A History of Vaccines and their Opponents

Provides a history of the opposition to immunization which began when vaccines were first introduced and persists to the present day

Ian R Tizard (Author)

9780443134340, Elsevier Science

Paperback / softback, published 26 April 2023

370 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.61 kg

The coronavirus pandemic that began in 2019 brought to the fore the presence of a significant minority of individuals who strongly oppose vaccination. This opposition is by no means recent. Ever since the very first attempts to immunize individuals, opposition has been intense in some societies. The reasons for this opposition range from religious to political to medical. Although vaccines have eliminated smallpox and largely eliminated polio and measles, opposition to vaccination persists and,  in some countries, has grown stronger. A History of Vaccines and Their Opponents seeks to describe the history of this opposition as well as its changing rationale over the years and in different societies. The discussion may ultimately provide some suggestions for reducing hesitancy in the future.

1. How vaccines work 2. Medical science at the beginning of the 18th century 3. Variolation: the early years in Britain and Europe 4. Variolation in New England 5. Variolation and American independence 6. The introduction of vaccination in Britain and Europe 7. The introduction of vaccination to America 8. Making vaccination compulsory in Britain and Europe 9. Vaccine mandates in the United States 10. Anti-inoculation and anti-vaccination riots 11. The Supreme Court weighs in 12. The rise of anti-vaccine societies in Britain 13. Anti-vaccination movements in the United States and Canada 14. Medical liberty and vaccination 15. Developments and dead ends in immunology 16. Antibacterial vaccines and their opponents 17. Polio vaccines and their opponents 18. Measles, mumps, and rubella: three contentious virus diseases 19. Safety and sexual promiscuity: hepatitis B, human papilloma virus, and influenza vaccines 20. COVID-19: politics and disinformation 21. Religious objections to vaccination 22. Rational hesitancy: situations where hesitancy is and was appropriate

Subject Areas: Life sciences: general issues [PSA]