Opposition to vaccines has a long history (26 April 2022)

Summary

In January 2019, not long before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Laurent-Henri Vignaud and Françoise Salvadori published what would turn out to be a very timely book, Antivax: Resistance to Vaccines from the 18th Century to the Present Day. In a recent presentation at the French College of General Medicine's 15th Congress of General Medicine, Vignaud, a historian of science, gave examples from the past to show that opposition to vaccines, which has come to light during the COVID-19 pandemic, is neither a recent phenomenon nor specific to France.

Content

What Is "Antivaccinationism?"

According to Vignaud, the catchall term "antivaccinationism" can be broken down into three categories, based on intensity and nature.

1. First is vaccine hesitancy, the refusal of certain vaccines or the delay in getting them despite vaccination services being available.
2. Next is vaccine scepticism. This describes a critical attitude toward vaccines, one that may explain a person's reluctance or refusal to follow vaccine policies.
3. Third, antivaccinationism in its current form stems from the adherence to one or more theories that are opposed to vaccination being used as a prophylactic.