Even before anyone had ever heard of COVID-19, vaccine denial was becoming endemic throughout

society.

Vaccines are perhaps the most thoroughly proven and revolutionary leap forward in the

science of saving lives, and yet the number of people who simply flat out reject reality

is only growing.

Today we're going to take this as a case study in the failure of science communication

and see if there's a way to fix it.

Vaccine denial is today on Skeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

Vaccine denial, failure mode analysis.

They are considered the greatest single advancement in the history of medicine, responsible

for saving more lives than all other public health measures combined.

And yet, stunningly, vaccines are also the victim of the most successful misinformation

campaigns and conspiracy theories in modern history, resulting in countless preventable

deaths.

Vaccine denial is rampant and has been since the very beginning.

Today, we're going to look at the history of vaccine denial, when and how it began,

why it persists today, and perhaps most importantly, how we can realistically hope to help move

deniers toward acceptance of this crucial protection.

The history of vaccination is most closely tied to the history of smallpox, one of the

most deadly diseases to ever wrap the human species.

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