Infectious Disease Doctor Shares Plane Encounter with Vaccine Skeptic
He began by acknowledging the appeal of option explanations, adding with a smile, “But conspiracies are a lot more fun.”
Perhaps vaccine or disease origin conspiracies *are* fun-if your young and healthy, if you’re bored, if you’re motivated to access a community that promises “inside details.” But for the population as a whole, they are unbelievably dangerous.
Conspiracy theories are why a measles outbreak took hold in the U.S. this year, why CDC employees were targeted in a workplace shooting, why Ebola outbreaks are hard to contain, and why polio vaccine workers are killed abroad.
By the time our flight was over, our conversation had covered a wide geographic and political space. The experience left me with genuine hope that we could maintain trust in each other and reminded me that scientists and physicians cannot give up on having these conversations.
“With COVID,vaccines,Lyme disease,any of it-I’m not your enemy,” I told my seatmate as we were getting ready to disembark. “And I know you’re not the enemy, either.”
“True,” he agreed. ”But they always want to make someone your enemy.”
Exactly. That is what conspiracy theories require. That is why we have to talk to each other. See me as a person. And I will do the same.
I am not your enemy. Neither is science.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost in october 2025.