This is just mainstream politics now.
“There’s no question that the anti-vax movement is a larger entity now. It’s better funded, it’s better organized — and it’s been quite prolific at spreading its message,” Kanter said. “There’s a lot of families that have unfortunately fallen victim to that.”
Richard, whose district includes Crowley Kindergarten, said as vaccines have become more politicized, hesitancy has grown. The percentage of kindergarteners whose parents asked for them to be exempted from standard immunizations more than doubled in Acadia Parish over the past two years. Other parishes in Acadiana have seen a similar trend.
“The entire concept of vaccinations has become controversial,” Richard said. While numbers for the current school year are not yet available on a parish-wide basis, Richard doubts that they’d show a rebound in vaccinations. “I would not be surprised if the numbers are static or even lower,” he said.
This doesn't have anything to do with "the science" and who understands it. None of these people is making a rational choice based on having been told the good information or the bad information. Rather, they're making a deeply felt statement about who they are and which side they are on.
We don't live in a time when politics can be about policy choices doing anything to bring people a better life or better future. Nobody believes in any of that stuff. All that matters in politics now is sorting out who is good and who is bad and who deserves to be punished. So once a question... any question.. but in this case, a question like, "should I vaccinate my children" becomes embedded in cultural identity like this, there's no going back from it. We're stuck here.
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