History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect resemblance until the damage is done

Sydney J. Harris

As we enter another holiday season with COVID-19, vaccine and immunity misinformation continues to spread, just like the virus. 

For example, back in September, former national security adviser to the “former guy,” Michael Flynn, alluded in a podcast that the government is putting COVID vaccines in salad dressing. Other myths include that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines will alter human DNA, use microchip surveillance technology created by Bill Gates, and that a new law in Colorado will force parents into a government-run re-education program if they refuse to give their children a COVID-19 vaccine. Other theories include the vaccine causes infertility, and contains aborted human fetal tissue. My personal favorite is the notion that the AstraZeneca vaccine will turn people into monkeys.

A recent survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) showed that more than three quarters (78%) of U.S. adults either believe or aren’t sure about at least one of eight false statements about the pandemic or COVID-19 vaccines. Republicans and unvaccinated adults and are among those most likely to hold misconceptions regarding the virus and vaccines. The survey included questions such as the U.S. government is exagerrating the number of COVID deaths, Ivermectin is safe to treat COVID, and COVID vaccines will change your DNA.

The same survery revealed that 64% of unvaccinated adults believe or are unsure about at least half of the eight false statements (more than three times the share of vaccinated adults). Nearly half (46%) of Republicans believe or are unsure about at least half the statements, three times the rate of Democrats (14%).

We know that vaccine misinformation is nothing new: History tends to repeat itself. Take a look at the smallpox vaccine for example. Smallpox, in addition to decimating the populations of Native American groups, was one of history’s deadliest diseases, estimated to have killed more than 300 million people since 1900 alone. However, an extensive global vaccination campaign put an end to the disease in 1977, making it the first disease ever eradicated by vaccination.

The smallpox vaccine was developed in 1796 by the British surgeon Edward Jenner. Anti-vaxxers of the day thought that infants and children would develop bovine-like facial features because the vaccine research was based on an experiment where he inoculated a child with material from a cowpox pustule. Jenner took observed that the boy got a good case of cowpox, but recovered. Jenner then injected the same boy with material from a smallpox pustule, and the child never developed smallpox. Jenner had just developed the world’s first vaccine. 

The first documented anti-vaccine group, the National Anti-Vaccination League, first appeared in 1866 after Britain’s government tried to mandate smallpox vaccinations for its citizens. The group launched an all-out campaign, arguing that getting sick is part of God’s plan and that the government can’t tell people what to do.

Sound familiar?

What boggles my mind is that elected representatives are doing their best to promote anti-vaccine and anti-government notions. New Mexico State Senator Gregg Schmedes has repeatedly attacked mask mandates and vaccines, claiming that natural immunity is more effective than vaccines. An avid anti-masker, he pushes the conspiracy narrative that big pharma has everything to gain with mandated vaccine legislation. He even posted a meme on his FaceBook page that features a clean-cut young man in a shirt emblazoned with “Big Pharma” on it. The captions say: “The problem with natural immunity is that it’s free.” He also suggests that the FDA and Pfizer are hiding vaccine information from the public and that quarantining children has caused obesity. Senator Schmedes has a long history of pushing COVID-19 misinformation, and it’s shocking that a health care professional would continue to fuel conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine garbage to his base. 

But this is how this segment of our society thinks. Anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers are recycling the old narrative professed by the National Anti-Vaccination League more than 150 years ago: Suspicious of big government and science. 

As I write this, the WHO has released an alert regarding a new alarming variant of the COVID-19 virus, a variant that is highly mutated and more contagious than the Delta variety. But I don’t see the facts convincing the anti-vaxxers. We in the U.S. may face a stark reality put forward by German Health Minister Jens Spahn on Wednesday: “By the end of this winter everyone in Germany will either be vaccinated, recovered or dead.”

We know that vaccines work. Just look at smallpox.