The mainstream media would have you believe that parents who choose not to vaccinate their children (or even those who choose to delay vaccination, to space out vaccines, or to reject some vaccines) do so because they have listened to Jenny McCarthy or other celebrities with no scientific qualifications.
The reality – as anyone can find out for themselves by spending even a little time perusing "anti-vaxxer" groups on social media (search #WeDid) – is that the vast majority of parents who question vaccine safety do so because their own children have been severely injured, or have died, soon after receiving vaccines. Vaccine proponents will argue that these deaths and injuries were just coincidences, that the vaccines were not to blame, and for some fraction of these incidents they may be right (I discussed this more a few years ago, here.) Although I have to say that I sure don't remember ever hearing about perfectly normal children suddenly starting to have seizures, losing the ability to speak, walk, function, etc. overnight, when I was growing up.
But all of that is beside the point. The point is that an increasing number of parents are concerned about vaccine safety, not because they listened to some celebrity on a talk show and decided to disregard everything their doctors had ever told them, but because they experienced what they reasonably believe to be harm from vaccines, first-hand.
The people in the photo above are attending a rally that was held yesterday, in Washington State, to protest proposed vaccine mandates there. Claire Wilbur, who was there, says that thousands of people showed up to protest the legislation. And the ones with their hands in the air? Those are the ones who are there because they have had one or more children injured or killed by vaccines.