will be those that either didn't respond well to the vaccine or their immune system doesn't respond well when challenged with the virus. It happens. En mass, vaccines protect populations because the herd concept does not allow the virus to be maintained in a population as there aren't enough people to get infected. As stated before, we have started to drop below the numbers necessary for herd immunity. In parts of Europe, this already happened years ago and measles became endemic (ie sustained person-to-person transmission) instead of epidemics that spawned from foreigners bringing in the virus.

That's why we care about the non-vaxxers. Herd only works when you have the numbers. We don't have the numbers because enough idiots have jumped on the bandwagon.