It only bothers me the same way every other antivax reasoning bothers me. My life is difficult to say the least, and I've got nothing but understanding for parents not wanting their child to suffer from autism. I don't think, like many do, that these parents would rather their child die than be autistic, because I don't think they actually believe death is a real possibility. The opposite if anything.

Honestly, it angers me a lot more that almost all anti-antivax debates is solely focused on the autism bit because that is a miniscule and outdated part of antivax. Antivaxers today are not just afraid of autism, they're afraid of side effects, chemicals, big pharma and the government. They're more afraid of the hundreds of illnesses other antivaxers claim are vaccine related.

If we don't just want to circlejerk over how stupid these people are then we need to move beyond the autism argument because I promise, they have.

More than anything though I think we also need to remember that antivaxers are not just held on their beliefs because they're stupid, or mean harm. They believe what they do because something in their life is not right. Something is making them scared as fuck, or making them feel powerless, or marginalised. It's the same shit that makes people latch onto extremist views like Trump is presenting. Antivax alleviates them.

We're never going to reach these people by bashing and berating them. We need to meet them with compassion and understanding of where they're coming from. Everything else is just making it worse.