Anti-Vaxxers Sound Insane To The Rest Of Us

A new video from Girl Pants Productions perfectly illustrates how anti-vaxxers sound to normal people: crazy, nonsensical, and (sorry) kind of stupid. Anti-vaxxers have become popular objects of ridicule recently, and deservedly so; Their refusal to vaccinate their children puts others at risk and has caused a major measles outbreak, ongoing since December. To recap: At the end of December of last year, a measles outbreak, traceable to Disneyland, began in California. The CDC reports that as of April 3, that outbreak has affected 147 people in seven states, most of whom were unvaccinated (and those numbers aren’t counting people who’ve gotten measles from other sources this year). Studies have shown that anti-vaxxers don’t respond to facts (in fact, they are more likely to believe random online comments over the recommendations of reputable scientific organizations and government agencies), so many pro-vaccination people and organizations have taken a different tactic: public shaming. Videos like this one from Girl Pants productions, like these from College Humor, Conan O’Brien, and Jimmy Kimmel, use humor to draw out the utter ridiculousness, as well as the selfishness, of the anti-vaxxer stance.

Girl Pants Production’s approach is to leave out the facts and figures about vaccination safety and instead skewer the logic (and by that, I mean “the complete lack of logic”) of anti-vaccination rhetoric. The video shows, for example, a woman, burnt to a crisp, refusing sunblock because “that’s poison for your skin.”

And man arguing that he gave up microwaves because his son “became” gay after using one.

And a woman who refuses to use windshield wipers because she read a bunch of posts online about how bad they are.

Stripped of its pseudo-medical language, the logic of anti-vaxxers seems even more ludicrous than usual. The video will make those of us who support vaccination laugh, and then cry over the fact that these people, with their paranoia about unspecified “toxins” and their faith in anonymous internet comments, get to make medical decisions that can deeply affect us and our families.

Images: YouTube (4)