How Fragile Is Our Vaccine Infrastructure?

Anti-vaccine sentiment is, more or less, as old as vaccines. When Cotton Mather promoted inoculations against smallpox in the 1720s, someone threw a firebomb through his window with a message attached: “Mather, you dog, Damn you, I’ll inoculate you with this.” Today's vaccines are as safe and effective as ever. So why, suddenly, is the anti-vax movement at the height of its power and influence? Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, is “the king of the anti-vaxxers,” says Atlantic senior editor Daniel Engber. But RFK Jr. isn’t alone. An array of nominees across the fringe-science belief spectrum appears ready to take the reins in Trump’s new administration. In this episode, we discuss this disorienting moment, when anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists may soon be in charge of the agencies that fund, recommend, and research vaccines, with Engber and Arthur Allen, author of Vaccines: The Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver. What levers could the anti-vaxxers in charge pull to disrupt vaccine distribution? How could they affect vaccine recommendations and research? And what happens if there is an outbreak? Ultimately, how fragile is the nation’s vaccine infrastructure? --- Share understanding this holiday season. For less than $2 a week, give a year-long Atlantic subscription to someone special. They’ll get unlimited access to Atlantic journalism, including magazine issues, narrated articles, puzzles, and more. Give today at TheAtlantic.com/podgift. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The Atlantic has long been known as an ideas-driven magazine. Now we’re bringing that same ethos to audio. Like the magazine, the show will “road test” the big ideas that both drive the news and shape our culture. Through conversations—and sometimes sharp debates—with the most insightful thinkers and writers on topics of the day, Radio Atlantic will complicate overly simplistic views. It will cut through the noise with clarifying, personal narratives. It will, hopefully, help listeners make up their own mind about certain ideas. The national conversation right now can be chaotic, reckless, and stuck. Radio Atlantic aims to bring some order to our thinking—and encourage listeners to be purposeful about how they unstick their mind.