On today's History Slot, Dr Graham Finlay, lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at UCD, will be telling Seán about the story of inoculations and vaccines - and how getting the jab has always gone hand in hand with controversy.
Tune in live today at 3:35pm: newstalk.com/player/
Right now in the US, measles - a disease once thought on the cusp of being eradicated - is flaring up nationwide, as the anti-vaccine movement picks up speed. Inoculations are not some evil plot to poison children, but many misguided people hold this to be true, and their dogmatic certainty didn't just spontaneously develop. A new video from the New York Times reveals how their movement has developed over the years.
A part of Retro Report, a video series that sheds light on how the past has shaped the present, the video includes British doctor Andrew Wakefield's infamous 1998 study, which fraudulently drew a link between vaccines and autism. This study is now universally discredited and Wakefield's medical license was revoked.
But it has caused a snowball effect, and helped to spearhead a campaign that has resulted in the current outbreak making its way through California.
Watch and spread the video below, rather than the disease:
