Simpson’s transformation
Ms. Simpson of Back to the Vax got her first COVID-19 immunization April 16. She had an allergic reaction, including severe itchiness and a bad headache, and needed emergency care, she said. Even so, she scheduled her second shot appointment.
Like many who turned against vaccines as adults, Ms. Simpson had all her childhood vaccines, but she developed a distrust after watching a lengthy documentary series that warned of vaccine dangers as an adult.
Looking back at that documentary, she thought about how it seems to blame everything – childhood cancer, ADHD, autism, allergies – on vaccinations. That suddenly seemed like sketchy science to her.
So did the claim from a family friend who said she knew someone who got the flu shot and began walking backward. She researched on her own, and with time, she decided to be pro-vaccines.
These days, she continues to find that stories, not statistics, are changing the minds of many who decide to get vaccinated. If the nurse practitioner urging the tetanus shot for her daughter had told her that the tetanus shot is linked with problems in one of a specific number of people who get it, no matter how large that second number was, Ms. Simpson said she would have thought: “What if she is that one?”
So she relies on stories that point out how universally vulnerable people are to COVID-19 first, facts next.
“Facts help once you are already moved,” Ms. Simpson said.
A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.