I'm going to need some sources on conspiracy theories being harmless - Pizzagate[1] lead to someone firing off live rounds in a pizza parlor, QAnon is also tied to some kidnappings[2], anti-vaxers have led to somewhere in the range of 50-60k deaths[3] - anti-maskers... it's a bit too early to tell but some folks put the number around 130k[4]...

Conspiracy theories aren't harmless.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzagate_conspiracy_theory

2. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/15/qanon-violen...

3. https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/anti-vaxxer-views-blamed-as-me...

4. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/health/covid-deaths.html

[3] doesn't claim any numbers on how many surplus deaths 'anti-vaxers' are the cause of.

Ah sorry - to infer, the MMR vaccine had measles on a steady downward trend - the article is highlighting a 15% raise in cases. I think it's safe to attribute 15% of the 140k worldwide deaths to the anti-vax movement since we were actually approaching eliminating that disease (like we did smallpox)