My DH has become an anti-vaccer

[Wilma546]

Please help - does anyone have any good YouTube links or articles I can show him?

He was a reasonable person before lockdown, and now he's got so much time on his hands he's been researching all this shit and decided he is now "against" vaccinations.

I've tried to speak to him about it, but he won't listen to me.

Maybe you should be more open minded and listen to what he has to say.

Whatever he has to say will be based on fanciful scaremongering and not proper scientific evidence. The scientific evidence proves that vaccinations are overwhelmingly safer than not vaccinating.

Show him some images/videos of polio victims in iron lungs in the 1950s and find a few smallpox scarred faces. Ask him whether he wants that kind of risk in his child's life.

If that doesn't work, ignore him. I'd be inclined to warn him that if/when a Covid19 vaccine is offered and he refuses it, you won't nurse him through his illness if he catches the virus as it will be self-inflicted. Even though you probably would...

Mine also - I knew he would gravitate towards this kind of thing as he got older. It is tied up with his views on personal freedom and being told what to do by anyone.

I just ignore it and get the kids vaccinated. It's up to him what he does and thinks. I'm just a little sad because it makes me think less of him in a tiny way. But I'm sure that goes both ways.

@doublehalo

Maybe you should be more open minded and listen to what he has to say.

What could anyone possibly say that has any scientific validity?

Op, can I ask what your husband does for a living?
This is very relevant. Is he a scientist? an immunologist? An infectious diseases specialist or doctor? Does he come across vaccine research in his daily work? How many years of study and research has he undertaken to support his theories?

I'd love to know where he gets his facts from to support his theories.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-us-canada-45294192

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137759/

allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/04/anti-vaxxers-and-russia-behind-viral-5g-covid-conspiracy-theory/

Sorry for the separate posts - cut and paste between browsers is a very annoying beast

(that was all to @doublehalo)

anti vaxxers give me the absolute rage! they are ill informed at best, there's a ton of great info on why vaccines are so important urg. the greatest line is always 'you don't even see cases of XXX anymore' erm yeah that's because people have been vaccinated for it so it doesn't spread like it used to.
(sorry they also give me the rants as well)

One problem with the anti vax argument is that all vaccines get lumped together and criticised.

Get him to look into the polio epidemics and see if he can speak to some elderly friends or relatives about them.

If he can see the damage that serious diseases caused he may see the value of some vaccines.

A bit of balance can be helpful and I know from my experience with talking to friends is that it is helpful to separate the serious diseases diseases like polio from less serious like the flu.

Another idea is to research his family tree history and the cause of deaths of children.

The WHO in recent conferences discussed vaccine scepticism and agreed that there are valid reasons why people have concerns over vaccinations and that the pharmaceutical industry needs to address these valid concerns.

The WHO include anti-vaxx attitudes as one of the top ten threats to global health, they are vocal about dispelling myths around vaccine safety, and they endorse vaccination programmes as a key factor in improving global health.

www.who.int/health-topics/vaccines-and-immunization#tab=tab_1

I know someone who "researches". Comes out with all sorts of shit. Also has a lot of time on his hands. Very difficult to argue with, though.

Get him to look into the polio epidemics and see if he can speak to some elderly friends or relatives about them.

My parents clearly remembered the polio outbreaks and how whole towns would go into lockdown for the summer. Smallpox was even worse. It killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century. Whole families were wiped out.

Smallpox: Eradicating the Scourge

Whether they want to admit it or not, going back to those days is what antivaxers are advocating for.

Here is my fundamental truth on anti-vaxxers, flat-earthers, holocaust deniers and assorted conspiracy theorists: you cannot use logic to change the views of someone who has not used logic in the process of acquiring them.

The only thing you can do is listen to them open-mindedly ONCE, consider their views, say "I understand and accept that this is your opinion which you are entitled to hold, " and proceed as normal. You aren't obliged to sit politely through endless reiteration of their views. It is polite and clear to say, "I have listened carefully to your opinion on this already, so unless you have something new to add, I'm going to go into another room/time zone/parallel universe and examine my earwax/watch a YouTube clip of paint drying/chat to my crash hot divorce lawyer."

Interesting that the OP hasn't been back.
I asked whether he had become an anti-vaxxer against all vaccinations or whether he was concerned about a possible Corona vaccine.
Funny that - you'd think the OP would engage with the thread she started. I thought she was genuinely asking for opinions - doesn't seem that way.
I have concerns about a Corona vaccine but I am in no way an anti-vaxxer, conspiracy theorist, flat earther or anything else of that nature.
I'd have been interested to know which category the DH (if he exists) falls into.

walkingchuckydoll
You are talking shit as Jehovahs witnesses vaccinate.