Anti-vaxxers’ views now a more bitter pill than ever

WE might think that the mounting death toll of the last few weeks, not to mention the trials of lockdown or the prospect of economic Armageddon, would have softened the cough, so to speak, of the antivaccination brigade.

But not for the first time their stubborn resistance to science and common sense comes as a surprise.

According to a survey carried out by our universities into how the country is coping with the outbreak, more than a third of Irish people say they are unsure if they would accept a potential vaccine for Covid-19 if one was developed, with 10% saying that they would refuse one outright.

The intransigence beggars belief, particularly as, according to the survey, it seems born of knowledge rather than ignorance about the virus.

It is also contrary to the ‘we are all in this together’ spirit that is keeping so many of us on the right side of sanity.

Anti-vaxxers may consider themselves plucky free thinkers who refuse to be pawns of Big Pharma but the reality is that their children’s good health is due to nothing as much as their piggybacking on the herd immunity provided by those of us who heed the medical advice in favour of inoculation.

Rising rates of mumps and measles, which were eradicated years ago, are a sign of collapsing immunity rates and of groups of misguided parents who are willing to gamble with the health of every child, not just their own, gaining the upper hand.

Their selfish pursuit of their allnatural lifestyle is objectionable at the best of times. But today their views are unforgivable.