Understanding the Risks Versus the Myths of Vaccines

The anti-vaccine movement that first took hold in the U.S. and spread globally has undermined advances against preventable infectious diseases such as measles and whooping cough. Now, so-called vaccine hesitancy is seen as a threat to the effective roll out of shots to prevent Covid-19, in the event they are developed. Certainly there are risks with new vaccines. But the belief among some people that well-established immunizations against childhood diseases are more dangerous than beneficial is based on a fraud.

In a poll conducted for CNN in May, a third of people in the U.S. said they would not try to get a vaccine if one existed. One in six respondents in the U.K. said they definitely or probably would not get a Covid-19 vaccine in a YouGov survey in June.