Does it sometimes seem like anti-vaccine folks are speaking a foreign language?
It definitely seems like they misunderstand and misuse a lot of scientific terms, like evidence, research, and toxin, doesn’t it?
Anti-Vaccine Glossary
The first step to understanding someone who is truly anti-vaccine and unnecessarily puts their kids at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases, might be to understand how they misunderstand most things about vaccines…
For example, many of them believe that anecdotes and case studies are strong evidence and on par with the preponderance of evidence that has shown that vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary.
What other terms do they get wrong?
| When you say… | Anti-Vaccine folks think… |
|---|---|
| research | I googled it and found something on an anti-vaccine website that confirms what I already thought |
| peer review | I had my anti-vaccine friends, some of whom are actually in charge of the journal, take a look at it |
| personal stories | can only be anecdotal vaccine injury scare stories, but never about regretting a skipped vaccine or personal stories about vaccine-preventable diseases |
| aluminum | mercury |
| consensus | my anti-vaccine friends on Facebook |
| shills | anyone who supports vaccines |
| pediatrician | a vaccine pusher |
| science | pseudoscience |
| learn the risk | learn the exaggerated risks of vaccines that I’m going to scare you about |
| expert | anyone who agrees with me |
| unavoidably unsafe | vaccines can’t ever be safe to anyone in any circumstance ever |
| toxin | anything and everything that sounds sciency |
| placebo | pure saline |
| chemical | anything that isn’t natural, not understanding that everything is a chemical |
| scientist | anyone who took a science class in high school or college |
| doctor | typically a chiropractor |
| medicine | non-evidence based therapies that don’t involve Big Pharma, aren’t covered by insurance, and are likely very expensive |
| risk | can only come from a vaccine, never from skipping or delaying a vaccine or from a vaccine-preventable disease |
| shedding | what happens when someone gets a vaccine |
| vaccine injury | anything and everything bad that happens to you in the days, weeks, months, and years after you get vaccinated or in the days, weeks, months, and years before you were born because of the vaccines your parents or grandparents received |
| religious vaccine exemption | I just don’t want to vaccinate and protect my kids, so will lie and say it is about religion |
| vaccine preventable disease | since many anti-vaccine folks don’t really think that vaccines work, they might act more confused if you use this term |
| informed consent | when I tell you all of the bad stuff about vaccines, most of which isn’t true, and leave out any talk of benefits |
| leaky gut | explains every major problem kids have after getting vaccinated |
| MAPS doctors | the new DAN doctors |
| VAERS | a list of vaccine-injuries |
| herd immunity | doesn’t exist, but can only happen from natural immunity |
| hiding in the herd | what used to protect unvaccinated kids, until more and more folks started listening to us to our anti-vaccine propaganda |
| package inserts | can be used to scare parents about SIDS and autism |
| do your research | go to an anti-vaccine forum or website |
| cherry picking | what does picking cherries have to do with vaccines??? |
| natural immunity | easy life-long immunity without any consequences |
| vaccine choice | I want to do it my way, no matter how many choices I have |
| germ theory | germs don’t cause disease and if they did, vaccines didn’t stop them, it was better nutrition and sanitation |
| homeopathy | vaccines don’t work, weekly chiropractic adjustments can keep you healthy, and natural immunity is best, but buy some homeopathic vaccines anyway |
| essential oils | definitely not being sold as part of a multi-level marketing scheme |
| monkey pox | just smallpox renamed |
| Guillain-Barré Syndrome | just polio renamed |
| roseola | just measles renamed |
| SIDS | a vaccine injury |
| vitamin K | a vaccine to be avoided |
| cognitive dissonance | how we sleep at night after skipping or delaying vaccines and leave our kids unnecessarily unprotected from life-threatening diseases |
| Andrew Wakefield | “…Nelson Mandela and Jesus Christ rolled up into one.” |
Get it?
It’s why many people have a hard time talking to friends and family members who are anti-vaccine. And even visits to the pediatrician to talk about vaccines don’t always go so well.
More on the Anti-Vaccine to Science Translator
- Navigating the Tricky Waters of Vaccine Policy and Anti-Vaccine Messaging
- Vaccine Myths Debunked
- 100 bad arguments against vaccines
- Don’t Be Distracted by Vaccine Myths and Misinformation
- The 20 Most Frequent Objections to Vaccinations
- Tactics and Tropes of the Antivaccine Movement
- IAC Answers Your Vaccine Questions
- WHO – What are some of the myths – and facts – about vaccination?
- 15 Myths About Anti-Vaxxers, Debunked – Part 2, Part 3
- Nine Questions, Nine Answers.
- Yes, vaccines did save us from disease: a graphic analysis
- 131 Research Papers Supporting the Vaccine/Autism Link…or Not. No, They Don’t.
- Misconceptions about Vaccines
- Academic Earth Takes On an Anti-vaccine Myth
- Six myths about vaccination – and why they’re wrong
- Vaccine Facts and Myths
- Toxic Myths about Vaccines
- Don’t Be Distracted by Vaccine Myths and Misinformation
- The Zombie Apocalypse of antivaccine myths that won’t die
- Anti-Vaccine Myths, Pharma Shill Gambit and Vaccine Court
- Mommy Bloggers “Babble” About Vaccine Myths
- 5 bad arguments against the influenza vaccine
- 7 Biggest Lies of the Antivaccine Movement Debunked
Last Updated on February 20, 2019
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