Anti-vaxxer (Antivaxxer)
Someone who is “anti-vaccination” has been called an “anti-vaccer” (antivaccer) or “anti-vaxer” (antivaxer) or “anti-vaxxer” (antivaxxer). The terms—especially anti-vaxxer—became popular during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, but were in use much earlier.
“Of course the anti-vaccers took this and ran with it” was posted on the newsgroup misc.kids.health on July 13, 1999. “...the anti-vaxers are only too pleased to help” was posted on the newsgroup misc.health.alternative on January 14, 2001. “Dating an anti-vaxxer? Ewww” was posted on Twitter by Phil Plait on July 15, 2008.
“anti-vaxer” was entered in the Urban Dictionary on April 9, 2014. “anti-vaxxer” was entered in the Urban Dictionary on August 28, 2015. “anti-vaccer” was entered in the Urban Dictionary on April 20, 2018.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
anti-vaxxer, n.
Compare earlier anti-vaccinator n. at anti- prefix 3b(b)(ii).
With the form anti-vaxxer compare faxxer, variant of faxer n. at fax v. Derivatives, doxxer, variant of doxer n. at dox v. Derivatives, etc. The expressive doubling of x has become increasingly common in a number of words in digital communications since the 1990s, and probably has its origin in the language of advertising.
A person opposed to vaccination. Cf. anti-vax n.
2001 misc.health.alternative 14 Jan. (Usenet newsgroup, accessed 16 June 2017) The anti-vaxers are only too pleased to help.
2015 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 25 Aug. d6/2 It is more effective to appeal to anti-vaxxers through their emotions, with stories and pictures of children sick with measles, the mumps or rubella.
Merriam-Webster
anti-vaxxer noun
: a person who opposes the use of vaccines or regulations mandating vaccination
First Known Use of anti-vaxxer
2008, in the meaning defined above
Google Groups: misc.kids.health
Informed Choice
Lon Morgan
Jul 13, 1999, 3:00:00 AM
(...)
This supposed link depended entirely on in-office survey done years ago by Odent on some of his patients. Of course the anti-vaccers took this and ran with it and have completely ignored the careful studies done since which refutes this.
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T D Laing
Jul 22, 1999, 3:00:00 AM
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VAERS is a post-licensing, passive surveillance database. It IMHO can provide valid information, but it must be considered in light of such factors as how many doses of a vaccine were given, how many people received a particular vaccine, etc. and so on. Since we never hear of such factors from anti-vacc groups, as such NVIC’s and other anti-vacc groups’ interpretation is incomplete. Yet those anti-vaccers who claim to want complete data, don’t want to institute the very measure that will provide complete data: a prospective, inclusive health registry of the entire population. They lobby against it. Can’t have it both ways.
The Millennium Project
From: Peter Bowditch
Newsgroups: misc.health.alternative
Subject: The shaken baby I was talking about
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 12:39:27 GMT
(...)
Other pages on the web site that these quotes came from make it quite clear that at least one of the authors of this paper is opposed to vaccination, which is why he has taken up the case of Allan Yurko (the father of the dead child). Further support for Yurko comes from Sheri Nakken (http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm)who seems to be very well respected in the anti-vax cult. Her site contains a very long letter purportedly from Yurko (but more likely written by some PR flack) telling of the horrors of vaccination.
Yurko is also a cause célèbre for other campaigners. Examples are The Portia Project (http://www.portia.org) which treats everyone in prison as political prisoners or something like that and someone running a list of people in prison for victimless crimes, caught up in the war on drugs (http://www.hoboes.com/pub/Prohibition/Activists/WOD Prisoner%20List, http://paranoia.lycaeum.org/war.on.drugs/casualties/ drug.prisoners). It looks like Yurko has a good PR operation going for him to try to get him out of prison, and the anti-vaxers are only too pleased to help.
Google Groups: alt.support.attn-deficit
WARNING WARNING WARNING
Mark Probert
Jun 28, 2002, 4:47:46 PM
(...)
Always a good idea to avoid whatever can be avoided. However, I do not think that you have anything to be concerned abou.t Note the way the anti-vaxers are swtiching to ADHD…they need more fearmongering, as they are real short on facts.
Google Groups: uk.people.parents
Mothers Lose Vaccination Fight
Tinkerbell
Aug 3, 2003, 9:34:35 AM
“Jonathan Larmour”
wrote in message
news:hc1uv-
> You just did.
