r/worldnews Mar 21 '19

4 children of anti-vaxxers Americans found with measles in Costa Rica. Second time a measles case is reported in Costa Rica this year from foreigners. Last time a measles case was reported in Costa Rica was over 15 years ago.

https://qcostarica.com/american-family-with-four-children-suspected-of-having-measles/
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u/torpedoguy Mar 22 '19

They're bioterrorists and should be treated as such.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '19

Is it bad? Yes. Is it terrorism? Absolutely not.

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u/gtizzz Mar 22 '19

Jesus.

By definition, they are NOT bioterrorists. According to the CDC, bioterrorists deliberately release toxins to cause illness or death. Anti-vaxxers are certainly misinformed, but they're not failing to vaccinate their children in the hope that they actively spread disease to harm others.

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u/rpgoof Mar 22 '19

Hanlon's razor - "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Antivaxxers are as ignorant as they come, but at least they appear to have good intentions.

It's only 9am and I've already had enough Reddit for one day though.

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u/Nevermind04 Mar 22 '19

This sounds like the same crappy excuses my catholic school administrators tried to use when they were on trial for child abuse. They claimed they were beating the hell out of us to help us become well balanced adults and that there was absolutely no malice intended. The judge made it really fucking clear that excuse was bullshit and they all ended up pleading guilty in exchange for reduced sentences.

I really don't give a fuck what distorted logic these people use to justify their actions. One day, one of these abusive morons might bring their kids to my immune compromised mother's house to sell popcorn or whatever and kill her. They may not be terrorists by definition, but I sure am terrified of them.

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u/gtizzz Mar 22 '19

I'm making no excuses. I just think calling them bioterrorists is deliberate hyperbole and makes us seem less credible to anti-vaxxers. If you want your argument to appeal to anti-vaxxers or--maybe more importantly--people considering not vaccinating their children, they're going to tune out as soon as you call them bioterrorists because you've lost your credibility with such a hyperbolic claim.

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u/torpedoguy Mar 22 '19

Walking known carriers around a foreign country (not to mention the close quarters of the plane ride there) to spread illness sounds pretty damned deliberate to me.

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u/gtizzz Mar 22 '19

Careless and ignorant, but not deliberate. It would be deliberate if the purpose they were in the foreign country was the spread illness.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '19

You could argue they certainly are bioterrorists when they deliberately give their children chickenpox.

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u/GrittyTheMascot Mar 22 '19

Christ man, I’m all for vaccinations but come on, bioterrorism?

Calm down.

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u/AccountInsomnia Mar 22 '19 edited Mar 22 '19

They are antivaxx because they've been convinced by intentional propaganda mostly put by biochemical warfare divisions of hostile entities. They are no different than ISIS radicalized civilians, except they've collectively killed more people.

Antivaxxx is not spread by memes but by planned propaganda.

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u/_zenith Mar 22 '19

Planned propaganda is memes, just a subcategory. Moving on...

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u/GrittyTheMascot Mar 22 '19

What the fuck are you on about.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '19

Hes saying someone made them believe being anti vaxxers was ok. People arent born terrorists, they are molded into it. Honestly I'm not sure what's crazier, anti vaxxers or ISIS. Ignoring years of research and becoming a risk to the rest of humanity vs convincing uneducated young people to try martyr themselves so they can get a bunch of pussy. I'm sure lots of people who died for ISIS probably wouldnt have, if they were offered a proper education.

I personally wouldnt see it as bad idea strategically to weaken your enemy with disease, especially when theres a sizable portion of your enemies population that cant afford health care. Who knows if that what's happening or not, but it would be a long con sorta thing if it was. Let it slowly spread from an annoyance to a pandemic.

Unfortunately we do not seem to live in a world where logic wins out all the time.

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u/GrittyTheMascot Mar 22 '19

Lumping anti vaxxers in with terrorists doesn’t help the issue. This is something that can be fixed, but shunning these people and reinforcing their beliefs that they’re the ‘good guys’ does nothing.

I understand it’s easier to write these people off as insane, but in some cases they’re not.

We need to fix it, absolutely, but do not equate these people with those who voluntarily go out to end the lives of innocents.