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How Vaccine Skeptics Use Storytelling Effectively to Create Powerful but Medically Inaccurate Messaging

Under Kennedy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has started releasing material matching vaccine-hesitant messaging, characterizing childhood vaccine schedule changes as a return to "individual-based decision-making."
Policymakers classify vaccine hesitancy as a "wicked problem" fueled by misinformation, social desires, and deeply held religious beliefs rather than simple knowledge gaps. This complexity makes it particularly difficult to counter with facts alone.
Kirk Milhoan, the Kennedy-appointed head of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, describes vaccine debates as a question of "autonomy versus public health," reflecting the agency's reframed strategic approach.
Vaccine hesitancy is famously associated with the Make America Healthy Again movement, though skepticism dates back to 19th-century England, where people rioted against mandatory smallpox vaccines citing civil rights concerns.
Vaccine-Hesitant groups use narrative storytelling to craft emotional tales, often framing vaccine refusal as civil resistance against government overreach even when vaccines pose no practical political threat.

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How vaccine skeptics’ storytelling creates powerful but medically inaccurate messaging

A drawing published by the London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination in the late 1800s. (Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia) As long as there have been vaccines, there have been people who doubted their science and safety. Back in 19th-century England, people rioted against a mandatory smallpox vaccine, claiming that it violated civil rights and was an affront to human bodily integrity. In th…

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