There's no justification for it. If it were up to me, no one would be allowed to opt out of vaccinations (aside from legitimate medical reasons). I consider it borderline child abuse.

Breaking the scientific illiteracy problem only weakens our cause. It dilutes people into smaller groups and almost removes the “big picture...

Even the use of words like “anti-GMO”, “anti-Vaccine”, weakens the effort of educating the public. It makes it very easy to cherry pick which parts of science we “believe in”. Science is a method.

As scientists, we have done a very poor job indeed educating the public. We are paying the price. Only with increased education about science on a large scale can we hope to bring people up to a level of scientific competence where they will not welcome conspiracies and magic to answer their questions...

If I am right, there was a campaign against vaccination for Diphtheria as well. My take on this is simple. The people who campaign against it ARE anti social. They base their comments and judgement on a wave of religiously/politically motivated propaganda, thereby directly risking the health and life of thousands of children. It is sad to see that people are more concerned about the flight of cows in the country rather than to stem the spread of such kind of ill-informed and detrimental campaigns.

I was hoping that particular brand of Hindutva inspired woo had passed Kerala by, Kerala being probably the most sensibly governed state in India.