Session Abstract

Vaccination has long shaped American lives. Over the last century, the development and deployment of a range of vaccines drove serious infections—such as smallpox and polio—swiftly from our shores. Today, the vast majority of Americans are vaccinated against a considerable and growing number of infections. But over the last few years, heated disagreements over vaccines and how they’re used have made frequent headlines, inspired briskly selling books, and even changed the course of one of last summer’s Republican primary debates. Much of the public discourse about vaccines has become highly polarized in this period, pitting pro-vaccine forces against anti-vaccinationists in black and white terms, and ignoring both the complexity of popular and scientific attitudes toward vaccination as well as key lessons from the long history of conflict over the practice. The three papers in this panel use historical methods to contextualize the origins and nature of vaccination resistance over the last half century, in order to shed new light on current vaccination controversies. Heidi Lawrence’s paper employs rhetorical analysis to examine the influence of communication techniques on reception of polio vaccination in the 1950s and 1960s and swine flu vaccination in the 1970s. Elena Conis’s paper examines the role of two social movements—feminism and environmentalism—in shaping lay vaccine skepticism from the 1970s to the 1990s. In his paper, Robert Johnston analyzes the rise of “hard-line” thinking in contemporary vaccine discourse and considers how historical methods may be used to ensure democratic vaccine policies. James Colgrove, who will chair the session, is one of the most prominent historians now working to connect the history of vaccination with the ethics of contemporary public health practice. Taken together, the papers in this panel will explore the connection between history and contemporary ethical and political issues related to vaccination. On a broader level, the panel will address important ethical and political issues related to the role of scientific, medical, and public health expertise in a democracy.