11 Victorious Medical Professionals Describe How They Changed Anti-Vaxxers Minds

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mattstaff
Mar 15, 2019 3:00 PM EDT

We can get so caught up in sharing the wild times anti-vaxxers filled the internet with bizarre acts of seemingly mindless ridiculousness. Like that time we saw someone ask about an "outdoor bedroom." Yes, that happened. See here. With that being said, let's steer our focus to the times medical professions DID get through to anti-vaxxers, and ultimately change their minds. They turned fails into wins! 

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  • 01
    Text - geriatric_gymnast 1d I did once. Saw a 8-mo old in the ER with a chronic cough. Spent a while with Mom talking about what pertussis actually looks like and why there is a vaccine for it. She agreed to get her child vaccinated at the end of the talk. listened to a great lecture once where the speaker said that people aren't afraid of the diseases anymore because they don't see them. They see autism, and that's concrete. They can't describe tetanus or pertussis, so they don't fear them. Tha
    via r/AskReddit
  • 02
    Text - PhillipLlerenas 1d Yes. I did it slowly and in a stepwise process. It helped that they were educated and had a degree in the sciences. 1. I empathized with her. I agreed that Big Pharma sometimes does shitty things and creates medications that don't really help people. This helped her feel more comfortable with the idea that I wasn't mocking her beliefs and her passions and I wasn't accusing her of being stupid. 2.I explained the complexity of medications: how side effects are inevitable
    via r/AskReddit
  • 03
    Text - outsideohio 1d Yes. It takes time. I have been in practice about 20 years now so I have built up a lot of trust with my patients. Changing a mind on something like this usually takes years. I start with the usual...listen to their fears, explain how vaccines actually work and how they are made, go over safety data. This is just the start for most people. Many will come back for more visits and ask more questions. Eventually I always get around to explaining the idea of protecting yourself
    via r/AskReddit
  • 04
    Text - VivaNOLA 1d I pointed out to a co-worker who was on the fence that the only reason her kid had such a good chance of surviving childhood in the first place was that generations of parents before her assumed the risks associated with far less developed vaccines. I suggested that she owed them all a great debt, and that she should really consider paying it forward.
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  • 05
    Text - Aethys23 17h My flatmate is an ED doctor, and had a 16 year old come in, with his father for some reason. He was going through some generic questions when he learnt that this patient wasnt vaccinated, and that his father had made the decision to not vaccinate. He just went full bore with laying on the negative effects of not being vaccinated, and all the risks of not being vaccinated. The father stepped in saying that he had made the decision, so my mate turned to him and say 'Thats all f
    via r/AskReddit
  • 06
    Text - swags789 23h Medical student in the United States here. It all depends on where they fall on the anti- vaccination spectrum. If a patient or parent is misinformed but willing to discuss, it's not too difficult to have an open dialogue and try to ease their concerns about vaccination. If they're a little more firm in their position, it's much more difficult to provide recommendations. Ultimately, it comes down to respecting the patient and earning their trust rather than spewing facts at t
    via r/AskReddit
  • 07
    Text - awkward_brownie 14h I was able to once. This woman was anti-vax because her daughter had gottern reactions from the vaccines on more than one occasion and that led her to believe that all vaccines were bad. As it turns out, the girl had a rare condition that caused her to react badly to vaccines. I was able to explain to the mother that rather than trying to remove vaccines, she should be advocating for them as her daughter falls under the group that requires herd immunity. I told her tha
    via r/AskReddit
  • 08
    Text - MistCongeniality 1d I do private duty nursing. I convinced a family to vaccinate their toddler. 1. I understand you're worried because your daughter has a history of a compromised immune system. That is a good and valid worry to have. 2. the pediatrician is saying it's ok to have her vaccinated now. 3. Were having a measles outbreak, which would kill her. 4. your daughter won't get autism. If she didn't get autism from [the thing they wrongly blame her disability on], then she definitely
    via r/AskReddit
  • 09
    Text - dbbo 14h Yes, the mother of a 13 month old who was hospitalized last night in fact. The funny thing is the kid was up to date on all immunizations through 6 months, then mom's friends convinced her that shots were "dangerous" and she stopped allowing his pediatrician's office to give them after that I think seeing her son in a hospital bed must have given way to a moment of clarity because after we just gently explained that without vaccines her child could very well end up in the hospita
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  • 10
    Text - fashionMommyof3 20h I had my son at 17 years old he ended up having autism. My doctor told me it could be from his first set of immunizations. I was young and believed her since you know .... she was a doctor. I'm embarrassed to say I was an anti-vaxxer till decided to do my own research and couldn't find a reliable article of evidence to prove that immunizations caused autism in my son. I believe it was genetics as autism runs in my family. I'm actually pissed that a doctor made such an
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  • 11
    Text - DaveBeard 18h I took care of a patient who is super conspiracy theory. I asked him why we would bother putting microchips in the flu vaccines when we already know what he's doing based off his Facebook, Instagram, and other various social networking accounts for his conspiracy theories. I was able to tell him what he had for lunch within 30 seconds on my work computer by Googling for his conspiracy theory account. well, shit. I guess that does make sense. Go ahead and start me up fresh."
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