Not surprising really when we retaliate with words occasionally. Anti-vaxers tend to be pro-choice, even if they don’t believe that vaxing is safe and therefore don’t do it themselves. Quite a lot of vaxers I’ve come across have tried to bully me in to vaxing, ridiculed me, or been downright rude.
Google Groups: sci.med.nutrition
Re: More Flu Vaccine Delays: Please BEG—NOT!
David Wright
Oct 15, 2005, 7:25:47 PM
(...)
By the anti-vaxers, definitely.
Google Groups: sci.med.nursing
Vaccine quote of the week by Bernard Rimland, PhD
David Wright
Jul 9, 2006, 6:30:32 PM
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If evidence this biased came from the “vaccines don’t cause autism” researchers, the anti-vaxers would be screaming the house down. But bias is only bad when they think their opponents are showing it.
>This debate is not scientific but is political.
True. There’s no real scientific debate about the worthlessness of the typical anti-vaxer “evidence.”
Google Groups: misc.kids.health
Autism rates even higher
David Wright
Feb 11, 2007, 12:39:22 PM
Won’t fly, John-boy. MMR uptake rates haven’t changed much for many years, yet according to you, autism continues to increase. In any event, the measles component is what the anti-vaxers blame, yet measles vaccination goes back to the 1960s in the US, so autism rates should have shot up by 1970. They didn’t.
Twitter
Candice@candice·Sep 6, 2007
@vaspers Anti-vaccers, eh… Blah blah blah mercury. Thimerserol blah. CANDICE SMASH. Y’ain’t on their side, are ya? Because it’s 100% woo.
31 October 2007, The Australian (Canberra, ACT), pg. 33:
“Anti-vaxers fall under the category of `a little knowledge is dangerous’. Any serious attempt to research vaccination reveals this to be a life-saving, health-preserving procedure.” Karen Stollznow on Barry Williams’s blog in defence of vaccination.
Twitter
Karoli
@Karoli
Anti-vaxers on the attack: subpoena served on Neurodiversity, saying she’s a pharma shill Attack the bloggers..http://snurl.com/23isa
10:08 PM · Apr 4, 2008·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
Phil Plait
@BadAstronomer
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind = awesome, even if Jim Carrey is a dope. Dating an anti-vaxxer? Ewww.
11:05 PM · Jul 15, 2008·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
Phil Plait
@BadAstronomer
Getting tweets saying Jim Carrey *is* an antivaxxer. Wonderful. I’ll have to check that out. Bleccchhh.
11:27 PM · Jul 15, 2008·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
Phil Plait@BadAstronomer·Jul 16, 2008
Replying to @FrankBoisvert
@boisvertfj: antivaxxers are people who think vaccinations cause autism. It’s a modern day Salem witch hunt. Search my blog for “autism”.
Twitter
Mali Dragon@malidragon·Jul 16, 2008
Replying to @BadAstronomer
@BadAstronomer There was an outbreak of pertussis in an East Bay Waldorf school just a few months ago. Antivaxxers are spreading
Twitter
Paul Judd@PureLogarithm·Jul 16, 2008
Replying to @BadAstronomer
@BadAstronomer Carey being an anti-vaxer does not surprise me. He strikes me as the odd type
Twitter
jerry anning@anatman·Jul 16, 2008
Replying to @BadAstronomer
@BadAstronomer Keep up the good work on exposing the silliness of the antivaxers. I remember polio, measles, whooping cough etc. Never again
Twitter
Norman Papernick
@visionline
Reading about Anti-vaxxers. The plural of anecdote is not data.
11:31 AM · Aug 23, 2008·Twitter Web Client
Google Groups: misc.kids.health
Anti-vaxxers Failing
Mark Probert
Sep 5, 2008, 5:59:55 AM
National, State, and Local Area Vaccination Coverage Among Children
Aged 19—35 Months—- United States, 2007
Twitter
Kenneth Love@kennethlove·Sep 13, 2008
Replying to @danbenjamin
@danbenjamin peds are often quite skeptical. But it’s understandable w/ all the anti-vaxxers, I guess. Still, you know your kid best.
Twitter
mace@mace·Sep 24, 2008
@airdrie Don’t buy into the antivaxers crap. Vaccines in no way cause autism.
Twitter
lbrainrbrain
@lbrainrbrain
of an academic researcher with the intent of chilling or interfering with their academic freedom….” I hope it works against antivaxers.
