Millennials Are the Generation Most Likely to Buy Anti-Vax Scaremongering
Credit to Author: Hannah Smothers| Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:47:39 +0000
Nestled in some recent survey results from the American Academy of Family Physicians is yet another little clue that millennials have insatiable death drive: Sixty-one percent of millennials who are familiar with the anti-vax movement say they agree with “some anti-vaccination beliefs.” This spanks the rate of this kind of unbridled idiocy among baby boomers, only 42 percent of whom answered the same way.
The survey focused mainly on knowledge about the flu and rates of flu vaccination, both which are also quite dismal. Despite being in the midst of yet another "worst flu season” “in recent history," 51 percent of all respondents said they still haven’t gotten a flu shot (it’s not too late!!). This would mean the rate of flu vaccination has only continued to decline in this country since the 2017–2018 season. Once again, millennials are particularly egregious offenders: Thirty-three percent said they simply don’t plan to get a flu shot this year at all, as the virus continues to rage on around them.
Maybe this makes sense, in a sick way; millennials already know and expect to get sick and die faster than previous generations, and pay a third more in healthcare costs. Just speculating, but perhaps millennials aren’t aligning with anti-vax beliefs due to complete ignorance of science and facts, but as a large middle finger to a healthcare system that makes access to care far more difficult and expensive than it has to be (though flu shots are generally very accessible). We may die of some demented combo of tuberculosis, measles, and the flu, but at least we have our morals (N.B. it is no way moral to hold anti-vax beliefs, which threaten public health and harm decades worth of herd immunity).
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This article originally appeared on VICE US.