For more than three decades, Jules Diamond didn’t believe in vaccination.
“I had a real fear of anything impure going into my children,” Ms Diamond, 52, told Insight’s Kumi Taguchi.
The mother of two distrusted conventional medical information, doctors and governments. She had two drug-free home births and refused all vaccines, painkillers and ultrasounds.
Ms Diamond recalled being taken aback when a friend called her a conspiracy theorist.
“I was incredibly uncomfortable with that statement because that's not something that I identified with,” Ms Diamond said.
“I called myself a purist. [But] I would now say, yes, I am an ex-conspiracy theorist.”
Julie Diamond pictured in her younger years.
“A conspiracy theory can be a belief about the cause of an event, or the concealment of that event undertaken by… a group, who are sometimes covering up some malevolent act against the public,” Dr Marques explained.
But Professor Julie Leask, who studies attitudes towards vaccination at the University of Sydney, said not everyone who refuses to get vaccinated should be labelled a conspiracy theorist.
“That term is quite stigmatising and it's quite specific,” Professor Leask said.
”There's a range of different positions people can have on vaccination from just being on the fence and a bit hesitant, having genuine questions and concerns, through to people who are thinking in their own terms, feeling quite reasonable that they don't want to vaccinate but not having conspiracy beliefs.”
Ms Diamond first developed her anti-vaccination beliefs as a teenager, after becoming homeless and moving to an insular part of New Zealand.
“I was sleeping rough and couch surfing and I was really desperate for a community,” Ms Diamond said.
Being young and vulnerable, I took on that ideology and I took on that group think.
It was there that she joined the local wellness community and became invested in alternative health.
“Being young and vulnerable, I took on that ideology and I took on that group think,” Ms Diamond said.
Dr Marques said those who feel socially excluded are more likely to endorse conspiracy theories.
“People who believe in conspiracy theories typically are more uncertain, experience more vulnerability and are often isolated,” Dr Marques said.
“Conspiracy theories…bolster a sense of self and a sense of belonging to an in-group.”
, Dr Marques presented a list of local conspiracy theories to more than 1,000 Australians and 750 New Zealanders.
More than half of those surveyed endorsed or agreed with at least one of the conspiracy theories.
But Dr David Coady, who studies conspiracy theories at the University of Tasmania, believes we should avoid using the term “conspiracy theorist” altogether.
“If you dismiss QAnon-ers or anti-vaxxers as conspiracy theorists, they've got an easy comeback,” Dr Coady said.
“Of course conspiracies happen… there's nothing wrong with believing that conspiracies are happening, because they are.”
It took Ms Diamond a decade to change her anti-vaccination beliefs, after having many conversations with friends and colleagues.
“I've detangled and come out of the rabbit hole. I've been surrounded by [a] rather eclectic group of people…and I can see now that that's what it was,” Ms Diamond said.
After meeting a scientist at a party, Ms Diamond’s son confronted her about refusing to get him and his sister vaccinated.
“He basically said to me…you're stupid, you're an idiot, irresponsible,” Ms Diamond recalled.
Julie Diamond pictured in the Insight, SBS studio.
“They might have lost their job, they might have lost some friendships…so really try and understand that and trying to be there for them if it's somebody that is important to you,” Dr Marques said.
“Really trying to foster somebody's self-esteem, trying to make them feel less socially isolated or excluded, all of those things surely would underpin and help somebody from those beliefs.”
Ms Diamond and her children have since received all their vaccinations.
Now employed in the public health sector, Ms Diamond revealed she feels “duped” and embarrassed when looking back on her old wellness beliefs.
“There's definitely a level of privilege…I was living in a country where if anything really happened, I could go to hospital,” she said.
“It's naive and arrogant to think that I knew the answers to those questions and, and over the years, I really stop and think how much discipline it takes to inform experts and how I just threw that away.”
