Italians decided to fight a conspiracy theory. Here’s what happened next.
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Alongside the flat-earthers, 9/11 truthers and Obama birthers, the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists have always had a special distinction: They can do immediate and specific damage in a way that the others can’t. Birtherism surely increased Americans’ distrust of politics, though in ways that are hard to pin down. By contrast, when anti-vaxxers persuade parents not to vaccinate children, the result can be sickness and even death.
How, then, to push back against them? Does sympathy with parents who are spooked by vaccines help to bring them around, or is it better to be tough? Over the past few years, both of these tactics have been tried in Italy, a country where, starting in about 2012, vaccination rates plunged. In 2015, Italy had one of the lowest rates of vaccination against measles in Europe. At 85 percent, the rate was lower than India. In 2017, Italy suffered a predictably large outbreak of measles, with more than 5,000 cases and four deaths.
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