Anti-vaxxers, I've heard of them.
But a lot of what I knew was limited
to the loud protests, the signs, the shouting ...
Until fairly recently, the anti-vax movement
was side lined maybe treated as a bit of a novelty.
Then, in 2019, people refusing vaccines
contributed to the worst measles outbreak
in a generation.
Now, with coronavirus, things have gotten
more serious.
Anti-vaxxers aren't on the fringe anymore.
In the past two months, they've been a vocal
presence at protests across the US.
And in May, polling found that one in four
Americans
may refuse a coronavirus vaccine.
I want to find out what anti-vaxxers believe,
or more importantly,
what they don't believe.
Why are they so resistant to the overwhelming
scientific evidence that vaccines are safe?
I will absolutely refuse to take
a coronavirus vaccine.
Alana Newman is the organiser
of the health freedom summit,
an online event that brought together
dozens of vaccines sceptics and activists
in April.
They are going to be dropping actual
uncentered facts on how you beat the virus,
including all future mutations.
Like other anti-vaxxers, Newman
just doesn't believe the scientists
and health organisations who say 
vaccines are safe.
Are you concerned about a potential
coronavirus vaccine?
People are free to do what they want
but I will fight for my right to not be injected
with something I don't trust at all.
Who do you trust around this?
I trust ... that's a good question.
I trust myself, I'm learning to be self-reliant
and I ask as many people as I possibly can
what their opinion is and then I assemble
what sounds reasonable to myself.
We are making people fearful of these
diseases like coronavirus, like measles
and then that's when you get people
to buy your drugs.
So you set up a problem and then
you get to sell people the solution.
Some of people Newman does trust,
those who spoke at her freedom summit,
have been widely discredited
and their theories disproven.
Andrew Wakefield gain notoriety,
after claiming vaccines cause autism.
But that was disproven.
'Andrew Wakefield, the man this people see
as a hero, was guilty of serious ethical breaches,
dishonesty and in one instance,
a callous disregard
for the distress and pain caused
to children in his care.'
Another speaker was Judy Mikovits.
Mikovits was already known
in anti-vaxxers circles.
'The pharmaceutical companies are given
a free ride on injecting toxins in your children
without a single safety study.'
But she sprung to further prominence
in May when she appeared in Plandemic,
an online conspiracy theory video
that got eight million views
before YouTube took it down.
According to Mikovits, the creation
of the virus is part of a global conspiracy.
'And do you have any ideas of where
this occurred?'
'Oh, yeah, I am sure it occurred between
the North Carolina laboratories, Fort Detrick,
US army Research Institute
of Infectious Disease
and the Wuhan Laboratory.
But let's take a look at some of
Mikovits' other claims:
the flu vaccine increases the person's
odds of getting the coronavirus,
coronavirus is activated by facemasks,
a mandatory vaccine will kill
millions.
There is not scientific evidence
for any of these.
Mikovits also believes hydroxychloroquine
is effective against the virus.
There's no evidence for this.
But she's not the only one who believes it.
A couple of weeks ago,
I started to taking it,
because I think it's good,
I've heard a lot of good stories.
So why are so many people drawn
to conspiratorial thinking?
Joseph Pierre is a professor of
psychiatry who's written extensively
about the topic.
First of all, they are just very entertaining.
Many Hollywood movies, or TV shows
are based on conspiracy theories.
'They control the disease by
controlling the information.'
'You can't protect the public
by lying to them.'
People who are attracted
to conspiracy theories
often feel like they've stumbled
upon some secret reality
that the rest of us, sheep or sheeple,
as conspiracy theorists like to refer to us as,
don't know about.
So there's a certain sense of feeling special.
I think the other big emotional need
is physiological needs for closure,
certainty and control.
This idea that things happen
for some higher cause or ultimate purpose.
Whether we are talking about the assassination
of JFK or 09/11 ...
Now with Covid19, we are still learning
on a day to day basis
what that disease is, how it manifests,
how to best treat it ...
And to a certain extent, conspiracy theories
offer a frame more
to explain why these events are happening.
Social media plays a huge part too.
Facebook groups and pages
serve to reinforce scepticism about vaccines.
But this isn't necessarily an organic uprising.
Anti-vaccine groups including one led
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr,
nephew of JFK,
have been paying for anti-vaccine Facebook ads
often branding them with the ideas
of patriotism and individual freedom.
Doctor Saad Omer, an epidemiologist
at Yale University said these ideas
often go hand in hand with anti-vax theories
which he stressed that are not routed in science.
They are incredibly safe, so there's no absolute
safety in anything in life.
These are some of the most benign things ...
things can have side effects,
but the risk/benefit ratio is not even
close for the vaccines that are routinely
recommended.
It's absolutely reasonable for people
to ask and have questions
and come to their physicians about things
that they think that are worrying them.
But also the part of personal responsibility
is not to go into these outlandish theories.
Not only these people are taking the decision
on their own behalf,
they are taking a decision
on everyone else's behalf as well.
I'm going to fight for my right
to not have to be forced
to take that for my children's rights
not be forced to take that.
There's 10,000 infectious diseases out there,
are we going to take a vaccine
for every single one of them?
I don't know, but I know if there's a vaccine
for a preventable illness,
sure it will make sense to, you know,
you must agree,
sure it will make sense to take
that and prevent people from getting sick.
You can do a lot to create health
in your body so that you can
be strong against any virus
that comes your way.
Conspiracy thinking in America
is no longer on the fringes.
And while there is really any harm
in someone thinking
Neil Armstrong didn't land on the moon,
or that the Earth is flat,
this is different.
Fueled by social media
and big donors,
and aided by a suspicion of experts
and notions of individual liberty,
the anti-vax movement seems set
to grow and with his own weariness
of mainstream science
and a disregard for facts,
Donald Trump has contributed
to a climate where these ideas can flourish.
That something that can be very dangerous
for America and the rest of the world.
