The History of Vaccines and Religion with Josh Williams, MD

There is a rich history dating back hundreds of years that tells a story of the relationship between vaccines and physicians, as well as the important intersection of vaccines, belief systems and religion.

Listen to a pediatric expert discuss the history of vaccines

In this episode, we discuss the history of vaccines and religion with Josh Williams, MD. For a discussion about today's anti-vaccination climate, listen to our discussion with Peter Hotez, MD, PhD.

Dr. Williams is a pediatrician at Denver Health Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

In this episode, our expert discusses:

• Being awarded a research grant to do a pilot survey on clergy attitudes toward vaccines
• The process of variolation as the earliest form of vaccination in 12th-century Turkey
• The fascinating story of how Lady Mary Wortley Montagu brought variolation into England
• Edmund Massey’s famous sermon against the practice of variolation in 1722
• The role of Puritan preacher Cotton Mather in advocating the practice
• How Mather learned about variolation from his Libyan-born slave in 1706
• The irony that organized opposition to variolation was led by doctors and politicians
• The 2013 review article by John Grabenstein about what religions teach about vaccines
• Common religious objections to vaccination that have been linked to outbreaks
• General clergy attitudes toward vaccination and speaking about it to their congregations
• The impact of states that offer both personal belief and religious exemptions
• The opportunity to advocate for vaccination by getting religious leaders on board
• The main drivers in the decrease in vaccination rates of the last decade