The Daily Show has released a brilliant and hilarious science denialism episode on the anti-vaccination movement which, despite the comedy, highlights the dangers of this growing belief system. As shown in the YouTube clip below, Samantha Bee explores why most anti-vaxers seem to be well-educated, upper-middle class liberals, as opposed to “right-wing nutjobs” that are commonly associated with other anti-science ideas such as the denial of climate change and evolution.

What’s fueling the fire? According to the clip, a big part of it is well-educated people that believe just because they can plug the word “vaccine” into google, they immediately know better than everyone else. After all, if you don’t know how to objectively look at scientific studies and instead favor emotion-driven websites based on anecdote, dodgy statistics or celebrity endorsement, it can be very easy to fall into the trap.

As pointed out by Slate, it does make sense that being anti-vaccination appeals to more liberal people as there is some commonality between these ideas and the whole anti-corporation/Big Pharma movement. But as emphasized in the video: "vaccines are not a belief system- they are an evidence-based system."

Check out the episode here: