[wolco]

Didn't anti-vaxers exist before facebook?

There are areas now facebook and google doesn't service like hacking/cracking sites but those sites still exist.

When you try to hide information and the person discovers the truth it becomes so much more powerful because you are telling them this is forbidden knowledge that only a few have heard exists, you were right.

[MagnumOpus]

Before facebook, anti-vaccine sentiment mostly spread through newspapers and TV. There were big scares, but they were only ignited after at least some "experts" found the anti-vaccine argument credibe, and public sentiment could be restored by the same experts declaring it safe. So the threshold for irrational/gossip-driven antivax sentiment was far higher, and mitigation was far easier.

See, for instance, the UK pertussis vaccine scare and whooping cough epidemic in the 1970s... [1]

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy#UK,_pertussi...