A "clear and insightful" takedown of the anti-vaccination movement,
from its 19th-century antecedents to modern-day Facebook activists--with
strategies for refuting false claims of friends and family (Financial
Times)
Vaccines are a documented success story, one of the most successful
public health interventions in history. Yet there is a vocal
anti-vaccination movement, featuring celebrity activists (including
Kennedy scion Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and actress Jenny McCarthy) and the
propagation of anti-vax claims through books, documentaries, and social
media. In Anti-Vaxxers, Jonathan Berman explores the phenomenon of the
anti-vaccination movement, recounting its history from its
nineteenth-century antecedents to today's activism, examining its
claims, and suggesting a strategy for countering them.
After providing background information on vaccines and how they work,
Berman describes resistance to Britain's Vaccination Act of 1853,
showing that the arguments anticipate those made by today's
anti-vaxxers. He discusses the development of new vaccines in the
twentieth century, including those protecting against polio and MMR
(measles, mumps, rubella), and the debunked paper that linked the MMR
vaccine to autism; the CDC conspiracy theory promoted in the documentary
Vaxxed; recommendations for an alternative vaccination schedule;
Kennedy's misinformed campaign against thimerosal; and the much-abused
religious exemption to vaccination.
Anti-vaxxers have changed their minds, but rarely because someone has
given them a list of facts. Berman argues that anti-vaccination activism
is tied closely to how people see themselves as parents and community
members. Effective pro-vaccination efforts should emphasize these
cultural aspects rather than battling social media posts.
