Link to research doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wVRX5GKrb1Sk021-1Opc-oj_zn0oYf5EFNtqRjaKNlc/edit?usp=sharing

A breaking news about vaccination happened in China while I was thinking about the idea for the first assignment. Two of the most famous medical enterprises were reported for producing unqualified DPT and rabies vaccine for more profits, which caused growing panic among parents. For me, this was the first time that vaccination became a controversial topic, so I thought of Kat Von D’s ‘anti-vax’ speech and tried to research this problem in Western countries. Getting vaccinated is very common that most people (including myself) have never doubted of its effectiveness. So I was really surprised and curious why Kat Von D would come up with this idea.

By doing research, I understood some common reasons of anti-vaccination parents: 

  1. Veganism
  2. Anti animal testing
  3. Believe vaccine may cause autism
  4. Afraid of negative side effects
  5. Believe humans have natural immunity

Among these five possible reasons, veganism may be the most influential one, which is also the main reason for Kat Von D. Joseph and Trista both found the website named ‘Reasonable Vegan’ to know about vegans’ thoughts, and we had a discussion about this article. The central idea of veganism actually clashes with nutrition, which we can generally consider it as the modern science. Scientists do experiments and advocate to eat a well-rounded and healthy diet. They believe that human needs fat, protein, carbohydrates and sugar to keep our body energetic. However, really strict vegans refuse to consume all kinds of animal products, not only meat but also eggs, dairy products and so on. This huge difference causes the distrust between two groups. Because vegans are still minorities, other people may find it’s hard to understand and communicate with them. In addition, according to Rebecca Fox (2015), part of vegans are opposed to vaccinations due to animal related products, and another part of them just convince that some ingredients are poisonous. There are still rational vegans like Rebecca to claim the importance of vaccinations. However, more vegans have formed their ‘echo-chamber’ and even called vaccinations as ‘child abuse’ just because of the disagreement with science. 

It is not difficult to search for information on anti-vaxxers and vegans. There are numbers of articles stand for different aspects: anti-vaxxers list the risks and adverse effects of vaccinations, scientists angrily criticise uneducated anti-vaxxers, rational vegans tell differences between veganism and anti-vaccination, and also common people express their opinions about related public figures. I find it is interesting that most people have very clear opinions about this issue and they can hardly listen to opposite words. After our group discussion, our position is that we are pro-vaccination but not anti-vegan. In my opinion, vegans, especially parents are sometimes too extreme in insisting on their lifestyle that may affect their families and other non-vegan people. For the next post, I will further discover the mocking points of vegan parents who don’t get their children vaccinated.