Grifters, Cynics, and True Believers: The History of Vaccine Opposition

Stanley Plotkin, a physician who was 93 years old at the time of this writing, played a major role in developing numerous vaccines during his long career. He stated that he was "beginning to regret having lived so long—because we’re going downhill." This sentiment raises an important question: How did society reach this point of rejecting medical science?

The answer may lie in history. It turns out that anti-vaccine arguments flooding the internet today have existed for as long as vaccines themselves. Thomas Levenson explores this in his book A Pox on Fools. The book’s subtitle identifies three groups: "The True Believers, Grifters, and Cynics Who Convinced Us to Reject Vaccines." These groups make three types of accusations against vaccines: that they are wrong, that they are bad, and that they are intolerable.

In the early 1700s, some Westerners learned about smallpox inoculations from Ottoman women and an enslaved African. At that time, infectious disease was the leading cause of death. In the 19th century, approximately 40 percent of babies died from infection before reaching the age of five.

This high child mortality rate explains why the average lifespan was low back then. People who survived childhood often lived into their 30s and beyond. However, the death of so many young children dragged the average lifespan down significantly.

When smallpox epidemics hit London and Boston in 1721, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Cotton Mather started inoculation campaigns. Inoculation involved taking pus from a pock of someone with a mild case of smallpox. Then, they made a cut in the arm of the person being inoculated and rubbed the pus into the cut.

This practice faced immediate backlash. Some people claimed it was morally wrong to interfere with the divine plan for who would get sick or die. They believed only God had that power. To thwart this was to defy God’s will. It was considered hubris and blasphemy. Levenson notes that the underlying idea was that getting a disease was divine punishment for sin. Therefore, the only way to avoid disease was to live a virtuous life.