Vaccination fears: People Like Us vs. People Like Them
Hi Reader,
If it weren’t behind a paywall, I would tell you to take yourself with haste over to Harper’s to read the incredible essay entitled “Sentimental Medicine: Why we still fear vaccines” by Eula Biss. But since it is, I’m afraid you’ll either need to pony up about $17.00 for yearly access to the archive (which may well be worth it), or just settle for my impressions and thoughts on the article.
First, both the writing and research in this article are simply wonderful. If you’ve ever gone into the archives of old medical journals and read the articles, you will know what I mean. The language is simply delightful, and in some aspects Biss manages to capture that feel, while providing an accurate historical perspective of the anti-vaccination movement, about which I very much enjoy writing myself, as my reader of course already knows. Biss’ piece is a very useful reminder of why writing is often best left to the professionals, but nonetheless I will blunder on with my musings.
The thing that absolutely floored me is that Biss has brilliantly managed to put into words an idea that has been rattling around in my brain for some time, but which I have not been able articulate very well. This is the concept of People Like Us and People Like Them. In the olden days of disease theory, People Like Them were awash in filth. Filth caused disease, and People Like Us were simply not affected, because we were clean and pure. As Biss writes, all one needs to do is replace the word “filth” with “toxins” and viola! You have today’s anti-vax movement. Toxins are sufficiently scary-sounding and simultaneously elusive enough to pack a wallop of emotional fear, marinated in Facebook and seasoned with Google and Twitter.
These days, there are a great many folks in the anti-vax movement who still strongly believe that vaccines are only for People Like Them. The poor, the less fortunate, and the children of drug addicts, in other words. Biss goes on to point out that it is often People Like Them who do not have adequate medical care and who for a variety of reasons may miss some vaccinations. The idea of public health has traditionally been that People Like Us are meant to protect both ourselves and the less fortunate by taking steps to prevent disease in our communities as a whole. At times this approach has taken on a distinct odor of paternalism, and to be fair, I’m not sure that when it comes to healthcare decisions, the Haves ever acted solely for the benefit of the HaveNots. The parents who rushed to enroll their children in the Salk polio trials were most likely motivated by helping their own children, with the health of the community as a secondary concern. Nonetheless, vaccination has always been a community contract of sorts, yet this system is falling apart before our eyes, as the entitled parents of wealthy countries ignore their neighbors’ health and safety in order to worship at the altar of People Like Us.
If you’ve spent any time on anti-vax sites, you know what this altar looks like. It is constructed upon a base of false belief that because of our education and opportunities, we understand more than doctors, nurses, and public health practitioners. Mixed in are impressions that a “natural” lifestyle will combat any disease that comes our way, while ignoring the fact that People Like Us will be the first to run to an idiot doctor when something really goes wrong, because we have the time and money to do so. And sprinkled in is a hefty dose of not caring about others. Not giving a damn about the child in the local school whose mother works 3 jobs and hasn’t yet been able to sneak in immunizations. Not caring about the newborn infant next door who could die from pertussis, even though that child comes from a family of People Like Us.
The key part here is that they do not see that they are also putting their own children at risk. Because, you see, vaccine preventable disease does not care about Us or Them. It does not “care” about anything at all, though like all living things it will seek out a hospitable living environment, like a nice trendy Craftsman in a “transitional neighborhood”, or possibly even a yurt. The infectious disease Craftsman will be found among the Unvaccinated, who provide prime real estate for the homeless microbe. And with more and more People Like Us falling into the Unvaccinated category, we are likely to see that in the very near future, it will be People Like Us who are spreading disease hither and yon, and People Like Them who are justifiably giving us the finger and calling us vermin.
Reader, I strongly recommend that you take the time to read Biss’ thoughtful essay. You can tell that like us, she’s done some time in the online anti-vax trenches, and the piece is far more comprehensive than just the snippet that I wrote about here. It’s an article that strikes at the heart of some of the issues I wrote about in this post, albeit with much more eloquence, and it’s well worth a read.
Wow – this idea of People Like Us and People Like Them strikes a chord in me as well. While I don’t personally know a lot of anti-vax people, those I do sadly fit the People Like Us category when talking about vaccinations.
I host my own blog (http://katfrog.wegrok.net), and I would like to repost your article there. Will you consider the idea?
Thank you.
Kathryn Patterson
Hi Katfrog,
Absolutely, I am happy for you to re-post it. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
This is something I’ve really been struggling with lately. How can people I know are educated and intelligent buy into this movement. I think what you’ve expressed here is quite right. Thanks for this post. Seriously considering subscribing to Harpers to read Biss’ piece.
A very good question, Laura. If you emailed Biss, maybe she would send you a copy as a courtesy? I wish I could email it to you but I don’t want to run afoul of copyright.
The other vaccine related articles in the archives seem equally compelling. I think I’ll pony up.
Laura:
You could also check to see if your local library carries periodicals.
Unfortunately, I’m in Spain, so I doubt they have Harpers. I think having access to the rest of the archives might be nice, as well.
I love how ignorant “people like us”, claim that outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases such as measles, are caused by “people like them”.
Here we have a traveler’s advisory for United States residents who travel to Europe, based on outbreaks of measles, where the “index cases” are the children of people “like us” who traveled to Europe on vacation. These children were deliberately not vaccinated against measles.
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/HAN/han00323.asp
Exactly, lilady. A large number of anti-vaxxers like to talk about the People Like Them in African countries and India as if infectious disease only lurks there. But as an example, I’ve been to Africa, and yet I was never more happy to be vaccinated than I was last summer in Ireland and England, where I ran into more unvaccinated “People Like Us” than I wanted to consider with much depth.
See the “WHO Immunization Profile” for “us” in the United States:
http://apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/en/globalsummary/countryprofileresult.cfm
Now view the “WHO Immunization Profile” for “them” in Mexico, by selecting “Mexico” at the link provided on the top right “Back to country selection form”.
All of “us” are getting infected by all of “them” who migrate here and are unvaccinated//sarcasm.
Indeed. Vaccination policies in Mexico are a bit more strict than those in the US, that’s for damned sure.
What kind of magazine is Harper’s? What kind of issues to they discuss? I’d like to subscribe just for that article, but wonder if I’d like any of the other stuff…
this is an excelllent article.i borrowed the magazine from the library,so that’s one more way to access it.
I read the article in the library also. I noticed that she rethought her doctor’s advice that her baby did not need the HepB vaccine because of where she lives, plus she had a blood transfusion.
Maybe stories like this will have some influence on anti vaccinators.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21243345
i doubt it, Belinda.
They’ll just scoff and say, “Well they couldn’t have been THAT healthy, now could they?” or “They should have taken their probiotics and practiced better hygiene, then they wouldn’t have gotten them.”
LOL! So true Darwy. In anti-vaxxer land, probiotics and colloidal silver cure and prevent just about anything. *rolls eyes*
Can you fix the “recent comment” widget? It is very difficult to follow discussions, especially since none of them have a date and/or time associated with them.
Hi Chris,
I don’t know how I can fix it exactly…I have tried to get date and time stamps and have been unsuccessful so far…will look into it again!
WOW… great article SD! I will definitely have to pony up and pay the subscription fee too. Methinks it will be a good investment.
Thanks for the excellent recap in the meantime.