Vaccine Denialism as a Late Modern Decadence

During my diavlog with Michael Specter, we talked a lot about vaccination. And though I didn't plan it in advance, I blurted out something that I think really does apply here: Vaccine denialism might be considered a form of decadence--one that our society can only countenance in the first place thanks to the tremendous prior triumphs of vaccination efforts. (You can see the segment where I make the point here.) The case for the decadence interpretation, it seems to me, is bolstered by the fact that it is generally liberal elites and celebrities, rather than poor folks or the disadvantaged, who feel empowered to attack vaccination and try to shirk it. In the context of human history and the past century, these people are surfing atop a wave of prosperity and scientific advancement that has given them marvelously prosperous and pleasant lives. There's simply no way they could deny vaccination if vaccination hadn't already delivered a world where the measles, the mumps, polio, and so on, are seemingly nonexistent. Dictionary.com gives this third definition of "decadence": "unrestrained or excessive self-indulgence." I might have added "costly" or even "dangerous" for the vaccine case in particular--but yeah, that's the general picture. Of course, it seems a safe assumption that the indulgence will end quickly indeed if vaccine-vanquished diseases start coming back.