What is the most effective way to overcome anti-vaccine sentiment worldwide? Would airlines refusing to admit non-vaccinated passengers be more likely to bring success than enforced vaccination programs?

Education, transparency, not conforming to make truthful information just available like right now but making the effort to push that information so everybody can easily identify when antivaxxers promote things that are not true.

Every company has the right to put rules to protect the health of their customers according to valid scientific information, so if the vaccine is proved to be effective, safe and would reduce the possibility of spreading to other people they would be justified in refusing passengers that cannot prove their immunity (with the obvious medical exceptions).

That of course would never be enough to convince those that hold irrational beliefs against vaccines, but it would at least protect their customers and staff.

As Vurusrex says, it is all about education.

There also needs to be a greater understanding of the scientific method, the ability to weigh evidence and view things with disinterested scepticism and objectivity.

This approach to tackling issues is what has allowed anti-science to grow as a movement. One other are is where large portions of the population are allowed to take religious texts has factually accurate and have their beliefs unchallenged - if you are sure that the earth is 6000 years old, then you must also believe that scientists telling you otherwise are lying and in a conspiracy.

Schools and employers refusing anyone who isn't verifed vaccinated.

Places with dense crowds or living conditions it needs to be mandatory too. Aircraft would fall into that category.

People who home-school and work for themselves can choose not to be vaccinated, if they like. But their kids won't be able to work or go to any school/university without it.

How to make tracking non-vaccinated people easier is the question? A small RFID inserted somewhere? Not unique per person, but perhaps per immunization location?

Yes, education and transparency; that is exactly what the so-called antivaxxers want. But unfortunately what we are getting is censorship, bribing, harassment...

Some of the measures mentioned above might be a good idea for some infectious diseases, but not for Covid19, considering its low death rate and that it has almost run its course. Many (most?) of us are likely already immune to it.

Yes, education and transparency; that is exactly what the so-called antivaxxers want. But unfortunately what we are getting is censorship, bribing, harassment...

Antivaxxers want the opposite, they mislead and twerk information to make irrational arguments look more innocuous. Many times they openly lie to convince people about their religion. There is nothing strange to not allowing proven liars to keep repeating those lies in any platform.

It is not a coincidence that so many of the people antivaxxers choose to follow have been found guilty of fraud, unethical conduct, malpractice, etc.

You cannot force anyone to have a vaccination. But organisations can insist those using their services must be vaccinated.

Depends.

If the question refers to vaccines in general, broadly speaking the answer would be objective information about the benefits and risks of vaccines to different demographics, as well as transparency from vaccine producers and ensuring that vaccine makers are properly liable for damaging side-effects that may arise.

If we're talking about a vaccine for this virus in particular, ending the fear campaign that is being used to blackmail everyone into taking one in order to participate in society would be a good start. Negative sentiment about SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is rising because of the damage lockdowns are doing, as well as media censorship and smears of expert voices that challenge the official narrative, and elites blatantly acting opposite to how they tell the rest of us to behave.

I think a big part of the opposition would evaporate if the implied threat of being shut out of society, being banned from travel etc. for people hesitant about taking a vaccine for a disease that affects a relatively small proportion of the population - and that most recover from - was lifted. Pharma companies with an approved vaccine stand to make a killing (in the financial sense, of course) from it, governments seem to enjoy the power that comes from ordering people around, while airlines and other businesses just want to cover themselves against lawsuits and get back to business. I'm not frightened of this virus and would prefer to spend my money with an airline that doesn't require vaccination to fly with them, and I'd hazard a guess that there are many others with the same position. And many others with the opposite view.

So pushing the vaccine cause for this virus is not so much a grand conspiracy as a confluence of interests.

If we're talking about a vaccine for this virus in particular, ending the fear campaign that is being used to blackmail everyone into taking one in order to participate in society would be a good start. Negative sentiment about SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is rising because of the damage lockdowns are doing, as well as media censorship and smears of expert voices that challenge the official narrative, and elites blatantly acting opposite to how they tell the rest of us to behave.

