Trump Isn't an Anti-Vaxxer. He's a Slow Vaxxer (Slate)

[William Seger]

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2016/12/trump_s_endorsement_of_slow_vaxxing_explains_his_appeal.html

Anti-vaxxers think they finally have a friend in the White House. Donald Trump has voiced concerns about vaccines for at least a decade, and, in August, he reportedly attended a fundraiser with disgraced and delicensed doctor Andrew Wakefield, whose discredited research helped launch the anti-vaccination panic.

But Trump isn’t quite an anti-vaxxer. If he were, he wouldn’t have vaccinated his own children. In fact, Trump is a slow vaxxer, which means he accepts the idea of vaccination, but he thinks kids get too many vaccines, too early in life. In practice, this means parents pick their own vaccine schedule, scientific standards be damned.

If you are struggling to understand the appeal of Donald Trump—as I have been for months—his vaccine position offers a window. Trump occupies a middle ground between fact and fiction. For people who can’t distinguish between the two, this compromise is irresistible.

Imagine that you don’t understand medical research. You’re torn between the medical establishment and the scary claims of anti-vaxxers. In that context, slow vaxxing seems like the ideal third way. Here’s Trump, talking about his son Baron in 2007...

[HockeyMom]

1. He's said he has never gotten a flu shot, or the flu, in his life

Anti-Vaxxer? Make you wonder if he has gotten all the other vaccinations recommended for a man his age? Along with Air Force One, he has also said he doesn't want a White House Doctor. lol Maybe why not?

[marybourg]

2. I hope you're not implying that

anyone who has never gotten a flu shot, or the flu, in her/his life is an anti-vaxxer. Because I fall into that group and certainly am not an anti-vaxxer.

[Maru Kitteh]

3. Someone who makes a big hairy deal about never having got a flu shot

is more likely to be an anti-vaxxer. Trump is anti-science. He doesn't understand it, so it's not "real" to him.

[HockeyMom]

5. Ask that question right here

You might be surprised at the answers.

[Maru Kitteh]

4. A White House doctor will tell the truth about his health. Of course he doesn't want one.