SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
People's willingness to use a Zika vaccine when it's available will be influenced by how they weigh the risks associated with the disease and the vaccine, but also by their misconceptions about other vaccines, a new study has found.
While a Zika vaccine is in development, the study by researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania examined factors that will affect the eventual acceptance or rejection of such a vaccine.
The study, published in the Journal of Public Health, found that people's erroneous beliefs about an association between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism were a predictor of people's lessened intention to get a Zika vaccine. The study also found that people's perceptions of the severity of the Zika virus as well as their general belief in the power of science to solve problems increased their intention to get the vaccine.
"When a new disease arises, people who lack understanding of the new threat may extrapolate from their knowledge of other diseases," said Yotam Ophir, a Ph.D. candidate at Penn's Annenberg School for Communication who co-authored the study with APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson. "We found that the misbelief about the MMR vaccine's association with autism was more influential on the decision of whether to get vaccinated for Zika than even perceptions of Zika itself, which is worrisome, especially in light of the persistence of that misinformation."
[...] The bogus association between the MMR vaccine and autism has been disproven in numerous studies. However, the argument is still prominent among people who oppose vaccinations. "Scientists often look at the effect of misinformed beliefs about the MMR vaccine on people's intention to vaccinate children with the triple vaccine, but they don't as often look at the dangerous spillover effects that these misbeliefs can have," said Ophir, who will be joining APPC as a postdoctoral fellow.
He said that prior research has shown that it is very hard to completely debunk misinformation, such as the mistaken belief that the MMR vaccine causes autism, but the study results suggest that accurately communicating about the risks of Zika can help lessen the detrimental effects of the misbelief. "Even if we can't change what people think about the MMR vaccine, if we can give them an accurate picture of how vulnerable they are to a disease such as Zika, they can make a more informed decision about it," Ophir said.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday March 19 2018, @09:43AM (1 child)
LOL. You are basically laying out my anti-vaxx position, which has always been one of the avaricious hell bound executives have nothing to gain by playing it safe with our bodies. That's just not the type of Capitalism (with the Capital C) were into around here :)
I'm perfectly okay with some vaccine for Zika, or whatever other bullshit like the Flu, etc. Just as long as as two-hundred million other people have done it first. Literally. I'm not taking the gen1 shit, or the gen2 shit. I want to wait long enough, that statistically, the avarice of the executives cannot be hidden anymore. Especially, if the vaccine is American.
Basically the problem isn't science. It's trust in people. The scientifically inclined can say whatever the fuck they want, but science does have a huge integrity problem, and about reproducible results. Even when the science is good..... you can't trust the fucking regulators either.
Trust. In. People.
That's what has been shattered, and you don't fix that with fancy education and lessons about logic. Only cold hard reality and people taking responsbility and accepting consequences does that. Last time I checked, Big Pharma was on the too-big-to-fail-or-face-justice list. DuPont knowingly fucked with us for decades knowing the truth, but literally invented junk science and the endless arguments, and literally began the argument about whether we could financially afford the truth (Climate Change).
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 20 2018, @07:08PM
exactly! people who try to act like we just hate science or the idea of vaccines in general are either stupid or liars. if these degenerate scum could do anything right, i'd be the first to line up for my precious shot (or to shoot my babies up with some good ole herd immunity right after they get butchered out of mom who was pumped full of pitocin by some goddamn goblin of a doctor).