By Leslie Rosenblood 
In August 2010, I asked, in a Facebook post , “Why is vaccination vilified by so many?”, linking to a clever Penn & Teller segment from their show Bullshit! It was intended as a rhetorical question. It led to a months-long online debate about the merits of national immunization programs (they’re very good), and ultimately inspired the creation of my blog, Opinions and Questions .
In an upcoming talk, I will examine the arguments used by the anti-vaxxers, distinguish them from the vaccine-hesitant, provide some dos and don’ts on how to engage (should you choose to do so), and what the results were of my online debate about vaccines. I will also delve into human psychology and cognitive biases, how to distinguish between objective information and propaganda trying to masquerade as such, and what you can do to educate those in your social circle (in real life or online) on this topic and many others.
I hope you’ll be able to attend the talk on February 20 at 7pm (EST) at the Tranzac Club in Toronto (Brunswick Street just south of Bloor, between Bathurst and Spadina).
This article appears in the February 2020 version of Critical Links.