Someone who rejects medical advice and scientific consensus about the efficacy and safety of vaccinations. Typically pairs with anti-
government paranoia, anti-corporate sentiment, conspiracy theories, and the "appeal to nature" fallacy. Anti-vaxxers also spawned the movement of
autism-trutherism, which claims that autism is caused as a response to adjuvants found in vaccinations.
While there are several common schools of thought among anti-vaxxer circles, specific claims will often change about why vaccinations are harmful. The anti-vaxxer will
single out benign ingredients as being particularly
toxic regardless of its concentration, or sometimes that inoculation itself is a
sham practice and was never necessary. Many anti-vaxxers instead champion "natural immunity," which involves actually contracting the disease that is vaccinated against in
hope that they will be less susceptible to it in the future.
Tactics often include the "argument from ignorance," the "appeal to nature," and "begging the question."