As measles spreads in South Carolina, RFK Jr’s allies work to gut vaccine laws

https://lemmy.world/post/43760786

As measles spreads in South Carolina, RFK Jr’s allies work to gut vaccine laws - Lemmy.World

Activists who dispute safety of vaccines are pushing to limit immunization requirements in schools As South Carolina grapples with a measles outbreak that has infected nearly 1,000 people, groups with ties to the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, are pushing to eliminate immunization requirements that protect children. Activists are targeting vaccine mandates in states trying to tamp down measles as communities across the country struggle to stop the worst spread of the illness since the early 1990s. The Guardian found anti-vaccine groups are encouraging their followers to organize opposition to vaccine mandates in more than 20 states, including at least six with current measles outbreaks. Leaders of this campaign include the anti-vaccine organization Kennedy led for years, a group run by his longtime book publisher, and Leslie Manookian, an Idaho film-maker, homeopath and activist whom Kennedy has called his friend.

Is this anti vaccine movement just based solely on stupidity? Or is there something else behind it like maybe it will disproportionately affect certain people?

While there are many true believers, I’d guess the majority of the actual real political influence behind this movement is cynical, like most other wedge issues.

That is all speculative, and I could be wrong, but that is historically how these things operate.