Forty states saw rises in parents citing religious or other personal concerns for not vaccinating their young children.

Forty states saw rises in parents citing religious or other personal concerns for not vaccinating their young children.

The number of kids whose caregivers are opting them out of routine childhood vaccines has reached an all-time high, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of children unprotected against preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough.

The report did not dive into the reasons for the increase, but experts said the findings clearly reflect Americans’ growing unease about medicine in general.

“There is a rising distrust in the health care system,” said Dr. Amna Husain, a pediatrician in private practice in North Carolina, as well as a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Vaccine exemptions “have unfortunately trended upward with it.”

  • odium
    393·
    1 year ago

    There is a rising distrust in the health care system

    I blame all the bullshit fees and tests that hospitals, pharmacy companies, and medical insurance companies have joined forces to do to milk more money out of ppl. Ever since the health care system started to chase profits instead of caring for people, this distrust was bound to happen.

    People know that the health care system is trying to make money off of you, not take care of you. So they don’t know which medical advice to trust and which medical advice was given in order to make money.

    • Wooster@startrek.websiteEnglish
      16·
      1 year ago

      This.

      It is easy, and justified to blame Trump for being anti-vax to have gotten as mainstream as it has…

      … but that was only able to gain traction in the first place because people are being offered the choice between healing and going broke.

      At some level, conscious or not, this is the masses rebelling against a system that has actively harmed them.

      Unfortunately, the outlet for this rebellion actively harms them and is decidedly not in their best interests. It’s going to take at least a generation to rebuild that trust, and our medical system is going to fight tooth and nail to keep that trust ruined in the name of maximum profits,

    • Magrath@lemmy.ca
      4·
      1 year ago

      That’s the only way I can sympathize with anyone who decides not to vax their children. I still do but I can understand the reason not to for this reason. I personally don’t think it’s gotten as far as to be detrimental to my health to still trust the vaxxines but I can see it becoming like that one day. It’s amazing how evil and complicit people will become in the face of making more money.

    • CoderKat@lemm.eeEnglish
      31·
      1 year ago

      This study won’t answer the question of if this applies to other countries, but I expect it would. Covid sure brought a lot of anti vax people into the limelight. Yet none of the issues you mentioned are a problem in my country. That’s all free (except for the hospital parking).

    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
      21·
      1 year ago

      I do distrust them to properly submit claims to my insurer. Otherwise I don’t have a lot of issues with providers. They may be prone to order “unnecessary” tests but I genuinely think that comes from a desire to actually help people [without regard for their finances].

      Big pharma can absolutely choke on its own shit however.