THE AGE OLD STRUGGLE AGAINST THE ANTIVACCINATIONISTS

Tuesday, 9th of July 2013

[source]The New England Journal of Medicine[|source]

In perspective, Gregory A et al report that there has been opposition to vaccination since the introduction of the first vaccine. Fear and mistrust have arisen every time a new vaccine has been introduced. The beauty is that, the spectrum of antivaccinationists ranges from people who are simply ignorant about science to radical fringe elements who use deliberate mistruths, intimidation, falsified data, and threats of violence in efforts to prevent the use of vaccines and to silence critics. More details available at:  http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1010594

 

 

Abstract

The diseases that we now seek to prevent with vaccination pose far less risk to antivaccinationists than smallpox did through the early 1900s. Unfortunately, this means that they can continue to disseminate false science without much personal risk, while putting children, the elderly, and the frail in harms way. We can propose no Oslerian challenge to demonstrate our point but have instead a story of science and contrasting worldviews: on the one hand, a long history of stunning triumphs, such as the eradication of smallpox and control of many epidemic diseases that had previously maimed and killed millions of people; on the other hand, the reality that none of the antivaccinationists claims of widespread injury from vaccines have withstood the tests of time and science. We believe that antivaccinationists have done significant harm to the public health. Ultimately, society must recognize that science is not a democracy in which the side with the most votes or the loudest voices gets to decide what is right.