Because it’s mummy who decides to stay scared despite the fact that the boogeyman was well and truly discredited. It’s mummy’s turn to realize that the Daily Mail is not a good source of information, and to learn what herd/public/community immunity is. She’s the one who has to think “If immunization rates are plunging while autism rates are rising, what does that tell us?” And then hopefully it won’t be mummy’s child infecting those who are unable to be immunized — or, more horribly, becomes yet another child to die while the parents bemoan the fact that they never immunized him or her.
This article also shows the difficulties faced by parents no matter how well educated and maybe it speaks to your point about emotion and rhetoric to some degree too
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/life-and-physics/2013/apr/19/mmr
Because it’s mummy who decides to stay scared despite the fact that the boogeyman was well and truly discredited. It’s mummy’s turn to realize that the Daily Mail is not a good source of information, and to learn what herd/public/community immunity is. She’s the one who has to think “If immunization rates are plunging while autism rates are rising, what does that tell us?” And then hopefully it won’t be mummy’s child infecting those who are unable to be immunized — or, more horribly, becomes yet another child to die while the parents bemoan the fact that they never immunized him or her.