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RE: Herd Immunity: The Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Is Protecting Even Those Who Don't Receive It

in #steemstem7 years ago

Thanks for your informative post and taking a stand against the #antivax delusionals. I look forward to having a reputation score as high as yours so I can downvote their trolling under #science

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I don't recommend downvoting anyone for expressing their opinions on something (no matter how wrong I think those opinions are). They deserve their space to discuss what they think, just as I deserve my space to discuss the actual data. I added the disclaimer at the top as an attempt to preempt my need to have any arguments and let this post sort of just stand on its own. The vax-antivax battle is not one which results in an educational experience for anyone. It just gets emotions inflamed. Best to avoid it and focus on the information.

IMO there's "expressing their opinions" and "trolling" and those are two different things. I agree it can be a subjective judgement call. But there's a reason that the downvote option in Steemit spells out trolling as a reason - it's anti social behaviour that ruins the Steemit community.

If someone tags their post as #science they should be ready to stick up for scrutiny as science and not run around trying to cry bully scientists that hold them to scientific principles.

That may sound "hard core" to some people but let's not forget that anti-vax propaganda is no joke, it can actually lead to people dying unnecessarily, and not even ones gullible enough to fall for it, innocent and vulnerable people who are immunocompromised.

This may be, but flagging behavior can lead to a war between the opposing sides of the argument. The flags will be returned in kind leading to obscuring of good explanations. It is best to focus on promoting good content then flagging bad content. Make good science more visible and the nutty stuff will return to the shadows. People crave factual reassuring answers. Nobody wants to live by fear driven propaganda.