A History of Vaccines and their Opponents

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 ...