March 21, 2019
The anti-vaccination movement does not solely revolve around the myth that vaccines cause autism.
Rather, the beliefs of anti-vaxxers are shaped by a variety of factors, according to a new study. Understanding those factors could help guide the conversations that pediatricians have with parents who hesitate to vaccinate their children.
The study, published Thursday in the medical journal "Vaccine," traces anti-vaccination arguments to four major themes that help the movement appeal to diverse audiences.
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh identified those themes as:
• Trust: Some anti-vaxxers view the scientific community with suspicion or have concerns regarding personal liberty.
• Alternatives: Some tout the use of homeopathic remedies in place of vaccination, opposing the use of chemicals used in vaccines.
• Safety: Others focus on the perceived risks of vaccines and express concerns over the morality of vaccines.
• Conspiracy: Some claim the government and others hide information that anti-vaxxers believe to be true, like the myth that the polio virus does not exist.
Because anti-vaxxers arrive at their viewpoints for different reasons, public health officials and medical providers should avoid taking a "blanket approach" when encouraging vaccination, said Beth Hoffman, a researcher at Pitt's Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health.
"For example, telling someone in the 'trust' subgroup that vaccines don't cause autism may alienate them because that isn't their concern to begin with," Hoffman said in a statement. "Instead, it may be more effective to find common ground and deliver tailored messages related to trust and the perception mandatory vaccination threatens their ability to make decisions for their child."
Hoffman and her fellow researchers analyzed the responses to a viral Facebook campaign produced by Kids Plus Pediatrics. In 2017, the Pittsburgh-based pediatric practice posted a video in which its practitioners encouraged HPV vaccination to prevent cancer.
One month later, the video caught the attention of multiple anti-vaccination groups. Their members fueled an eight-day commenting surge that resulted in thousands of anti-vaccination comments.
A random sample of 197 commenters revealed people in 36 states and eight countries. Most of them were mothers. They held divergent political opinions.
Simply dismissing anti-vaxxers surrenders an opportunity to understand them and potentially find common ground, said Dr. Brian Primack, the director of the Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health.
"That's what our research is about," Primack said in a statement. "We want to understand vaccine-hesitant parents in order to give clinicians the opportunity to optimally and respectfully communicate with them about the importance of immunization."
The study's publication followed a CNN story highlighting the online harassment tactics used by some anti-vaxxers – a perceived attempt to silence the people who make the strongest arguments in favor of vaccines.
Several mothers whose young children died of preventable diseases told CNN that anti-vaxxers posted hateful – and sometimes threatening – comments to their social media postings about their child losses. The mothers, some of whom advocate for vaccination, reported being called whores, baby killers and other derogatory names.
The mothers included Catherine Hughes, an Australian woman who lost her 1-month-old son, Riley, to whooping cough – a preventable disease. Infants rely on herd immunity before they are old enough to be vaccinated.
"Riley's death was a very inconvenient truth for anti-vaccine activists," Hughes told CNN. "The nasty messages started 24 hours after he died. They called us baby killers and said we would have the blood of other babies on our hands. We've been told to kill ourselves."
Larry Cook, the founder of Stop Mandatory Vaccination, did not deny such attacks, but said those remarks comprise a "minor" amount of the comments from its members.
He rebuked the violent behavior, but said people who advocate for "compulsory vaccination" should expect some resistance online from vaccine opponents.
Multiple studies have shown that vaccines do not cause autism, including a decade-long study published earlier this month. Additionally, the American Academy of Pediatrics has deemed vaccines safe and effective.
