#fearofvaccine

[bunlai]

The world is free of smallpox, and we have nearly wiped out seventeen other microbial scourges like polio, too, because of vaccines. Yet, many of us refuse to be vaccinated. And, it’s understandable why because the scientific community has a history of doing awful shit. But that’s not a flaw in science. It’s people corrupted by power, money, and flawed ideology who’ve used science in a destructive way.

But, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Science has not only been destructive; it’s been constructive, too, in ways that have positively impacted all of our lives. It’s because of vaccines, germ theory, and antibiotics that we live twice as long as we did a century ago.

From inequities to Climate Change to poverty, there's a lot of bad stuff in the world that we need to stand up and fight against. Vaccines aren’t one of them. If you haven't been vaccinated and you haven't gotten sick it's because you've been lucky and others around you have protected you by being vaccinated. You don't get vaccinated just to protect yourself. It's about about stepping up and doing it for the greater good.

So, let’s not become incubators of the next COVID variant or a vector that passes it along. Let's not turn back the clock to a time when we lived in fear of polio, the measles, whooping cough, smallpox, bubonic plague, and a plethora of other terrifying infectious diseases that can be easily avoided by getting vaccinated.

I know this has become a divisive topic but it’s the conversations that we want to avoid that are the ones we that we likely most need to have.

#mistrustofscience #fearofscience #abuseofscience #fearofvaccines #antivaccination