In the march of progress, there inevitably comes resistance. Even as success is rewarded, fear still finds traction.
Such is the history of vaccination. In the 64 years since Jonas Salk’s stunning invention of a polio vaccine — a development that made a once prevalent disease all but forgotten — literally millions of lives have been saved and untold misery avoided by vaccines.
Chalk up another victory for institutional mistrust. An environment that allows bad information to travel in its own dark circles is the perfect vehicle for health conspiracies. In particular, misplaced concerns over vaccines causing autism continue to depress immunization rates — despite a lack of evidence that vaccine-caused autism has ever happened.