Vaccine Nation
Science, reason and the threat to 200 years of progress
A gripping journey through the past, present and future of vaccines.
Vaccination is arguably the greatest public health achievement in history, yet the disappearance of many diseases has also seen an increased focus on the side effects of vaccines and the rise of the anti-vax movement. The COVID-19 pandemic propelled anti-vaccination sentiment into the mainstream – including from some leaders in the medical profession – in an explosion of pseudoscience and disinformation that’s made it increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction.
In Vaccine Nation, internationally acclaimed epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre examines the history of vaccines and how they work, vaccine safety, public policy, cutting-edge new technologies, and the miraculous new developments in vaccines to fight cancer and other chronic diseases. At a critical time when vaccination rates are falling globally, MacIntyre argues that science must reclaim the stage or we will lose centuries of gains that vaccines have brought to the world.
‘Vaccines helped us emerge from the worst of the COVID pandemic, yet rather than being a triumph, we now see anti-vaccine claims eclipsing public health policies. Raina MacIntyre outlines the history of vaccines and despairs at how the medical profession is among those pushing anti-vaccine myths. This important book documents where opposition to vaccination is leading the world and how science can reclaim centre stage.’ – Laura Tingle, author and journalist
‘For the first time in human history, we have the scientific know-how to vaccinate against most of the infectious diseases that killed our ancestors. Vaccine Nation takes us through exciting developments in using vaccines to protect against non-infectious threats such as cancer and heart disease. MacIntyre shows how these advances are being counterbalanced by a spreading mistrust of science in general and vaccines in particular. This book, by one of the world’s leading biosecurity experts, tells the story of how vaccines transformed the public health landscape and suggests what we might do to restore public trust in their efficacy and safety.’ – Professor Trish Greenhalgh OBE, University of Oxford
Raina MacIntyre is Professor of Global Biosecurity at UNSW and an NHMRC Research Fellow. She heads the Biosecurity Program at the Kirby Institute, UNSW. Her vaccine expertise is in older adults and immunosuppressed people, and she has conducted several clinical trials of vaccines in adults and transplant patients. She was on the Vaccine Council of 100 for the journal Vaccine from 2012–2020, and associate editor from 2020–2024. She has been on the WHO COVID-19 Vaccine Composition Technical Advisory Group (2021–2024) and the WHO SAGE smallpox and mpox Advisory Group (2022– current). She is the author of Dark Winter (NewSouth, 2022).
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