Big Pharma Conspiracy and Kooks, Oh My!

       The anti-vaccination lobby are convinced of big-pharma conspiracies; the wicked witch of FDA is corrupt, etc, etc. That is their single line of defense along with the isolated study that confirms their belief that vaccines harm. Anti-vaxxer kooks refuse to acknowledge hundreds of studies across developed nations showing that vaccinations do not cause harm and that vaccines do not, or ever have caused autism.

       In kook-land, the lack of critical thinking is astonishing. Which is more probably? Doctors, pharmaceutical companies, governments from all over the world are in cahoots with each other to harm children in the name of profit, or that as nations, and as human beings, we really just simply want to stop the spread of disease and ultimately eliminate it?

       Let’s stop for a moment to think about what if there really was a conspiracy between all the doctors, nurses, clinicians, every single person that worked for a pharmaceutical company, every government agency, educator and anyone else involved in healthcare from ALL OVER THE WORLD were all in cahoots to make a PROFIT by deliberately harming children? That is a heck of a lot of people all working together and keeping a secret of monumental proportion.

       Now lets think about if the conspiracy was true.

       If the conspiracy theories were actually true, who exactly would it benefit and to what end? If the big-pharma conspiracy was true, wouldn’t someone, somewhere down the line unveil the truth BACKED UP BY EVIDENCE in the form of DOCUMENTATION?

       In actual fact, if the drug companies, governments, et al really wanted to profit from all of this, then wouldn’t it behoove them to allow children to get sick from so-called “harmless” diseases so they could treat their disabilities from illnesses by discouraging vaccinations?

       Anti-vaxxers are not skeptics, they are deniers. They filter out any evidence presented to them that conflicts with their belief that vaccines harm. The process of filtering is refered to as confirmation bias in psychology. Deniers employ the fallacy of confirmation bias repeatedly with their beliefs being constantly reinforced by only surrounding themselves with people that think exactly the same way as they do.

       As proponents of evidence-based medicine, medical researchers examine just that; evidence. IF there was a shred of evidence (and there isn’t), they would examine it and possibly change their minds based on new evidence.

       No evidence exists that suggests vaccines cause autism or other harm that outweighs the benefit of vaccinating. As a matter of fact, subsequent studies confirm over and over again that vaccines are safe and that the very small element of risk does not compare to the overwhelming benefit of vaccinating large proportions of the population.

       A little less emotion and a little bit of critical thinking analysis by pulling back the curtain of reason would reveal the ridiculousness of belief in elaborate conspiracies. Only then can the anti-vaccine kooks draw the conclusion that vaccinations do not harm and that the profit motive behind harming children is utter nonsense.

       Bertrand Russell said that, “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and that the intelligent are full of doubt.” Unfortunately, the anti-vaxers will stick close together and continue to march along the yellow brick road to utter stupidity.