I saw a post on Facebook a while ago that made me think about whether past racism is an acceptable excuse to not take vaccines, or at least the be skeptical of them. I don't think so, but I wanted to post this here just to see what other people think. This is especially because I know there are a lot of non-white people here. Here is the post I have been thinking about:
Let's briefly examine this.
There are two ideas at work here: First is that the history of medical malpractice involving testing unethically on black and brown people is a cause for medical skepticism. That history is real, and I do get why it would make some people skeptical of medicine in general. However, people need to overcome that. Fortunately, I think most people have done that. Ironically, it seems from what I have seen that Anti-vaxxers are overwhelmingly white. It seems like the black community almost universally understands that vaccines are safe and worth having. If nothing else, the fact that white people get the exact same vaccines should help allay any fears. I for one think that black and brown people are logical and reasonable enough to be swayed by evidence, rather than throwing money at them to manipulate their emotions...
Which gets us to the second idea - reparations. I am pretty openly anti-reparations in general. It certainly will not help people feel more comfortable to very publicly give reparations. That will just become an anti-vaxxer talking point in and of itself. In fact it could turn being anti-vaccine into a something of a political message among these communities. If people are already not trusting of medicine, how does giving them money change that? If somebody thinks they are going to be physically harmed, how much do you have to pay them. This really doesn't add up. I've generally seen anti-vaxxer conspiracies among white people, and given the problems it has caused, I really don't think other people need to start believing them!
For those who want to follow me: You can find me on Publish0x. The site is great, and you can cross post there to make more money than just posting on one site, so why not join? https://www.publish0x.com/@LeftAntiPC?a=pnel78MdKB&tid=rc
If you are reading this but are somehow not already a member of Read.Cash, follow this link to join: https://read.cash/r/AntiSJWLeft
All lives matters