Do you have any doubt that the modern anti-vaccine movement resembles a religious cult?
“To our community, Andrew Wakefield is Nelson Mandela and Jesus Christ rolled up into one.”
J.B. Handley
If you do, I might want to check your child’s immunization records…
How the Modern Anti-Vaccine Movement Resembles a Religious Cult
To be fair, I am in no way saying that anxious parents who have become too scared to vaccinate their kids are part of any kind of anti-vaccine religious cult.
This is all about the anti-vaccine influencers, and their charismatic leaders, who do the scaring!
If you are not yet a believer, read on!
You will learn that in this anti-vaccine religious cult, we seem to have:
- The Prophet: Andrew Wakefield
- The Disciple: RFK Jr
- The Priests: Anti-vaccine influencers
- The altar boys: Aaron Siri
- The sacred texts: Wakefield’s 1999 paper
publishedretracted in The Lancet, Bob Sear‘s Vaccine Book, the latest pre-print from Peter McCullough… - The doctrine: vaccines are always bad; vaccines aren’t necessary; vaccine preventable diseases are good for you = classic anti-vaccine propaganda
- The mantras: vaccines cause autism; too many too soon; vaccination is not immunization; green our vaccines; I’m not anti-vaccine, I’m pro-safe vaccine; if there is a risk, there must be a choice = classic anti-vaccine slogans
- Faith over evidence: zealots quickly dismiss any and all evidence that doesn’t conform to their worldview that vaccines are always bad; will never change their minds, no matter what evidence is shown to them
- Us vs. Them Mentality: some devotees have even started calling themselves purebloods and only want unvaccinated blood if they need a transfusion.
And don’t forget all the money!
Being an anti-vaccine influencer has become a big, money making industry, all the while they are attacking pediatricians, the lowest earning medical professionals…
And if you disagree with them?
“A pox upon him!”
All’s Well That Ends Well – Act 4, scene 3
These pro-infection influencers might literally want you to get chickenpox or measles so that you can spread it to their kids!
What else?
In any religion, if you have gods, you typically have monsters, right?
And in this respect, this anti-vaccine religious cult doesn’t disappoint!
After all, these guys aggressively go after all the biggest names in vaccination research, from Stanley Plotkin and Maurice Hilleman, to Paul Offit and Anthony Fauci.
Experts who have saved millions of lives with their life’s work – the exact opposite of what we can say of the leaders of our anti-vaccine religious cult.
“Just like a religion. Because it really is all about faith far more than science and evidence.”
The anti-vaccine movement as a religion with Andrew Wakefield as its prophet?
And of course, like a religion, there is no science or hard evidence behind any of the claims of the anti-vaccine movement.
Religion of Vaccination…
Not surprisingly, Aaron Siri‘s idea of vaccines as a religion is not new.
It is something that keeps coming up.
“Vaccinianity – (Vax.e.an.eh.te) n. The worship of Vaccination. The belief that Vaccine is inherently Good and therefore cannot cause damage. If damage does occur, it is not because Vaccine was bad, but because the injured party was a poor receptacle for the inherently Good Vaccine. (ie. hanna poling was hurt when she came into contact with Vaccine, not because the Vaccine was harmful, but because her DNA was not to par or because her mitochondrial disorder was to blame.) Vaccine is presumed to have rights that supersede the rights of the individual, while the human person’s rights must defer to Vaccine.”
Kim Stagliano (Rossi)
Anti-vaccine influencers have long made that argument, often badly. Kim Stagliano even coined a term – vaccinianity, which sounds an awful lot like holocaustinaity, doesn’t it?
Interestingly, Kim Stagliano has an unvaccinated child with autism, but that hasn’t kept her from blaming vaccines for her other two children’s autism…
Is all of this what you signed up for when you ended up on the fence and started questioning vaccines?
Do you think of vaccinology as a religion?
“Vaccinology has become it’s own religion among doctors, nurses, and the general public.”
Peter McCullough
Many anti-vaccine influencers do.
And for the record, Andrew Wakefield is as far from being like either Nelson Mandela or Jesus Christ as someone can be…
More on Anti-Vaccine Cults
- Who Are the Religious Leaders Who Are Against Vaccines?
- What Does the Torah Say About Vaccines?
- Why Aren’t Vaccines Mentioned in the Bible?
- From Rubella to Rabies: Lessons from Dr. Stanley Plotkin’s Lifelong Vaccine Quest
- The anti-vaccine movement as a religion with Andrew Wakefield as its prophet?
- How antivaxxers “think” (that vaccine advocates think)
- Quoth the antivaxer: “Vaccination is a religion.” Quoth Orac: “Nice projection, there.”
- Why do I call it the “anti-vaccine religion”? Let me explain
- Tucker Carlson lies about the ACIP
- The Art of Vaccination
Last Updated on March 2, 2026
You must be logged in to post a comment.