In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio. A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
The health department in South Carolina saw a nearly 170% increase in MMR immunizations at free clinics in January from the year prior and is close to declaring its outbreak over. MMR vaccines jumped 15% in Texas last year before the state declared its outbreak over in August. Utah’s health department also has recorded a bump in immunizations since last summer, a hopeful sign for the country’s most active current outbreak.
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The backslide in childhood immunization rates accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, helping to create the conditions for measles to come raging back. Some people simply skipped vaccinations for their kids because the lockdowns halted routine pediatrician visits. But rates also dropped as anti-vax influencers peddling distrust of science and misinformation linking the MMR to autism swayed more parents to opt out of the shots.
Heather Simpson, 35, used to be one of those influencers. She turned against immunizations after she started “absorbing the wrong things” online, including interviews with Kennedy. Later, she struggled to get doctors to diagnose her daughter’s sleep apnea, solidifying her anti-medical establishment views.
The influencer part happened by accident in 2019 when she decided to post her own takes on vaccines in a Facebook group of like-minded moms. Almost instantly, thousands of followers offered her community, which she said was lacking in her life. They also amplified her posts, including one of her dressed as the measles for Halloween that made national news.
Her opinions started to diverge during the pandemic, however, when she found it tough to rail against what she considered common-sense measures to protect others, such as masking. She started to second-guess the authority of anti-vax leaders on other health issues, too. As she began opening up online in 2021 about her changing perspective, her support system crumbled.
“We lost real life friends,” Simpson said. She suffered from panic attacks, worried that maybe her old community was right on vaccines. Doctors who patiently walked her through concerns — instead of throwing data at her — helped affirm her decision to start catching up on immunizations for her daughter.
Her experience led her to help create Back to the Vax, a small online support group for anti-vaxxers who are slowly unlearning what many of them have been told their whole lives.
