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307. Nicholas Dirks on Science Denial, Distrust, and Skepticism

The Michael Shermer Show

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What's the Cause of Vaccine Hesitancy?

Vaccine hesitancy in the modern sense does actually go back to the 50s and that one batch of a polio vaccine. There were anti-vaxxers before the COVID pandemic. Many believed on the basis of an erroneous article that was published back in the Lancet almost 20 years ago that vaccines for MM&R were associated with autism. And so you already have that kind of backdrop. You get to 2019, 2020. The pandemic takes hold first in China and then of course here and around the world. It's massive global fear about this disease. This little micro wreaking havoc changing our lives.

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