A Surprising Number of Americans Fear the Flu Shot is Unsafe
Reuters is reporting on the results of a new poll conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health into the attitudes of Americans towards getting their children vaccinated against swine flu. Slightly more than twenty percent of the parents surveyed had decided not to immunize their children and the main reason disclosed was fear about the safety of the vaccine.
The CDC has been monitoring those who have been vaccinated and has a web page up about the safety of the vaccine, the weekly updated Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System report and just about anything else you'd want to know about vaccines in general or this one in particular. Nevertheless, and in spite of the fact that by all measurements the vaccine appears to be safe and effective, a sizeable number of Americans fear the vaccine more than they fear a virus that has sickened millions and killed over 10,000. Why?
Part of the answer can be found in a 2002 study in which researchers compared their subjects' reactions to scientific evidence from reliable scientists that debunked a health scare versus inaccurate non-scientific emotional appeals from activists that merely raised the possibility of an adverse health effect. "The surprising result is that when we presented both positive and negative information simultaneously, the negative information clearly dominated. This was true even though the source of the negative information was identified as being a consumer advocacy group and the information itself was written in a manner that was non-scientific." The authors concluded that "even though the scientific evidence is favorable, claims by opponents, even if they are inaccurate and only suggest potential risks, will tend to reduce consumer demand". Hat tip TheGoodTheBadTheSpin