10:55 PM · Oct 6, 2008·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
Andy Standfield
@andystandfield
Queen of the antivaxers gets what she deserves! (YouTube): http://bit.ly/2tmR3R
10:34 AM · Oct 7, 2008·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
lbrainrbrain
@lbrainrbrain
http://hellotxt.com/l/q45I -Antivaxer rally in NJ
7:27 PM · Oct 16, 2008·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
Allison Thurman
@adotnon
I am tired of reading anti-vaxer rubbish. Stupid stupid stupid!
10:16 AM · Oct 21, 2008·Twitter Web Client
Google Groups: va-gun-news
Pediatrics (why it’s a good thing that pediatricians screen for guns in homes) (COMMENT)
Bruce Jackson
Nov 7, 2008, 8:12:50 PM
to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), Guns-VCDL
http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2008/11/pediatrics.php
http://tinyurl.com/6laogm
Pediatrics
Category: Medical Education
Posted on: November 6, 2008 6:41 AM, by MarkH
(...)
It’s a helluva a field of medicine, and if anything it has made me more passionate about educating against anti-vaxxers and quacks.
Twitter
Elliot Birch
@skelliot
Just saw, Yes Man. Funnny movie..shame Jim is a shameless anti-vaccer now :(
5:23 AM · Jan 2, 2009·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
J.D. Crowley and Associates
@jdcrowley
@scazon: Also,considering the way the anti-vaccers’ minds seem to operate, it’s pretty clear where their kids get their mental deficiencies.
2:20 PM · Feb 12, 2009·Twitter Web Client
Newspapers.com
9 March 2009, Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette, pg. B6, col. 3:
‘Anti-vaxxers’ are putting many at risk
In the March 1 article “The Vaccine Dilemma,” you failed to mention the basic error the “anti-vaxxers” make: They violate the basic scientific principle of “correlation is not causation.” What that means is just because two things happen at nearly the same time does not mean one caused the other.
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Since that paper was published there have been hundreds of papers published in medical journals showing that childhood vaccines are safe and do not cause autism. Parents should not avoid vaccinations; by doing so they endanger their own children and the children of others.
HENRY C. SCHMITT
Squirrel Hill
Newspapers.com
23 May 2009, Vancouver (BC) Sun, “Science is clearly not on their side, but vaccination foes are unswayed; Their movement is motivated by beliefs, values and conspiracy theories” by Peter McKnight, pg. C5, col. 4:
The anti-vax movement is therefore motivated by values, by specific philosophies about how to live. Given this, it’s highly unlikely that dissemination of the research will change any anti-vaxer’s opinion. This has in fact been confirmed empirically, as studies have shown that anti-vaxers are actually more likely to oppose vaccination after being informed of the risks and benefits.
Twitter
astruc
@astruc
Great. Antivaccer hysteria on my vegan communities. :(
1:11 AM · Jul 22, 2009·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
Slau Halatyn@SlauBeSharp·Sep 11, 2009
Replying to @adammagazine
@adammagazine Wild antivaccers couldn’t keep me away!
Urban Dictionary
anti-vaxer
1. A person who apposes vaccinations despite scientific evidence. Often associated with a fear that they cause autism.
2. Slang for someone who refuses to acknowledge obvious facts because they’re contrary to their preconceptions.
Those stupid anti-vaxers have brought back previously defeated illnesses like measles and mumps all over the country.
Did you hear Jill try to argue that Ken Ham won the debate with Billy Nye? She’s such a delusional Anti-vaxer!.
by ReginaAstrum April 09, 2014
Urban Dictionary
anti-vaxxer
Someone who discounts scientifically valid medical research pertaining to vaccines in favor of data produced by a discredited researcher.
The anti-vaxxer movement has negatively impacted herd immunity and resulted in outbreaks of presentable diseases.
by Zyndell August 28, 2015
Urban Dictionary
anti-vaccer
A troubled adult going through a mid-life crisis. Most likely someone from a rural population or someone who is uneducated on the mechanism of action of vaccines and bases their understanding of vaccines solely on the non-intellects around them or through the propaganda provided by anti-vaccination groups. This person is very likely someone who heavily relies on case reports for their understanding of the major side-effects of vaccines thinking this type of anecdotal evidence is real science and is easily swayed by the media. This person may also be someone who has supposedly lost or has known someone who has lost a child to immunization. Thankfully, I am not one of these people, if you couldn’t already tell.
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by contractile vacuole April 20, 2018