Abstract
I was in my first week as a newly graduated doctor when I encountered a vaccine-skeptic – a patient who was convinced vaccines were dangerous and could weaken the human race. I remember thinking – as a doctor, I am supposed to take a detailed history, but I hope you forgive me if I switch off just for a little bit, because right now isn’t the time for this debate. You learn something at medical school and immediately try to tell people about it, but you can’t convince them – not easily, anyway. Especially if you have been indoctrinated with factual information along the lines of this: an estimated 1.5 million children die each year—one every 20 s—from vaccine-preventable diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia.
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Notes
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Norman, R.A., Paul, S.P. (2017). Vaccines and Prevention. In: The Last Natural Man. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42217-6_4
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