There is no such thing, medical professionals are trying their best to let everybody understand that the pandemic is real, is dangerous and require huge sacrifices in order not to have fatal consequences. Negative feelings about the vaccine are fomented by invalid government influence in the approval process that was criticized by the vaccination experts; and because of misleading false information from people that desperately want everybody to share their conspiracy beliefs so they indoctrinate as much people as possible to distrusts science and medical care in general without care for the risk they put others in.

Information and education is what made people accept antibiotics, sanitation, pregnancy control measures and vaccines, letting people know that their decisions can have consequences (such as not being able to use a service because they endanger the health of others) is not something that should be avoided. People that want to act irresponsibly without consequences are not justified in their actions.

Before, I would have answer education. But seeing that the most rabid and irrational anivaxxers are concentrated in relatively educated countries such as US or in Europe, I don't know anymore. Probably strict rules, same with the other vaccines.

virusrex Today  12:23 pm JST

There is no such thing.

C'mon, you're not really paying attention, are you?

What is the most effective way to overcome anti-vaccine sentiment worldwide?

A better question is should we try to overcome anti-vaccine sentiment worldwide?

Especially in the case of Covid19, the anti-vaccine sentiment is a combination of different factors:

There is a general anti-vax sentiment among some people ranging from the nutty Alex Jones followers to the more reasonable ones who are simply skeptical of Big Pharma; many are aware of the serious side effects of some past vaccines that have not been addressed honestly and openly.

There are also those who realize that the vaccines that are coming out have undergone clinical trials in about one tenth the time of other vaccines, and are concerned at the complete lack of long term (years) tests.

There are also those who realize they are in the low risk group, and that it would be less risky to be infected than to get the vaccine.

All three groups (except the nutty ones) have legitimate points, and should be addressed with honest and open debates.

There is no such thing, medical professionals are trying their best to let everybody understand...

Wow! You might want to look at this from the British Medical Journal: Covid-19: politicisation, “corruption,” and suppression of science [https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4425]

C'mon, you're not really paying attention, are you?

Let me guess, you want people to ignore reality and try to discern some hidden meaning by "reading between the lines", right? That is still invalid, no proof it means it is only a conspiracy so it can be safely discarded.

A better question is should we try to overcome anti-vaccine sentiment worldwide?

By any objective standard, yes.

Vaccines have been proved repeatedly as a very positive scientific development that improved life for humans in several ways, irrational opposition to safe and effective health interventions (as demonstrated by scientific data) based on false and misleading information peddled by people with interests different from the public health is not justified.

Rational worries about vaccines, that have helped improve immunizations around the world are not the problem, they never have been. Scientific discussion about safety issues (or logistics, or pricing, or any of the multiple other ways to make vaccines better) has been constant and are not validly characterized as "anti-vaccine"

On the other hand false and mistaken information, repeated even after it has been debunked repeatedly, attempts of manipulation and the endless use of completely unproven conspiracies that include all the health workers of the world are not anything useful for humanity and any rational person should aim to overcome them as the problem they are.

Your argument of "one tenth of the time" testing of a vaccine is a good example, other vaccines have actually been tested for a similar amount of time without problems, so it is misleading to insinuate that this is not enough time to test a vaccine or that it is being done for the first time for COVID-19. Also your mistaken assumption that is less risky for people without previous conditions to avoid the vaccine, because by definition of the approval this is not true, you have no data to prove this, and for every other vaccine approved the opposite is true, so there is no reason to think this time it "must" be different. Both of the arguments are false and should be exposed as such so people can avoid being mislead by them.

Wow! You might want to look at this from the British Medical Journal: Covid-19: politicisation, “corruption,” and suppression of science [https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4425]

In no part of the article it is proved that there is a "fear campaign that is being used to blackmail everyone into taking one in order to participate in society" as said, you may want to read first what you reference instead of blindly trusting it has something to do with what is being discussed.

The virus just isn’t that deadly to most people for there to be a need to suppress freedoms-that much is obvious.

what virusrex said

I am neither pro nor anti vaccine, but the to say that all anti vacciners are either ignorant or crackpots is worrying.

