The vaccine conspiracy: Knowledge is a powerful thing
Being against vaccination technology must be quite difficult given the large percentage of the population who support and use them. It must be quite difficult for those against vaccinations to be heard in a rational coherent way when such a large number of people are against you.
When I speak to people who are against vaccinations, often I come across the same thought process about anti-vaccination criticism and the same rationalisation for being part of the anti-vaccination movement:
1. Big Pharma keeps people sick by using vaccines to increase profits.
The conspiracy itself is comprised of two parts: 1. Big Pharma paying anti-vaccine critics to stay silent, while simultaneously paying for scientists and doctors to promote vaccines and 2. Big Pharma paying “shills” to discredit those in the anti-vaccine movement who don’t stay silent.
On the surface it seems like an incredibly large job requiring a budget of millions to successfully continue the conspiracy and keep people ill.
In order for the conspiracy to have a grain of truth in it, first we would need to examine what anti-vaxxers define as “ill”. Anti-vaxxers over the years have attributed everything from autism to diabetes to cancer as resulting from being vaccinated. Correlation apparently means complete causation in the case of vaccines, especially when you have an illness that can only be managed not completely cured. Considering the anti-GMO movement has started to promote the idea that GMO’s cause cancer and management only illnesses – apparently everything causes everything.
Secondly, we would need to entertain the idea that the many pharmaceutical companies who manufacture vaccines have the ability to pay off every pro-vaccine scientist, doctor, nurse, media outlet, pharmacist, blogger and member of the public who fight against the anti-vaccination movement. I don’t think the they truly understand how large of a number that is.
Scientists are people and while unfortunately people can be bribed and can abandon their morals for money – the creation of vaccines has not stemmed from one person or one company. It has been a collaborative effort over decades from people such as: Edward Jenner, Louis Pasteur, Emile Roux, Alexandre Yersin, Albert Calmette, Guéérin, K Habel, John Enders, Dr. Jonas Salk, Dr. Albert Sabin, Paul Parkman and Harry Meyer, Jr, among others. This is in no way a comprehensive list. Thanks to medical pioneers, we have been able to create vaccinations for diseases such as: cholera, rabies, tetanus, typhoid fever, bubonic plague, diphtheria, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, pertussis (whooping-cough), yellow fever, typhus, influenza, polio, Japanese encephalitis, anthrax, adenovirus-4 and 7, measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, pneumonia (Streptococcus pneumoniae), meningitis (Neisseria meningitidis), hepatitis B , Haemophilus influenzae type b (HiB), hepatitis A, Lyme disease, human papillomavirus and rotavirus (source).
The inability to separate the technology from the manufacturer is a steeple of a conspiracy movement especially the anti-GMO and anti-vaccine movement. That being said, a profit driven company is not an indication the technology itself is flawed.
Some anti-vaxxers like to state that Big Pharma (the various pharmaceutical companies) have critics of the anti-vaccination movement on their payroll. Apparently we are getting paid between 50c and $2 for every critique of the anti-vaccination movement. Could you imagine that? I could spend an hour a week scheduling tweets criticising the anti-vaccination movement and never have to work again. It would be the easiest job on the planet considering the sheer amount of scientific studies that exist refuting anti-vaxxer assertions.
Another idea to entertain to make the vaccination conspiracy plausible is the idea the “shills” for Big Pharma who “cover up” the vaccination conspiracy, are involved in conspiracy with the full knowledge their children, their families, their neighbours and they themselves will get ill because of vaccinations. If you were getting paid to cover up a plot to keep people sick by using vaccines, when you yourself are vaccinated along with your children and your families – wouldn’t that make you some sort of sociopath? If vaccinations are truly making “shills” sick and they know it – why would a person contribute to their own illnesses? Especially if that illnesses cannot be treated or completely cured or one that could be fatal?
Pharmaceutical companies don’t need to manufacture illness to keep us sick – disease, age, accidents, bacteria, viruses, STDs, disabilities, obesity, eating disorders, poor sanitation, exposure to allergens, animal venom, naturally occurring poisons, infection, poor hygiene, autoimmune diseases – all make us sick and can require hospitalisation. Unless of course you believe that there is no such thing as disease or illness or germs.
The idea that Big Pharma not only controls the large majority of pro-vaccination medical professionals and scientists but that they also control the governments that legislate vaccination schedules, media outlets and the public is an excellent way of not having to entertain the idea that your anti-vaccine view is within the minority.
When you dig deeper into the “vaccine conspiracy” what you really find is that there is no conspiracy. You find a bunch of misinformed people who cannot admit when they’re wrong.
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