What motivates vaccine refusers? ‘Corona shots have not contributed to the popularity of regular vaccinations’

When Britt Ditmar recently saw the news about the declining vaccination rate, she was not surprised. In fact, her first thought was: ‘Great, we’re going back to basics. More and more mothers are choosing to put their own feelings first and do not allow themselves to be persuaded.’

Ten years ago, Ditmar (33), who works as a self-employed person in healthcare and as a sports instructor, was the only one in her area who decided to no longer vaccinate her children. Now she knows many people who make the same choice, she says. ‘I hear it more and more from friends and mothers at school.’

Since 2015, the percentage of children receiving basic vaccinations against infectious diseases has been declining. Vaccination rates among babies and toddlers have now fallen below 90 percent for the first time in decades, the limit needed to prevent outbreaks. For measles, that limit is even 95 percent.

In certain cities and areas, basic immunity among infants is even lower: 85 percent in Amsterdam, 83 percent in Gelderland-Midden, 84 percent in The Hague. While the vaccination rate used to be particularly low in the Bible Belt, the decline is now taking place almost everywhere.

Trust in vaccines

It is a global trend that confidence in vaccines has decreased during the corona pandemic. This was evident from a report by Unicef ​​last year. In the Netherlands, confidence has fallen by 20 percent, especially among people under 35 and women.

The government and GGD are struggling to reach these people. They do not belong to a defined community, but form a mixed group that has grown to distrust the government. What moves these people? And will the recent outbreaks of measles and whooping cough change their minds?

These questions explained de Volkskrant for a group of people who completed a survey two years ago about not taking a corona vaccination. Many of them are still bothered by the fact that they were excluded at the time because they did not have a QR code.

Corona vaccines

Several say that they are not outspokenly against vaccinations, but have increasingly had doubts in recent years, including about regular vaccines. “I will make a decision for each vaccine,” says a father of a 5-year-old daughter. His wife works in healthcare. “It also depends on what she thinks.”

Many people think that ‘it plays a role that the government intervened so heavily in personal privacy during corona times’, says Saskia, who did not have her children vaccinated for corona, but previously gave them the basic vaccinations. ‘I hear that a lot as a reason for distrust of vaccines in my area.’

“It was always pretended that there was no compulsory vaccination during the pandemic, but many people experienced this differently – there is still a lot of old pain,” says a man whose children have previously received the regular vaccinations, but not the corona vaccine. ‘We now continue as normal, without self-reflection from the government or from the people who called others wappie.’

It would help, he thinks, if the government acknowledges that mistakes have been made and that people have been wrongly excluded. ‘Then the government can explain again that there is a big difference between the corona vaccinations and the National Vaccination Program, which has brought a lot of good. But unfortunately the VVD is now opting for coercion again, with a plan to exclude unvaccinated children from childcare.’

“The corona shots have indeed not contributed to the popularity of the regular vaccinations,” says Laura Spijker from Heiloo. Her children did receive the first round of basic vaccinations, although she already had doubts at the time. ‘The oldest is 8. Now the next round is coming and I’m in doubt again. The measles outbreak makes me think.’

She emphasizes that she is not against vaccinations. ‘But what disappoints me most is the standard range of vaccination cocktails, which does not allow you to choose which diseases you do and do not want to protect your child against.’

Different worlds

Eleven years ago, Britt Ditmar had her daughter vaccinated against known infectious diseases. ‘I was young and did what I was told. Immediately afterwards my daughter became ill, her lungs were inflamed and she was very short of breath. That was very scary. Doctors said it was no big deal. But a few months later, with new vaccinations, it happened again.’

She especially hated that the medical world denied that the vaccinations had anything to do with it. ‘After that I chose the natural route and never gave my daughter and later my son an injection again. I started reading more and made the decision: what risk do you want to take?’

Ditmar came to the conclusion that the chance of her children becoming seriously ill is ‘negligible’. ‘These diseases were especially prevalent at a time when there were still twenty of us living in a house and no clean drinking water.’ She does not believe that a high vaccination rate also contributes to eradicating these diseases.

She trusts her children’s immune systems, she says. “They’ve never had anything worse than a fever.” And even if her children did get sick, she has no reason to panic. ‘The measles is intense, but a child becomes so strong if it passes through such a disease naturally.’

She finds it terrible that four babies recently died from whooping cough, but it does not make her think differently about the vaccine, which according to several studies offers 90 percent protection, but whose effect she considers ‘unproven’. A bigger problem is that people eat and live unhealthy, she believes. ‘When I see the average shopping cart, I understand why children are so affected by a disease like measles.’