Anti-vaxxers, I've heard of them.
But a lot of what I knew was limited to the loud protests, the signs, the shouting ...
Until fairly recently, the anti-vax movement was side lined maybe treated as a bit of a novelty.
Then, in 2019, people refusing vaccines contributed to the worst measles outbreak
in a generation.
Now, with coronavirus, things have gotten more serious.
Anti-vaxxers aren't on the fringe anymore.
In the past two months, they've been a vocal presence at protests across the US.
And in May, polling found that one in four Americans
may refuse a coronavirus vaccine.
I want to find out what anti-vaxxers believe, or more importantly,
what they don't believe.
Why are they so resistant to the overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccines are safe?
I will absolutely refuse to take a coronavirus vaccine.
Alana Newman is the organiser of the health freedom summit,
an online event that brought together dozens of vaccines sceptics and activists
in April.
They are going to be dropping actual uncentered facts on how you beat the virus,
including all future mutations.
Like other anti-vaxxers, Newman just doesn't believe the scientists
and health organisations who say vaccines are safe.
Are you concerned about a potential coronavirus vaccine?
People are free to do what they want but I will fight for my right to not be injected
with something I don't trust at all.
Who do you trust around this?
I trust ... that's a good question.
I trust myself, I'm learning to be self-reliant and I ask as many people as I possibly can
what their opinion is and then I assemble what sounds reasonable to myself.
We are making people fearful of these diseases like coronavirus, like measles
and then that's when you get people to buy your drugs.
So you set up a problem and then you get to sell people the solution.
Some of people Newman does trust, those who spoke at her freedom summit,
have been widely discredited and their theories disproven.
Andrew Wakefield gain notoriety, after claiming vaccines cause autism.
But that was disproven.
'Andrew Wakefield, the man this people see as a hero, was guilty of serious ethical breaches,
dishonesty and in one instance, a callous disregard
for the distress and pain caused to children in his care.'
Another speaker was Judy Mikovits.
Mikovits was already known in anti-vaxxers circles.
'The pharmaceutical companies are given a free ride on injecting toxins in your children
without a single safety study.'
But she sprung to further prominence in May when she appeared in Plandemic,
an online conspiracy theory video that got eight million views
before YouTube took it down.
According to Mikovits, the creation of the virus is part of a global conspiracy.
'And do you have any ideas of where this occurred?'
'Oh, yeah, I am sure it occurred between the North Carolina laboratories, Fort Detrick,
US army Research Institute of Infectious Disease
and the Wuhan Laboratory.
But let's take a look at some of Mikovits' other claims:
the flu vaccine increases the person's odds of getting the coronavirus,
coronavirus is activated by facemasks,
a mandatory vaccine will kill millions.
There is not scientific evidence for any of these.
Mikovits also believes hydroxychloroquine is effective against the virus.
There's no evidence for this.
But she's not the only one who believes it.
A couple of weeks ago, I started to taking it,
because I think it's good, I've heard a lot of good stories.
So why are so many people drawn to conspiratorial thinking?
Joseph Pierre is a professor of psychiatry who's written extensively
about the topic.
First of all, they are just very entertaining.
Many Hollywood movies, or TV shows are based on conspiracy theories.
'They control the disease by controlling the information.'
'You can't protect the public by lying to them.'
People who are attracted to conspiracy theories
often feel like they've stumbled upon some secret reality
that the rest of us, sheep or sheeple, as conspiracy theorists like to refer to us as,
don't know about.
So there's a certain sense of feeling special.
I think the other big emotional need is physiological needs for closure,
certainty and control.
This idea that things happen for some higher cause or ultimate purpose.
Whether we are talking about the assassination of JFK or 09/11 ...
Now with Covid19, we are still learning on a day to day basis
what that disease is, how it manifests, how to best treat it ...
And to a certain extent, conspiracy theories offer a frame more
to explain why these events are happening.
Social media plays a huge part too.
Facebook groups and pages serve to reinforce scepticism about vaccines.
But this isn't necessarily an organic uprising.
Anti-vaccine groups including one led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr,
nephew of JFK,
have been paying for anti-vaccine Facebook ads
often branding them with the ideas of patriotism and individual freedom.
Doctor Saad Omer, an epidemiologist at Yale University said these ideas
often go hand in hand with anti-vax theories which he stressed that are not routed in science.
They are incredibly safe, so there's no absolute safety in anything in life.
These are some of the most benign things ... things can have side effects,
but the risk/benefit ratio is not even close for the vaccines that are routinely
recommended.
It's absolutely reasonable for people to ask and have questions
and come to their physicians about things that they think that are worrying them.
But also the part of personal responsibility is not to go into these outlandish theories.
Not only these people are taking the decision on their own behalf,
they are taking a decision on everyone else's behalf as well.
I'm going to fight for my right to not have to be forced
to take that for my children's rights not be forced to take that.
There's 10,000 infectious diseases out there,
are we going to take a vaccine for every single one of them?
I don't know, but I know if there's a vaccine for a preventable illness,
sure it will make sense to, you know, you must agree,
sure it will make sense to take that and prevent people from getting sick.
You can do a lot to create health in your body so that you can
be strong against any virus that comes your way.
Conspiracy thinking in America is no longer on the fringes.
And while there is really any harm in someone thinking
Neil Armstrong didn't land on the moon,
or that the Earth is flat,
this is different.
Fueled by social media and big donors,
and aided by a suspicion of experts and notions of individual liberty,
the anti-vax movement seems set to grow and with his own weariness
of mainstream science and a disregard for facts,
Donald Trump has contributed to a climate where these ideas can flourish.
That something that can be very dangerous for America and the rest of the world.