The original anti-vaxxers

How the zeal of Edward Jenner contributed to today’s culture wars. Resistance against inoculations is not exclusively a 21st-century problem. When Jenner first presented “An Inquiry into the Cowpox", which detailed "how people could protect themselves from smallpox – a horrific brute of a disease that killed one person in 12 and left many survivors scarred for life – by inoculating themselves with cowpox," the book was met with both praise and severe criticism. Here, Gareth Williams takes a deep dive into the history of vaccination, contemplating the social and ideological roots of the anti-vaxxer movement, which offers key context into the panorama of disinformation and opposition we see today with the COVID vaccines.