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Sean Estabillo

Dr. Shapiro

H Government 12

16 November 2020

The Misinformation Age

My entire family is instilled with an uncompromisable trust and love

for medicine and healthcare, with much of my family serving as physicians,

caretakers, administrators, and nurses. My mom has raised me to value

honesty, the knowledge of professionals, and my health. In fact, one of my

mom’s only request for me, when I go off to college next year, is for me to

promise to keep my vaccinations up-to-date and to continue to receive my

annual flu shot. That was her only request when I leave the house: for me to

remain vaccinated. It’s a simple request, go to a nearby clinic, hospital, or

even the local Walmart and receive the injection. Sometimes, you can receive

it for free. Information about them comes easily too. Growing up during the

Information Age has allowed me and the rest of the public easy access to

medical journals and vaccine information. However, the internet has another

caveat: the easy spread of misinformation.

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Misinformation, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is

simply incorrect or misleading information. For as long as I can remember,

modern medicine, chiefly vaccines, has faced widespread scrutiny and

defamation from skeptics and conspiracy theorists. Rather than trusting the

research done by the professionals, these groups dismiss the statistics and

studies put forward by researchers and rely on faulty information from their

respective communities. These people gather in large online communities on

social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, where they reinforce

their false narratives with debunked studies by denounced doctors or

unqualified civilians. Due to the wide reach of the internet, these

communities are able to influence the most susceptible people in the

population, such as young children and ill-informed parents. They are

organized and zealous in infecting others with their misinformation

campaigns to grow their mob of vaccine naysayers and sow distrust between

the American people and the scientific community. The effect of the ongoing

misinformation plague and the growing distrust between the public and

scientists shows its head in modern health crises.

Anti-medicine sentiment in the United States has led to a rising

demographic of unvaccinated Americans who leave the rest of the people

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vulnerable to long defeated diseases. When the 2015 Disneyland Measles

Outbreak occurred, I was personally shocked. How could Measles, a disease I

was told was only prevalent in developing countries where they lack access

to vaccines, infect so many people in one of the most developed countries in

the world? Well, it is no coincidence that the return of Measles corresponds

with the growth of the anti-vaccine community. Even during this ongoing

pandemic, anti-medicine sentiment has led to the American people flaunting

the guidelines set by doctors and other scientists because they simply do not

trust them. The anti-vaccine movement promotes the belief that doctors and

scientists have some sinister ulterior motives for vaccines and mask-wearing

when their actions are solely for preserving public health and safety.

During the research process for the annotated bibliography, I learned

about the MMR vaccine campaign of Santa Clara County during their 2019

Measles Outbreak. Not only did they provide the vaccine in more clinics, but

they also promoted information about the vaccine, dispelling vaccine

misconceptions and myths, like the often brought up autism myth. They

explained the function and purpose of vaccines. And, the campaign worked.

More Santa Clarans got vaccinated. Santa Clarita, as one of the largest

communities in the vulnerable Los Angeles County, needs to flatten the curve
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of the anti-vaccine movement by fighting against misinformation. We cannot

have what happened 60 miles away in Disneyland spread to our valley. I

grew up seeing the rise of the anti-vax movement and the return of diseases I

thought were inconsequential in the United States. Now, I want to see both of

those fall in my lifetime. The old cliche “knowledge is power” is true in

every sense. During this Misinformation Age, our community must have the

power to reject misinformation.

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Works Cited

Merriam-Webster. Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's Most-Trusted

Online Dictionary, 2020, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary.