Anti-vaxxers – Herd impunity

Jun 26, 2024

The podcast delves into the history of vaccines and anti-vaxx movements, highlighting key events from the fight against smallpox to the MMR panic. It explores the influence of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the spread of misinformation, and the impact on public health. The hosts discuss the weaponization of doubt in science, contrasting narratives in journalism, and the dangerous consequences of anti-vaccine beliefs.

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ANECDOTE

Smallpox Inoculation Backlash

In 1721, Cotton Mather promoted smallpox inoculation (variolation), facing resistance from doctors and residents.
An anti-vaxxer threw a bomb through Mather's window with a threatening note, but the inoculation campaign proceeded successfully.

INSIGHT

The Anti-Vaccine Paradox

Ironically, anti-vaccine sentiment grows as vaccines become more effective, creating a paradox.
People forget the dangers of diseases once they're rare, leading to criticism of the very thing that protected them.

INSIGHT

Success Breeds Complacency

The UK's chief medical officer, John Simon, noted that vaccination's success can blind people to its importance.
He observed that it's easy to dismiss a preventative measure when the threat feels distant.

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This episode tells the tale of the anti-vaxxers. The word has only been around since 2001 but inoculation has inspired opposition for as long as it has existed in the West. Dorian and Ian chart the life of vaccines and their opponents from the fight against smallpox in the eighteenth century to the vaccine scandals of the post-war decades. Find out why someone threw a bomb through Cotton Mather’s window, why Gandhi changed his mind, and why Leicester became the anti-vaccine capital of the world.

The drama accelerates with Dr Andrew Wakefield and the MMR panic of the 2000s, which swept up everyone for Oprah Winfrey to Private Eye, caused a public health disaster and set the stage for the full-blown mania of the backlash against Covid-19 vaccines. How did a rogue British gastroenterologist launch a global movement? How did vaccine scepticism mutate into a giant conspiracy theory? Is Bill Gates really implanting 5G trackers in our blood? (No.) And what’s the best way to get an anti-vaxxer to think again?

It’s a gripping story of science, journalism, paranoia, superstition and people who should know better.

• Pre-order the forthcoming Origin Stories books on Centrism, Fascism and Conspiracy Theory and get 20% off using the special discount code revealed in the podcast.

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Reading list

• David Aaronovitch – Voodoo Histories: How Conspiracy Theory Has Shaped Modern History (2010)

• Jonathan M. Berman – Anti-Vaxxers: How to Challenge a Misinformed Movement (2020)

• Steve Brotherton – Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories (2016)

• Brian Deer – The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Andrew Wakefield’s War on Vaccines (2020)

• Peter Furtado - Plague, Pestilence and Pandemic: Voices from History (2021)

• Naomi Klein – Doppelganger (2023)

• Anna Merlan – Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power (2020)

• Seth Mnookin – The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy (2011)

• Tom Phillips and Jonn Elledge - Conspiracy: A History of Bxllocks Theories and How Not to Fall for Them (2022)

• Frank M. Snowden - Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present (2019)

Podcasts and articles

• You’re Wrong About: The Anti-Vaccine Movement (2021)

• Maintenance Phase: RFK Jr. and the Rise of the Anti-Vaxx Movement (2023)

• Isaac Chotiner, ‘The Influence of the Anti-Vaccine Movement’, The New Yorker (2020)

Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Producer: Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production

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