I have a theory, and I hope the social scientists will study it to see if I am right.
I think anti-vaxxers come from broken homes. I think they are our “orphans of divorce” among the past several generations. The ones I know fit this mold.
What more powerful way of instilling mistrust in America could there be than causing a child to suffer for years in mistrust of one or both parents who destroyed so much of their happiness at an early age?
The family is “a little state,” the little government that guided their lives in their formative years. That little government failed them, so why should they trust the big government they now find hounding them to get vaccinated?
Our current problem is not a lack of infectious disease science. We are suffering from a misapplication of social science.
Maybe we need to fix the institution of marriage by incentivizing marital stability and long-term commitment to children, rather than glorifying short-term romance between uncommitted couples.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
(Formerly of Goleta)
