Vaccine mandates

Almost a decade ago, Cunningham (2015) acknowledged vaccination as one of the major medical advances of modern times but added that ‘public health officials have become intoxicated by success and have lost their sense of perspective.’ Cunningham (2015) not only highlighted ‘the professional and financial incentives that encourage strict adherence to the standard immunization schedule’, but also cited ‘the tendency for officialdom to report the good news about vaccines but not the bad news.’

In 2015, Cunningham's views seemed uncontroversial, including his reflections on mandatory vaccination, where he states that in Canada, in the absence of mandates, 96% of 2-year-olds in Newfoundland and Labrador received the MMR vaccine; however, in the United States ‘the figure is only 86% in West Virginia, which has rigid mandates and no non-medical exemptions’ (Cunningham, 2015).

Five years later the COVID-19 era revealed the fraught relationship between scientific reasoning and political expediency. If Cunningham (2015) had written his commentary in 2020 he would likely have been judged a so-called ‘anti-vaxxer’, despite informing vaccine-related debate with well-informed observations.