In the 1980s and 1990s, a few organized groups opposed to vaccines emerged in many countries, including the United Kingdom. That was when concerns (later determined to be unfounded) about the safety of a whole-cell vaccine against pertussis, or whooping cough, came to the fore in many high-income countries. The modern wave of vaccine scepticism has its origins in the 1970s. Probably the last time the world waited with bated breath for a vaccine - against polio in the 1950s - it was welcomed with open arms. This stand-off eased around the start of the twentieth century when, with sanitation and medical care improving, public health placed less emphasis on compulsory vaccination. Throughout the nineteenth century, in the United States and the United Kingdom, there were cycles of increased smallpox vaccination, rising opposition, drops in immunization coverage, outbreaks, better appreciation of vaccination, more of it, and more protests. Since Edward Jenner’s first scientific description of vaccination in 1798 - using cowpox pus to protect against smallpox - there has been pushback. The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Andrew Wakefield’s War on Vaccines Brian Deer Scribe UK (2020) Andrew Wakefield (centre) in 2010, shortly before being struck off the UK medical register.
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