I wrote this as a post on Facebook, just a few minutes ago. At first, I was going to post it as just a comment on a friend's Facebook post, but I'm starting to feel guilty about always burdening my friends with my unsolicited lengthy replies.
I am also posting it here because I think it contains some thoughts that I would like more people to see.
One of my main motivations, this recent post by Chris Mooney. We really need to refocus how we address denialists.
...if you just call the public dumb, and try to set them straight about the facts, and don’t understand where the resistance actually comes from….well, then, the truth is that you’re not being so perceptive yourself.
The point is, we have a lot of problems at the interface between science and society. But none of them are simple, and when people disagree with scientists, there’s often a lot more going on than mere scientific illiteracy.
In fact, in many cases, scientists’ opponents are deeply ideological and deeply dedicated — and, yes, smart. That’s the real science-society problem, and it’s one that we’re still only beginning to grapple with.
Knowing what others have posted on this topic here, I am also sure that what I am posting here will bring with it some heated responses. I only request that they remain in the confines of a discussion.
Here then, below the jump, is my unedited post from Facebook.
As a parent, I understand most of the feelings that go into refusing to vaccinate your child, even though as a scientist, I also understand how irrational and reckless this is, in light of the best available scientific evidence. But that is part of being human. I can teach people about how airplanes work, about Bernoulli's principle, about how statistically it is far more likely to die in a car crash than in a plane crash, but at the end of the day, some people are just too afraid to fly, and no amount of facts will change that.
If a parent tells me their reasons for not vaccinating -- they are afraid it causes autism, they are afraid of the side effects, they are afraid of the trauma the pain from the needle would cause, they think vaccines are a government conspiracy to turn us all into gay abortions -- and even if I disagree, who am I to judge? At the end of the day, they are choosing to do what they think is in the best interests of their child, and that is certainly their right as a parent, no matter how flawed the reasoning may be. I have started to believe that being a parent is the hardest thing in the world, and it is made all the harder by the fact that in this hyper-connected world, there is no parenting choice so minor that it doesn't cause criticism and ridicule from some corner. So even with parents who choose not to vaccinate, I share some sentiments.
But what is also true, is that we are all members of a socially constructed society, where all our livelihoods depend on each other whether we like it or not. And one of the most sacred values that exist in a social environment is that we must at all times have the utmost confidence that interacting with each other will not lead to a violation of our safety, our security, our health. And while there should be room for individual rights and action, it should not come at the expense of compromising other people's safety, and perhaps even your own. To allow otherwise would be a failure in our society which exists to safeguard all its members, and by extension, a failure in ourselves, who determine how well that society functions. And if these parents are knowingly making choices that undermine our ability to interact with them, or with their kids, or even with each other, without having a reasonable expectation of safety and security from preventable harm, then like any other person who acts in such a self-serving way, we as a society have a right to deter that behavior, either through regulation, punishment, or otherwise.
I do not think this is an issue of educating people or knowing all the facts. And I do not know how we as a society should address this specific dilemma. But I do think one of the first things that more people should recognize, especially before taking one side one way or the other, is that this is not about whether or not these are good or bad parenting decisions, where much of the arguments seem to lie. The real issue is the overall harm the decisions of these individual families cause to our social environment, our society. One need only look at how our perceptions of a cherished theme park (well not cherished by me I hate Disney), our doctors offices and schools and local communities, have all been affected to see this damage. So while I am sure there are still a vast number of holdouts who will not listen to whatever facts we throw at them about vaccinating their kids, at the very least, they should be made to recognize this basic duty they have been given that they are ignoring.