I haven't resigned myself to believing they're unreachable. Perhaps that makes me too optimistic, but in my experience, people change. We can definitely help the hesitant by discrediting influential anti-vaxxers, and we can focus on that. But I choose not to write them off.
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Replying to @SOlsonMichel @gorskon
I’ve been promoting compassion & empathy re vaccine refusal nearly a decade, incl in my TED talk. Vax hesitant & vax refusers can be reachable. Anti-vaxxers—vocal advocates persuading others not to vaccinate—are not. Why waste time on them when you can talk to refusers instead?
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Replying to @tarahaelle @gorskon
Obviously someone who is an extremist with a large platform from which they preach anti-vaxx mentality may be unreachable/not worth the time, but the line between anti-vaxx and vaccine hesitant is rarely that clearly defined in your average refuser population.
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Replying to @SOlsonMichel @tarahaelle
True, but those of us who've studied this a while can usually tell. I have a few simple questions that are a pretty reliable screen to identify who's definitely not reachable at least.
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Replying to @gorskon @tarahaelle
I haven't heard of this before but it sounds really interesting. Would you be interested in sharing or DM'ing me those questions? Would like to learn more about your approach
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Replying to @SOlsonMichel @gorskon
I’m curious about Gorski’s questions too. I wonder how much crossover there is with my approach (though usually my first approach is google and searching social media to see what they’ve already said).
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Replying to @tarahaelle
I might have to write a blog post about it, as Twitter isn't the greatest medium to explain...
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Replying to @gorskon @tarahaelle
I was just curious if you had literature you could cite/share so I could learn more. Personally, I wouldn't ask someone "what would it take to change your mind" because as a communicator, that question (and the tone of it) can be problematic in the way it's interpreted.
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It comes across immediately as if you're trying to change their mind and looking to tell them why they're wrong, whereas you can identify their hesitancy by asking them questions about their concerns rather than asking them to identify gaps in their knowledge.
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Replying to @SOlsonMichel @tarahaelle
OK, here's another: Is there any vaccine (or vaccines) that you consider safe enough to take yourself or to give your child? If the answer is no or they tap dance around the question to avoid giving a straight answer, then they're almost certainly not reachable.
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Another variant is to ask which vaccines concern them enough that they don't want to let their child have them and why? If the answer is all of them and the why consists mainly of antivax conspiracy theories, they are almost certainly not reachable.
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Replying to @gorskon @tarahaelle
This is my favorite first step. Ten years ago it was more likely to open good discussions than today, sadly. It has options for the parent to open up about past experiences and future avenues, both of which are quite valuable information if we hold back and listen.
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