The vaccine wars have produced two rival orthodoxies, and neither tolerates doubt or dissent.
It was the best of public health, it was the worst of public health. It was the age of molecular medicine and the age of magical thinking, the spring of Warp Speed and the winter of mandates. We were promised herd immunity. Instead, we lost public trust.
Charles Dickens wrote the original version about London and Paris in 1859, but his “superlative degree” describes the American argument over vaccines remarkably well. One camp insists that every licensed vaccine is safe and effective and that children should receive the recommended schedule. The opposing camp increasingly argues that vaccines cause more harm than the diseases they prevent. Both have little tolerance for doubt. Both have their authorities, articles of faith, heretics and financial interests.
