Believe it or not, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a vaccine skeptic.

These folks are vaccine deniers and anti-vaccine influencers, not skeptics, routinely pushing misinformation and propaganda about vaccines.

What’s wrong though, is that the media has been characterizing many anti-vaccine influencers as vaccine skeptics!

How to Become a Real Vaccine Skeptic

They are not vaccine skeptics…

While a skeptic is “a person inclined to question or doubt accepted opinions,” a real vaccine skeptic wouldn’t so blindly believe all the anti-vaccine talking points these folks push.

“A second common feature of denial, which differentiates it further from skepticism and legitimate debate, involves personal and professional attacks on scientists both in public and behind the scenes.”
Science and the Public: Debate, Denial, and Skepticism

A real vaccine skeptic would also want to use reliable science and empirical evidence to help them question the claims of others.

“The most important thing to understand is that being a skeptic is, first and foremost, a responsibility. It requires something from you—specifically, time … and lots of it. True skeptics are committed to educating themselves on the subjects they’ve decided to become skeptical about.”
How to be a true skeptic

Interested?

I was fortunate enough to take Rory Coker’s famous class that teachers students at UT in Austin about pseudoscience.

To be a real vaccine skeptic, in addition to learning about vaccines, you should:

avoid becoming a vaccine denier, someone who is anti-vaccine and doesn’t want to change their mind, and quickly rejects any information about vaccines that doesn’t fit into their predetermined beliefs.
think critically, independently examine all evidence, and don’t simply rely on the interpretation of other people
learn to find trusted vaccine information, so you don’t get fooled by propaganda that is laundered by anti-vaccine influencers across their social media accounts and websites
recognize and avoid echo chambers, in which other people simply reinforce your beliefs
know that some evidence is weaker and less reliable than other evidence and learn to find the strongest, most reliable evidence as you do your research and get educated about vaccines
never misuse or cherry-pick quotes, data, or studies
avoid anti-vaccine propaganda that is often published as pre-prints or posted on sites like Zenodo
understand the subconscious cognitive biases that might be influencing your beliefs!
learn to recognize fake news sites that create propaganda and post misinformation about vaccines
avoid using logical fallacies
ask real questions, not loaded questions, that are simply another way of framing anti-vaccine misinformation
not be afraid to be wrong

And most importantly, be prepared to change your mind when you get new information and evidence that proves you are wrong about something.

Lastly, don’t move the goalposts, ignoring evidence proving you are wrong, or shift to ad hominem attacks, as you stick to your guns in an argument that you have obviously lost.

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