Date Thesis Awarded

5-2011

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Department

History

Advisor

Paul W. Mapp

Committee Members

Chandos Michael Brown

Randolph A. Coleman

Abstract

"Ultimately, society must recognize that science is not a democracy in which the side with the most votes or the loudest voices gets to decide what is right." This quote is part of a larger article, "The Age-Old Struggle against the Antivaccinationists," published on January 13, 2011 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Written by Gregory A Poland, M.D., and Robert M. Jacobson, M.D., the article discusses the problem of "antivaccinationists," or people who use fear to deter society from vaccinating themselves and their families. Now, almost two centuries later, skeptics are still using all means possible to spread misinformation about the risks associated with vaccination, despite it's proven safety and efficacy. Convincing people that vaccination is in their best interest is a challenging task that society has struggled with for a long time. To make this point, Poland and Jacobson refer specifically to the inoculation debate in Boston in the seventeenth century, and the hesitancy of many individuals to inoculate themselves and their families shortly after the practice had been invented and introduced.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Comments

Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.

Download

Share Feedback

On-Campus Access Only

Share

COinS