They are just not aware that they have this fear and can’t therefore understand and work on it effectively. Some people just seem to be stuck in emotional toddlerhood.
I used to be antivax as a teen/early adult, you’re right at least in my case! Others are just eugenicists who want to use polio and COVID to get rid of the undesirables.
I’m sure there are some people who fall into the rabbit hole because of this, but the antivax movement goes a lot further than being afraid of needles. Antivaxxers with tattoos and the like.
Ink is easy to understand, while drugs and vaccines are not at all intuitive from the vulgar perspective of appearance.
Vaccines and ink are distinct from the needles that deliver them. If you believe people avoid vaccines because of the needle, you can’t turn around and say that it’s actually because of what the needle is delivering.
If someone isn’t okay with a single jab, why would they be okay with a repeated series of jabs for minutes on end?
I can absolutely make this distinction. There is a gigantic qualitative difference between continuous small picks where you don’t feel the injection and a jab. With a syringe you get upwards of 0.5 mL injected into your body. The syringe has a real size to it. It takes half a minute to get a vaccine and needle is in your arm for more than 3 seconds easily. The entire content of the syringe is injected at one.
My sister has a fear of needles but has tattoos; She does not fear the tattoo gun. This is the case for a lot of people. Your logic blasts past reality.
I also didn’t say it was the case for every antivaxxer that they’re rationalising a fear of needles. I am explaining one cause of something that knows an innumerable amount of causes.
The qualitative difference between a needle that jabs deep and a needle that jabs shallowly is actually very small because in both cases there is a needle slipping between skin.
I have a fear of needles; I just got my first flu vaccine this week because now Flu-mist is a thing and I still nearly had a panic attack just being around everyone getting the jab. I also have no tattoos because it involves a needle jabbing me and putting stuff in my body. “This is the case for a lot of people.” Not everyone afraid of needles is your sister. I’m not sorry if “my logic” is different than hers.
The title of your post sounds like a pretty sweeping statement about antivaxxers. Rereading it you didn’t say that it’s the only reason, but you sure didn’t include anything to indicate that there could be more.
The title of your post sounds like a pretty sweeping statement about antivaxxers
It sounds that way to you.
but you sure didn’t include anything to indicate that there could be more.
I don’t have to. This is showerthoughts.
Not everyone afraid of needles is your sister
But it the case for a lot of people. I can apply your argument to you. Your personal experience, or your fear, doesn’t mean all that much as an argument. I couldn’t also cite two other people I know who both have tattoos and fear injections. I am sorry if I offended you in any way, I do not mean to suggest that people with a fear of needles are antivax, that that is the general case at least.
“It sounds that way to you.”
No shit, that’s why I’m the one saying it.
“This is showerthoughts.”
Yah, that’s why I reread the title in light of your clarification and moved on, because you probably didn’t give your original post too much thought, just like I didn’t give too much thought to thinking you were speaking broadly in my first response.
“But it is the case for a lot of people.”
No shit, that’s exactly the argument I made because it’s exactly the argument you made because it’s not a good argument. If I shouldn’t be saying it, neither should you.
I don’t know how to interpret you saying my logic “blasts past reality” as anything but offensive because it’s just an insult without anything more to it.
LOGIC BLAST!!!
I said your logic blasts past reality before you reread what I said in detail. I was asking you to reconsider what I said, as it was said, and not to read anything into it inductively. I don’t mean to insult you, maybe it would have helped if I said “your logic blasts past what I am saying a bit”
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It’s mainly narcissism. They want to be right and they want to be the ones in the know. That need takes over their entire personality and they fall for crap like antivaxx grift easily.
It’s the exact same thing with flat earthers.
Antivaxxers fear the establishment and also overinflate their intelligence. I don’t think needles have much to do with it.
I can’t blame them for fearing the establishment when I think about who sits atop the world, the US specifically. Needles have a lot to do with it. It’s just that the establishment, i.e. Trump and co., makes use of people’s propensities to distort reality.
