Aye, there’s the rub. Some vaccine-hesitant people can be reached if someone they know and trust tells them this stuff. But many cannot. In an era in which conspiracy theories run rampant and where many people feel more expert than they are and therefore don’t respect actual experts, it seems impossible. To the anti-vaxxers I know, everyone falls into one of three categories: the enlightened, who recognize that vaccines are dangerous; the corrupt, who are in the pocket of “Big Pharma,” or the duped, who’ve been taken in by “Big Pharma.”
I wish I had an answer.
It’s not much of an answer, at least short-term, but developing education programsin unions and political organizations made a huge difference in the past. Such groups also gave people a sense of purpose and a constructive way forward in collective action. By education, I don’t mean the 3 Rs or similar training, though that may be part of it, but better ways to think through the problems and opportunities we face. Often “conspiracy theorists” are bright and curious, but they have been denied access to education that lets them make sense of their own experience. That is, when you’re told “this is a land of opportunity for all!” and “you live in a democracy!” and you have no way out of a minimum wage job and all the big decisions in your life are dependent on your pay or are made by people with power over you, your head might explode. Conspiracy theories smooth over the gap between rhetoric and reality, though the theories are wrong, do not lead to positive results, and are manipulated by cynics, opportunists, and those who profit from “the system” for their own ends. That conspiracy theories never solve anything or offer a way forward just encourages people to “go deeper” down the rabbit hole instead of providing real analysis and real solutions.