Strange Country Ep. 269: Vaccine Roulette

Strange Country

In the 1980s, whilst the media stirred up frenzies over Satanists in our midst or a nuclear bomb landing in Washington, a reporter made a documentary adding vaccines to the growing list of dangers. Vaccine Roulette claimed the pertussis vaccine caused brain damage in kids, which led to a drop in immunizations, a rise in whooping cough, and a near-end to the production of vaccines. On Strange Country, cohosts Beth and Kelly talk about this antivax movement spawned during the time of leg warmers and Alf, and continues to impact the current vaccine hesitancy we see today.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources:

Spurious Correlations, https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations. Accessed 24 August 2023. Astor, Maggie. “How These Vocal Anti Covid Vaccine Chiropractors Have Split the Profession.” The New York Times, 14 July 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/health/anti-covid-vaxxers.html. Accessed 1 September 2023. Bond, Shannon. “Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows.” NPR, 13 May 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996570855/disinformation-dozen-test-facebooks-twitters-ability-to-curb-vaccine-hoaxes. Accessed 24 August 2023. Edwards, Erika. “Childhood vaccinations in the U.S. fall again, leaving kids at risk for preventable disease.” NBC News, 12 January 2023, http://nbcnews.com/health/health-news/childhood-vaccinations-us-fall-leaving-kids-risk-preventable-disease-rcna65493. Accessed 24 August 2023. Haelle, Tara. “How vaccine hesitancy has dealt damage over centuries.” Science News, 11 May 2021, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/vaccine-hesitancy-history-damage-anti-vaccination. Accessed 2 September 2023. Offit, Paul A. Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All. Basic Books, 2011. Sun, Lena H. “Growing vaccine hesitancy fuels measles, chickenpox resurgence in U.S.” Washington Post, 26 December 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/12/26/vaccine-hesitancy-measles-chickenpox-polio-flu/. Accessed 24 August 2023. “Vaccines - Research and data from Pew Research Center.” Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/science/science-issues/medicine-health/vaccines/. Accessed 2 September 2023.