Hi, it's Alex!
Today I want to talk about
how we talk about people who refuse to vaccinate
their kids.
I'm a huge fan of vaccination.
I was vaccinated myself,
and I support the idea of vaccinating kids
in general.
I've been hearing a lot of talk recently about
people who refuse vaccination and the harm
that it can cause.
And I generally agree with this concern.
I generally think that it is problematic
that there are a lot of people out there refusing
vaccination.
But I don't like the negativity with which
people talk about
the people and families who refuse vaccination.
The negativity can get pretty extreme.
I think that it's gotten to the point
that I'd describe a lot of it as hate, outright.
People say things like:
"These people are 'ignorant'"
and I've seen people just speak in outright
hateful ways
about people who refuse vaccination.
I don't know many people who refuse vaccination,
but I do know a few,
and the one thing that is kind of interesting
in the sample of people that I know.
They are actually quite scientifically-minded
people.
And the one common thread that I've noticed
is that
these people all know somebody or have someone
close to them
who has experienced a strong negative reaction
to a vaccine.
These negative reactions are pretty rare,
but they do exist,
and I think in older generations, they were
more common.
So, there are a lot of people out there, floating
around in society,
who may be close to people like that who had
these negative reactions,
and I think that being mindful of that
can help us to be more compassionate,
more understanding of people who refuse vaccination.
Like I know, if I had seen someone close to
me
have a negative reaction to a vaccine,
I might be pretty skeptical about vaccinating
my kids.
There's another thing that I think can help
me to be more empathetic
towards these people.
And that is understanding that there are some
legitimate reasons
for general skepticism towards modern medicine
in general.
I've had some kind of negative experiences
with doctors myself,
and I've also seen people close to me
who had doctors make choices
that I feel firmly were bad choices and harmed
their health.
In many cases, these were unnecessary interventions,
like doctors pushing drugs on these people
that weren't really necessary,
and then that caused debilitating side-effects.
This has happened to at least two people very
close to me.
So, it's something that really bothers me.
And, I think that being aware
that there are some really serious problems
with our medical system,
and that a lot of people out there are likely to have
experienced
these sorts of problems,
and being aware that these people may have
this
genuine skepticism towards modern medicine.
I think being aware of these things can help
us to be more compassionate
when we talk to people who oppose vaccination.
I ultimately think that I'd like to see more
people get vaccinated,
and I think that we're going to have a better
result
convincing people to do so if we approach
those people
as being reasonable, intelligent people,
and if we listen to them, and actually address
their concerns,
rather than if we just attack them and throw
hate at them.
I don't think that's going to be effective
for anything,
and I think it can cause a lot of harm.
So I hope I've challenged this idea
of people who don't vaccinate being like "ignorant"
and sort of "deserving" of like this negativity
directed at them.
I'd love to hear from you,
so if you have anything to add, please share,
and as always, I love when people share my
videos and subscribe!
Thank you!
