Beyond us and them: The role of trust in vaccine controversy
When it comes to the fraught topic of vaccines, Julie Rehmeyer is sometimes balancing on a razor-sharp edge.
She’s a science writer with an advanced mathematics degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also has many friends who, like her, have struggled with poorly understood diseases and share a distrust of the medical establishment as a result. For many that trust carries over to vaccines. Ms. Rehmeyer, whose memoir “Into the Shadowlands” chronicles her struggles with chronic fatigue syndrome, says she’s often hesitant to wade into the topic on public forums like social media because of how loaded it can be. But she also feels as if she occupies an unusual space in such a polarized realm.
“I value and respect people who don’t value and respect one another,” she says. “A lot of science writers don’t know anybody they respect who is hesitant about vaccines. ... Whether [those who are skeptical of vaccines] are right or not, this is an issue that deserves
A gap in trustWhat’s changed?Fitting the message to the audience
