Anti-Vaccination Attitudes

Japan is supposedly a well-educated society with strong traditions in science.
Yet many Japanese resist vaccination.

"Experts are warning that a history of vaccine controversy in Japan
may complicate the roll-out of the jab, AFP reports.

Japan is currently battling a severe third wave of infections, but
Japan is yet to approve a single jab. Vaccinations are not scheduled
to start before late February, at the earliest.

Prime minister Yoshihide Suga this week said he would be among
the first to be vaccinated to boost confidence.

But AFP reports that only 60% of Japanese respondents to an
Ipsos-World Economic Forum survey said they wanted the vaccine.
That compares to 80% in China, 77% in the UK, and 75% in South Korea.

Another poll, by Japanese broadcaster NHK, showed just half of
respondents want the vaccine, with 36 percent opposed.

“The reason why Japanese are hesitant, I think, is because there is a
lack of trust in government information,” Harumi Gomi, professor at
the Center for Infectious Diseases at the International University of
Health and Welfare, told AFP.

Mistrust in Japan dates back decades, with experts pointing to a vicious
cycle of lawsuits over alleged adverse events, media misinformation
and government overreaction."

25% of Dutch people don't want the vaccination.

One has to despair, I think.

A former pharmacist in Grafton,WI USA sabotaged 57 vials of vaccine due to fear of the vaccine altering DNA

@ketchuplover said
A former pharmacist in Grafton,WI USA sabotaged 57 vials of vaccine due to fear of the vaccine altering DNA

How on earth can someone so ignorant hold a pharmacist certification?

There are more attitudes in play than just the traditional anti-vaxer mindset. It’s a spectrum of suspicion and/or nervousness ranging across a variety of drivers, e.g. suspicion of rigour and length of testing. Suspicion of big pharma, the money etc.

I know people well who are vehemently anti-vaccination, some are anti-pharmaceutical, one in particular won’t take any medication other than natural remedies, not even off the shelf pain relief. There is a range of fear incorporating deep conspiracy to general caution.

Edit: I’m a way down the priority list for the vaccination, but unless there are some obvious health issues arising with it this year, then I will be happy to have the vaccine. I do admit to being a little cynical about the speed of development and testing but not that that alone would stop me having it.

@kewpie said
How on earth can someone so ignorant hold a pharmacist certification?

Lol that is very scary isn’t it. But then these are the same pharmacies that have presided over and profited from the opioid crises in America.
Perhaps he’s forgotten the golden rule of ‘if your pushing you can’t be using’.

@divegeester said
There are more attitudes in play than just the traditional anti-vaxer mindset. It’s a spectrum of suspicion and/or nervousness ranging across a variety of drivers, e.g. suspicion of rigour and length of testing. Suspicion of big pharma, the money etc.

I know people well who are vehemently anti-vaccination, some are anti-pharmaceutical, one in particular won’t take any ...[text shortened]... cynical about the speed of development and testing but not that that alone would stop me having it.

Yes, I've come across some of these attitudes. I know a lady who is still adamant the MMR vaccine caused her (now deceased sadly) oldest son his autism. Also a worry about being injected with egg instead of ingesting it (some vaccines are grown in egg). It seams to me to be a village issue, usually people with a bit of education who tend to talk to the same people and feel a bit outside of the wider country within their smaller community.

So many things people worry about.
And then they eat packets of things when they have no idea the origins of the contents or take risks with drugs it amazes me, the inconsistency of it all. I point it out but I just get, "yea, I know".

I have had lots of vaccinations over my many years and taken all my children to get theirs. I'll be getting my Covid19 one too.

@yo-its-me said
Yes, I've come across some of these attitudes. I know a lady who is still adamant the MMR vaccine caused her (now deceased sadly) oldest son his autism. Also a worry about being injected with egg instead of ingesting it (some vaccines are grown in egg). It seams to me to be a village issue, usually people with a bit of education who tend to talk to the same people and feel ...[text shortened]... ions over my many years and taken all my children to get theirs. I'll be getting my Covid19 one too.

That probably explains why I was asked if I was allergic to egg or chicken products when I got my last flu jag.
Yes the inconsistency regarding what we worry about snd what we don’t is, well, worrying. 🤔

The CDC has identified 21 Americans that suffered life threatening reactions

do you focking blame people?? jeeeeezus. 😠

@earl-of-trumps said
The CDC has identified 21 Americans that suffered life threatening reactions

do you focking blame people?? jeeeeezus. 😠

They have also identified millions of people who have suffered life ending reactions from not taking a vaccine. Crunch the numbers.

@kevcvs57 said
They have also identified millions of people who have suffered life ending reactions from not taking a vaccine. Crunch the numbers.

They have not had two million people die of COVID19 worldwide

Crunching: The US has just BEGUN to issue vax. Wait a while.

@earl-of-trumps said
They have not had two million people die of COVID19 worldwide

Crunching: The US has just BEGUN to issue vax. Wait a while.

Well earl life ending ‘trumps’ life threatening if you’ll excuse the pun.

@yo-its-me said
Also a worry about being injected with egg instead of ingesting it (some vaccines are grown in egg). It seams to me to be a village issue, usually people with a bit of education who tend to talk to the same people and feel a bit outside of the wider country within their smaller community.

When I was a child, doctors believed, on scant and (as it turned out) erroneous evidence, that I was allergic to egg white. Thus my parents were advised not to have me vaccinated against measles. So when I was six, I had measles instead and was horribly ill for three weeks.

My sister's mother-in-law is opposed to conventional medicine in general and swears by herbal remedies and yoga. So she didn't have her kids vaccinated against measles, and thus my brother-in-law contracted measles when he was in his early twenties and was very ill with it.

I was thus rather dismayed when my sister and brother-in-law spent weeks agonising over whether to have my niece vaccinated. Fortunately, they eventually made the right choice and my niece had the jabs.

Not exactly a village issue in our case...

@duchess64 said
But AFP reports that only 60% of Japanese respondents to an
Ipsos-World Economic Forum survey said they wanted the vaccine.
That compares to 80% in China, 77% in the UK, and 75% in South Korea.

Another poll, by Japanese broadcaster NHK, showed just half of
respondents want the vaccine, with 36 percent opposed.

I'm saddened by all these stats, including 80% in China and 77% in Britain. I'd expect the anti-vaccine position to be as marginal as the flat-earth one.

@teinosuke said
I'm saddened by all these stats, including 80% in China and 77% in Britain. I'd expect the anti-vaccine position to be as marginal as the flat-earth one.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/6/why-are-so-many-in-france-hesitant-to-take-the-covid-19-vaccine

"Why are so many in France hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine?"

"According to a recent survey by the Odoxa polling group and Le Figaro newspaper,
58 percent of the French population are sceptical of getting the COVID-19 vaccine,
compared with 33 percent of people in the UK and 41 percent in the US."