Avery Adelini is a biological sciences sophomore and political opinion columnist for Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
College is gross. I went to the utensil dispenser in 1901 to grab a fork and flipped a U-turn when I saw someone sneeze straight onto the countertop. I’ve done an E.coli T-streak on a petri dish in my ecology lab and realized that the smell of bacteria is extremely similar to that of my apartment building. We might as well live in a petri dish. Outbreaks such as “poly plague”, influenza and hand, foot and mouth disease (I’m looking at you, Sequoia, spring quarter 2026) run rampant year-round.
I often find myself wondering if anyone is actually trying to avoid getting sick. Dodging disease isn’t as impossible as it sounds. The Health Center provides plenty of resources to do just that: affordable medications, masks and most notably, vaccines.
The recent measles case in SLO is one red flag in a much larger public health problem. Measles cases in the U.S. have reached their highest level in 35 years, while vaccination rates for measles in kindergartners has dropped from 95.2% to 92.4% since 2020. These numbers point to an unsettling reality: people are beginning to take the protection that vaccines provide for granted. As the fear of preventable diseases grows more distant, misinformation and distrust can make evidence-based medicine seem more dangerous than the disease it prevents.
It’s important to think critically and harbor suspicion, but so is keeping a mindset that is not predisposed to rejection. Be skeptical thoughtfully: ask questions to understand, not to simply reinforce your fears.
Many antivaccine beliefs can be traced back to a fraudulent paper published by Andrew Wakefield in “The Lancet” in 1998. The study claimed to link the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to behavioral regression and developmental disorders in children. It was deeply unethical and biased: the sample included just 12 children, many referred by an anti-vaccine group, and medical records were altered to fit Wakefield’s preexisting hypothesis.
The paper was retracted and Wakefield lost his medical license. However, the suspicion persists and the effects of the fraudulent study were still being felt a decade later.
Even though anti-vax distrust isn’t based on this one study, it raises a point for consideration: where do our suspicions surrounding medicine come from? Why are we choosing who to trust? Are we being honest with ourselves when we say we are unbiased? How personal do we make issues like this?
It’s good to be skeptical of medicine. Being skeptical is how we ask questions that lead to positive change. However, there is a difference between being curious and standoffish. I find that much vaccine suspicion comes from a closed mindset. If you outright reject every benefit of immunizations, you’re going to continuously prove to yourself that they’re evil and a part of “Big Pharma’s” plan to give all of us autism.
You shouldn’t just ‘smile-and-nod’ and blindly trust any type of medical treatment offered to you. But you also shouldn’t go around healthcare facilities with the attitude that every doctor is trying to trick you either.
Ask questions in an attempt to understand and not to prove your point or confirm your biases. Approaching these topics with humility and curiosity is how you receive the best possible care. Trust people with skepticism; don’t let skepticism cause you to reject reason.
If you are hesitant to get yourself or current/ future children a measles vaccine, I ask that you truly weigh the perceived risks versus the benefits. Since the implementation of the measles vaccine, an estimated 59 million deaths due to the virus have been prevented. Trust the science, the numbers and the big picture. Don’t let mistrust destroy your rationality.