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Good lifestyles, hygiene and personal responsibility are preferable to vaccines
Some people will reject vaccinations based on unwarranted beliefs. For example, the claim that the body has a ‘natural healing potential’ or that ‘natural’ is always better. This may lead people to believe that suffering a ‘natural’ disease in order to achieve subsequent immunity is preferable to being vaccinated, which is the exact opposite of the actual risks.
Many adherents of ‘alternative medicine’ hold unwarranted beliefs and are sceptical of vaccinations.
Research has shown that these unwarranted beliefs are particularly shaped by ‘cognitive variables’, a psychological term which describes the ways in which people process information.
It is these cognitive variables that separate unwarranted beliefs from conspiracist beliefs, which is primarily influenced by perceived threat and emotional variables.
These cognitive variables include:
This theme claims that at best, vaccines are unnecessary because there are other ways one can avoid diseases or severe symptoms.
These presumed alternatives may include behavioural measures such as sanitation, quarantine and hygiene, and lifestyle choices such as exercise and cleanliness. They often also include nutritional elements such as organic and GMO-free food and vitamin supplements, as well as personal responsibility such as preventing exposure and ‘being careful’. This theme does not necessarily advocate naturalistic treatments but can include them as well in the forms of reducing ‘toxins’ or using herbs, essential oils and other CAM remedies.
These presumed alternatives may constitute a distraction from better disease-prevention methods. They may also take precedence over other important things such as self-care and or looking after children.
Good lifestyles, hygiene and personal responsibility are important components in the fight against diseases. Practising a healthy lifestyle can improve your health in nearly every regard and can decrease your risk of disease. Hygiene and personal responsibility, such as washing hands and keeping your distance, can help reduce the transmission of pathogens. Healthy lifestyles are promoted by health care professionals because they help prevent or may palliate some diseases. It is good to hold these healthy lifestyles in high regard.
Dialogue between patients and healthcare professionals is most productive if it is guided by empathy, and an opportunity for the patient to affirm the reasons underlying their attitudes and to express understanding for that. That’s why it is important to understand the attitude roots behind people’s overt opinions. To affirm a person’s underlying attitude root does not mean we need to agree with the specifics of their argument. For example, we can acknowledge that:
Good lifestyles, hygiene and personal responsibility are important components in the fight against diseases. Practising a healthy lifestyle can improve your health in nearly every regard and can decrease your risk of disease. Hygiene and personal responsibility, such as washing hands and keeping your distance, can help reduce the transmission of pathogens. Healthy lifestyles are promoted by health care professionals because they help prevent or may palliate some diseases. It is good to hold these healthy lifestyles in high regard.
Vaccines are another important part of a healthy lifestyle, because they train our body to fight off diseases.
It is impossible to completely eliminate exposure to diseases, no matter what you eat or how active your lifestyle is, because it is impossible to live completely isolated from society.
No other preventative measures can rival the protection offered by vaccination against infectious diseases that otherwise kill or harm people. We should therefore make vaccines part of a healthy lifestyle, which should have many components, each of which deal with different health threats. There is no single practice that can protect against all threats to our health, as diseases have diverse origins and respond to different preventative measures and treatments.
Additional information:
Academic references:
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