During the Covid pandemic, senior lecturer Mia-Marie Hammarlin at Lund University conducted in-depth interviews with several Swedish vaccine opponents. In her research, she has found that the decision not to vaccinate oneself or one's children is strongly linked to spirituality and a desire to live a healthy life.
The fact that the ongoing measles outbreak is linked to the Urkult festival, which attracts an alternative audience, does not surprise her.
These people's idea is often that the body is perfect as it is, almost like a creation of God, and then they want to live cleanly and not add any external "toxins" to the body, she says.
Criticism of modern medicine
In this context, the disease measles is seen, according to Hammarlin, as natural to get and something that can strengthen the immune system if you are affected by it as a child, something that is not supported by research.
At the same time, there is another group. A study published by the SOM Institute in Gothenburg in 2022 showed that people who were generally dissatisfied with how Swedish democracy works were less willing to take the Covid-19 vaccine. The greatest hesitation was among male SD sympathizers.
Mia-Marie Hammarlin sees similarities between the two groups.
If you zoom out a little, you can sense in both cases a criticism of modern medicine's sometimes inability to help people with their suffering, she says.
In Sweden, the measles vaccination coverage rate is around 95 percent, according to the Swedish Public Health Agency, and Hammarlin emphasizes that Swedish vaccine opponents are still a small minority.
At the same time, the movement is gaining ground globally, not least in the United States, which has a vaccine-skeptical health minister. According to Mia-Marie Hammarlin, the American anti-vaccination movement has a clear political colour.
“Is a rabbit hole”
There are statistics that show that many more Republicans died from Covid-19, which was linked to the fact that fewer people in that group got vaccinated, she says.
How do you reach a person who is hesitant about vaccines? Mia-Marie Hammarlin believes that much depends on doctors and other healthcare professionals in their meetings with patients, showing understanding that many may have difficulty orientating themselves as to what is fact and what is not.
Searching for vaccination side effects is a "rabbit hole", anyone can be scared. If you understand that and show respect for that reality then I think you will go far.
