Is it off topic to ask how you did it? I'm faced with a very similar situation, and I have no idea how to proceed. Taking the benefits of vaccinations as given, can we get a thread on the best way of convincing skeptics of this?
I'm happy to talk about it, just didn't want to get into a big anti-vaxxer debate.
Went to buy some wine at the Wine and Spirits store and there was a young gal serving up tasting samples. No one was there except me so I asked her if she was bored and she proceeded to tell me she was frustrated because her daycare called, kid needed to be seen because she had a bad cough and the gal said she couldn't get home before the walk-in clinic closed.
As we chatted she said the daycare was worried about RSV (rightly so) and she said she was bummed there was no RSV vaccine. Then she started to talk about her belief there might be a Big Pharma conspiracy ...
So I spilled the knowledge inside me that always pours out in these situations. I explained why we didn't have an RSV vaccine yet and how it was a very high priority as RSV kills the very young and very old. The conversation shifted to flu vaccine and she mentioned that she hadn't given her daughter any vaccines since the child was one. I listened to her issues which were about autism and the number of vaccines kids get these days.
I know these topics very well. And I know the arguments against them even better.
As for multiple vaccines, kids are exposed to thousands of antigens naturally. She knew about antigens. A dozen vaccine antigens are a drop in that bucket.
And as for the autism there are so many arguments. She knew there was research that refuted the connection but wanted to know how I was sure.
In summary: I told her about Andrew Wakefield.
I told her that when we took Thimerosal out of kids vaccines the rate of autism went up not down.
I told her about the studies of kids' first birthday party videos that showed autism was diagnosable earlier than the blamed vaccines were given. Autism was diagnosed when kids reached the more social toddler age because that's when symptoms became obvious. But when we looked for earlier symptoms they were there.
And I told her about young healthy people I saw die from influenza and about the influenza-MRSA co-infection which, while still rare, was increasing.
I told her several times, she was working, I didn't mean to push the issue, but she kept asking. By the end of our conversation she said she would get her toddler vaccinated. I think she meant it, I think I convinced her.
You have to start with where the person is at, and sometimes there is no getting through that barrier. If you tell me where the person you are talking about is at, maybe I can help, but some people are not reachable.
(I couldn't find a star so you get a sun, which technically is a star so it works.)
