Honestly, sometimes I don't blame the anti-vaxxers.
A lot of them don't buy into the autism bullshit. They just don't necessarily believe that they're fully side-effect free or safe in the general sense.
It also doesn't help when an anti-vaxxer tries to educate themselves and all they hear is "You're so stupid, you're terrible, there is a MOUNTAIN of evidence, the science disagrees with you, how could you hold the view that you do," etc.
And if they ask for some kind of contextualization of this "mountain" of evidence?
"Well we're not going to hold your fucking hand / go read some studies / you have to read through this massive thread / huge site / all these books / go take some classes..."
It's like, okay, you're the one trying to convince the anti-vaxxer of something. They are the ones who you think have too much power right now, so the onus is on you to make it more palatable and easily understood, rather than browbeating people because you just want to feel smug and smart.
What usually happens is they are completely turned off and they go back to being anti-vax.
I see the exact same shit when it comes to climate denial. Every time I've seen someone genuinely come out and ask questions about it, they get totally shat on and nobody is able to actually answer their questions fully without invoking some kind of "You have to go read a bunch of studies and see for yourself" response.
I think people need to understand that kind of response is not persuasive.