How to discuss rationally with anti vaxxers

[HermioneKipper]

I’m having serious trouble staying calm when taking to my mother who during this latest lockdown seems to have become caught up with various conspiracies and anti vaxxer sentiment. She’s decided she won’t be getting the vaccine, that the mainstream media isn’t reporting all the side effects and evidence/videos are removed from websites/YouTube etc before people can read them.

I’m genuinely concerned for her health and am very pro vaccine myself.

We seem to end up in an argument every time we talk and when I ask her to back up her claims or cite trusted sources she is obviously unable to do this. I need help staying calm and to try and discuss it all more rationally, with the hope that she’ll take the vaccine and protect hers and others health.

Her general views:

• Believes covid is “just” the flu
• Thinks she won’t be affected by covid if she gets it despite being in her late 60s and overweight
• Thinks there will be significant health ramifications if she takes the vaccine
• The government/media are complicit in a huge coverup

a) Please don't label people who don't want THIS vaxccne anti-vaxers.

I didn't.

b) I was thinking along these lines. She's dug such a hole for herself she now can't get out. Doesn't this work both ways? It's very hard to admit that there just MIGHT be side-effects down the line, and I find people are reluctant to admit that.

That isn't relevant here. My point was that the OP's DM has been so vocal about the vaccine, it could be she's dug herself in a whole that would be embarrassing to get herself out of. Whether there might be unforseen side effects of the vaccine is a different discussion and not related to my suggestion to the OP.

Just agree with her then she will shut up, do you have to speak to her so often if she annoys you

@Grannycurls

Hermionekipper, you have accepted it outwardly but you haven't accepted it in your mind. Neither has your mother accepted YOUR opinion in her mind.

You still think she's an idiot, and she feels that, which is why she keeps trying to argue with you. Nobody wants to be thought of as an idiot by their own daughter.

You should try accepting her view as "as valid as yours". There are two sides to this matter, and the one opposing yours is not necessarily idiocy.

But not all views are equal or valid or right. Some views are wrong and should be called out as wrong. Some views are dangerous and should be called out as dangerous.

There are mountains of evidence that vaccines are safe and efficient. There is very little to zero that backs up the claims by people who will refuse this vaccine and encourage others to think the same way.

But not all views are equal or valid or right. Some views are wrong and should be called out as wrong. Some views are dangerous and should be called out as dangerous

This!! I'm getting a little fed up of people who are spreading anti-vaxx rhetoric playing the victim and getting fake outraged when the debate turns less than civil.

contagious as a common cold but with the mortality of SARS or MERS.

Very unlikely based on the history of life so far. The more transmissible a resp virus becomes the less deadly it becomes.