[BenjiWiebe]

In my opinion, anti-intellectualism is the cause of antivax, and commonly goes along with conservatism, but isn't the same thing as conservatism.

[jfengel]

Until recently, antivax was largely a liberal form of anti-intellectualism. It was a reaction against large pharmaceutical companies.

It didn't really become a conservative position until COVID. It's mostly an anti-progressive thing, but builds on existing populist conservative anti-science attitudes. (Conservative doesn't always mean anti-science, but populist versions of it will inevitably tend that way.)