vaccines 
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
3/28/2023
To Understand Antivaxers, Consider Aristotle
There is a long history of refusal of scientific discovery; does this explain hesitancy or refusal of COVID vaccines?
-
SOURCE: TIME
3/23/2023
The Next Election Will Be a Fight over Our Memory of the Pandemic
by Jacob Steere-Williams and Gavin Yamey
Candidates seeking to claim either party's nomination in 2024 are going to try to convince the public that their COVID policies protected both health and freedom. Before they win the votes, they have to win the battle of how Americans remember the pandemic.
-
SOURCE: Vox
3/4/2022
What Can the History of Antivax Movements Tell Us about the Future of COVID?
Medical historian Nadja Durbach and philosopher Maya Goldenberg explain that challenges posed by vaccine resistance and mistrust of health authorities are not new; the lesson to learn isn't that resistance is inevitable, but that some of the social conflicts supporting it can be addressed.
-
SOURCE: London Review of Books
2/1/2022
Whack-a-Mole
by Rivka Galchen
Reviewer Rivka Galchen looks at two recent books that highlight the importance of cultural beliefs in the acceptance or rejection of vaccines.
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
1/25/2022
The Antivax Right is Bringing Human Sacrifice to America
Past debates about closing schools and businesses to control the pandemic at least could claim to be about balancing costs and benefits. The campaign to refuse vaccination will kill people for no purpose whatsoever.
-
SOURCE: Forward
1/24/2022
A Complete List of Times RFK Jr. has Compared Vaccine Mandates to the Holocaust
The political activist has made a habit of comparing public policies he dislikes to the Holocaust, most recently in a speech at a Washington rally where he invoked Anne Frank.
-
SOURCE: CNN
9/17/2021
The Complex Politics of Vaccine Resistance
by Nicole Hemmer
Despite the fact that no major religion forbids vaccination, vaccine resisters often leverage religious exemptions to gain moral authority for what are often political or conspiracy-based views. Public health advocates need to recognize that exemption claims are a tool, not a belief.
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
5/2/2021
Germany’s Anti-Vaccination History Is Riddled With Anti-Semitism
by Edna Bonhomme
Antisemitism has often flared during public health crises such as pandemics; it has also attached itself to suspicion of vaccination, a trend that has been disturbingly prominent among German anti-vaxxers.
-
SOURCE: Perspectives on History
4/16/2021
Vaccine Hesitancy is a 21st-Century Phenomenon
by Gareth Millward
The progress of public health practice means that today's policymakers seek to make vaccination widespread enough to eradicate, rather than suppress, disease. Looking at success as a continuum could lead to more constructive approaches to work toward eradication.
-
SOURCE: BBC
4/12/2021
How US History Explains Vaccine Passport Skepticism
Opposition to requiring documentary proof of vaccination to participate in some activities is rooted both in the weak traditions of public health in the United States and legitimate fears that such "passports" will work to disadvantage the poor, minorities, and others who are less able to access vaccination.
-
SOURCE: Smithsonian
1/26/2021
History Shows Americans Have Always Been Wary of Vaccines
Medical historian Keith Wailoo addressed a recent Smithsonian webinar on the history of American hostility to vaccination, joining public health experts.
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
11/9/2020
Trump Politicized COVID-19. Let’s Not Politicize The Vaccine.
by Max Boot
"If the Pfizer vaccine helps to free us from the threat of COVID-19, there will be plenty of credit to go around — and it won’t conform to narrow partisan categories. Reality is too messy for ideology."
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
5/19/2020
The Potential Risk of Chasing a COVID-19 Vaccine
by Heidi Morefield
Vaccine development is important to fighting viruses, but can’t come at the expense of other means of prevention.
-
4/12/2020
The President vs. The Epidemic: FDR's Polio Crusade
by Dave Welky
No president can end an epidemic single handedly, but they can inspire a popular movement that eradicates a disease. Such was the case with Franklin Roosevelt and polio.
-
SOURCE: NBC News
3/16/2020
Coronavirus Vaccine Test Opens with 1st Doses
Even if the research goes well, a vaccine wouldn’t be available for widespread use for 12 to 18 months.
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
3/15/2020
German Officials to Discuss Reported U.S. Attempt to Buy Exclusive Rights to Coronavirus Vaccine
Trump often has private conversations of which his staff is not aware, and therefore the official could not definitively rule out that any such discussion had occurred.
-
SOURCE: Time
5/9/19
A Smackdown in the Kennedy Clan Summons Up the History of Presidents and Vaccines
Three members of the Kennedy clan published a piece on Politico declaring that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—son of Bobby Kennedy—has been “tragically wrong” in his years-long crusade against vaccines.
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
4/10/19
Anti-vaxxers are comparing themselves to Holocaust victims — who relied on vaccines to survive
by Helene Sinnreich
The comparison is offensive. It’s also historically wrong.
-
9-4-14
New book reveals how a Jewish doctor duped the Nazis
by HNN Staff
"For 16 months, working under the noses of his clueless Nazi overseers ... a Jewish doctor managed to send fake typhus vaccine to the Nazi soldiers at the front, even as he provided the real thing to inoculate his fellow condemned Jews in a concentration camp."