‘Dingbats’: Australians say what they really think about anti-vaxxers
Social scientists worry that the hostility will just entrench vaccine refusal
‘Overprivileged dingbats’, ‘self-indulgent scum’ and ‘ill-informed idiots’: these are among the epithets applied to vaccine refusers by pro-vaccination Australians — and it is doing harm, researchers say.
Melbourne social scientists who surveyed people in favour of vaccination say they’ve uncovered a concerning level of hostility and stigmatisation of vaccine-refusers.
The La Trobe University researchers canvassed the vaccination views of 4370 Australians, more than half of whom (2666) supported the childhood immunisation schedule.
Respondents also answered a free-text question about how they would describe supporters of the anti-vaccination movement.