They started out with good intentions, like maga started out with rage about corruption. Then both movements spiraled into insanity with Russian help.
It absolutely didn’t start with good intentions. Antivaxxers are like kids who believe in Santa. Immaturity after a specific age is not tolerable and it didn’t spiral into insanity with Russian help. You’re placing undue emphasis here. The American brain, as well as whatever the fuck the Euros have is homemade. Any manipulation by Russians is abuse of the fact that people are extremely miseducated and frankly antagonised by their governments to begin with.
Elizabeth Holmes made billions being afraid of needles.
Why. Her machine still needed blood.
Twas but a finger prick.
People also don’t deal well with opt in probability, if you know that a vaccination will have a 1/100,000 chance of a side effect and actually getting the virus has a 1/100 chance of a side effect people will hesitate. It’s easier to live with taking no action and suffering ill effect then to bring the ill effect on you by choice.
I’m hella scared of needles. Which makes me even cooler and braver for still getting vaccinated
Same, but I rolled up my sleeves and got my shots. I also began giving blood. No excuses.
my friends didn’t get vax because he is afraid of needles , says it hurts it doesn’t have to be more complicated than the truth
You know what else hurts? Fucking measles
vaccines don’t hurt at all lol
Well, some of them do. Shingles was the most painful shot I’ve ever had in my life. It hurt the rest of the day and then some. Measles was the second most painful, but only for the duration of the shot itself and a short time after.
But I imagine the shingles shot to still be far less painful than actual shingles, from what people have told me of it, so I’d still choose the shot every time.
I had both shinrix about 3 years ago. I had shingles in '94.
- Shingles Fucking hurts.
- The shots were nothing after the actual injection.
The anthrax made my whole arm hurt for a day for each of the six shots. Small pox also hurt but that involves getting jabbed a bunch of time in a little circle at the same time.
I mean these are the exception and even then you just gotta bite the bullet, the pain is 100% worth it.
not the vaccines , the needles dude doesn’t even hit the dentist
The COVID vaccine definitely did cause me some pain on the skin when I got it. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have gotten it, of course.
That’s one potential motivation. There are many others.
Fear of doctors in general.
A severe mistrust of scientific authority. To be fair, scientific authorities have been really wrong and actively harmful sometimes.
To be fair does anyone trust the CDC or FDA right now?
The FDA has been corrupted, but long before Trump.
https://www.statnews.com/2025/11/02/fda-george-tidmarsh-regulator-kevin-tang/
There is a revolving door between pharma and FDA, similar to Wall street and the SEC.
Fear of problems by looking for them.
Most people stop learning when things get slightly difficult, which happens somewhere around 10-12 years old. That’s as far as most people get, and they remain roughly at that level for the rest of their lives. When considered in this way, many things about society and irrational beliefs make more sense.
im a needlephobe and I get vaxxed. I hate it but I have had decade to find ways to deal with it. Still can’t stand seeing someone else get one or such. Curiously you would think I would want to get them all at once but like. I have to really get myself together for each one and it is just better for it to happen and be over asap.
For influenza:
And COVID mist vaccines are coming. These aerosol vaccines work better than injections for respiratory viruses because they form two kinds of antibodies, and they prime the immune response in the airway, which is the route of natural infection.
I just think idiots in more developed countries have lost respect for the diseases that used to ravage the population. Smallpox, measles, and polio happened before their time and they assume their deadliness was overstated. In an attempt to look smart and persecuted they became vocal supporters of the antivax movement. I’ll admit there are probably a few of people who are afraid of needles to be in the antivaxer’s ranks though.
The phenomenon doesn’t seem too different from flat earthers who refuse to acknowledge objective evidence that runs counter to their beliefs and double down whenever they’re forced to see the truth.
Nope. We have aerosol mist flu vaccines and they won’t take them either.
There are probably some, but the only anti vax person I personally know is cool with acupuncture. It’s not fear of needles, it’s lack of fear of how horrific these diseases are. They also were a covid denier, so that also says a lot.