I have children and the fact that this vaccine hasn't been tested on children along with the fact that children are at very low risk gives me pause for thought. Does that mean I won't get my children vaccinated? No, but certainly I wish to read more before rushing to a decision thus I hope honest, factual and non biased reporting and discussion is able to continue.

I am neither pro nor anti vaccine, but the to say that all anti vacciners are either ignorant or crackpots is worrying

Vaccine hesitancy is very different from being an antivaxxer, its like the difference between worrying about overuse of antibiotics and believing microbes don't exist. Antivaxxers are those that no amount of evidence will ever change their minds, and that use information that they themselves know to be false to try and convince others to believe the same as them.

Worrying about how much justification is there for vaccinating one specific group of people that you judge not to be at risk, with a vaccine for which you don't really know much about yet is not being an antivaxxer, that would be saying that there are no safe vaccines, and that no matter the disease it is always safer and better to get the natural infection than a vaccine.

The biggest problem is that because of the unethical efforts of many antivaxxers, a lot of rational people develop an unjustified anxiety about vaccines, if you read other topics here, there are commenters that even defend literally licking money as a healthier and more sanitary measure to "strengthen" your immunity.

Education and explanations as to why the vaccines are a good thing.

I realize that there are those who are genuinely informed and have concerns over the safety of the vaccines, but those who insist on spreading falsehoods should be fined or or made attend classes on medicine...

Antivaxxers are those that no amount of evidence will ever change their minds, and that use information that they themselves know to be false to try and convince others to believe the same as them.

I wonder if such people exist. That would be just as extreme as those that no amount of evidence will ever change their minds that all vaccines are 100% safe and effective and necessary, and that use information that they themselves know to be false to try and convince others to believe the same as them.

Those who you call antivaxxers just want an open and honest debate, not censorship.

Does that mean I won't get my children vaccinated? No, but certainly I wish to read more before rushing to a decision thus I hope honest, factual and non biased reporting and discussion is able to continue.

If they are healthy, I don't think you should; not for covid. But please don't take my (or anyone else's) word for it. Do read up from diverse sources.

I wonder if such people exist. That would be just as extreme as those that no amount of evidence will ever change their minds that all vaccines are 100% safe and effective and necessary, and that use information that they themselves know to be false to try and convince others to believe the same as them.

One big hint is that they can only think on extremes, for the religious zealots not sharing their belief that every single vaccine is worse than the disease they prevent can only means believing they are absolutely perfect without ever being a problem with them. Another big hint is that they are constantly being proved wrong, only to abandon their false arguments for that conversation alone, and then repeat them again in the next one. It would be much more difficult to believe the example of the one that recommended licking money, but that is not just an imaginary example, someone is actually so irrational that actually defends that as valid.

Antivaxxers do not want an open and honest debate, because they would immediately run out of arguments, they want forums to deceive and manipulate with their false information, but nobody is obligated to promote proven lies.

Just look at the kind of "heroes" they promote as famous speakers, people convicted of fraud, medical malpractice, unethical research, etc. Why would anyone had to use those people if not because they are exactly what the antivaxxers think is justified in order to make people share their beliefs.

The Covid vaccines, as all vaccines do, have some risk.

Why should I expose myself to that risk as I have been taking precautions for months now not to get infected-I am doing just fine thanks...

The Covid vaccines, as all vaccines do, have some risk.

Why should I expose myself to that risk as I have been taking precautions for months now not to get infected-I am doing just fine thanks...

Because any approved vaccine is less risky (and it can be demonstrated by science) for a person than the possibility of infection, even with precautions.

Not being vaccinated means you are exposed to higher risks, you can choose to keep that situation, but that does not make it a logical choice.

Because any approved vaccine is less risky (and it can be demonstrated by science) for a person than the possibility of infection, even with precautions.

No! There is no data on the long term effects of the Covid19 vaccines. None!

No! There is no data on the long term effects of the Covid19 vaccines. None!

Of course there is, many problems and conditions that have presented in patients of COVID-19 and that are related with long term problems have been absent on volunteers for the vaccines, that is data that proves that even for long term effects the vaccine is a safer option than getting the natural infection.

Thinking that long term effects will magically appear without previous signs indicate that you have no understanding of what you want to have an opinion about.