The anti-vaccine movement may have reached new heights during the coronavirus pandemic, but it isn’t anything new.
In fact, its origins can be traced back more than 150 years, when rebellions broke out over the decision to make smallpox vaccinations mandatory in the UK.
Here, i explores the history of anti-vax arguments – and how Governments have tried to tackle them.
Medical experts say the arguments used by anti-vaccination movements have remained largely unchanged since the 1800s.
Dr Paula Larrson, a researcher at the University of Oxford, found that anti-vaccine activists at the time sought to minimise the threat of smallpox, decried the vaccine as part of a wider conspiracy theory, and claimed inoculation causes other illnesses – all of which have been used in connection with Covid-19.
Read more at i News.