Vaccination from the Misinformation Virus

Premiering Monday, July 26 at 9 p.m.

“Falsehood flies and the truth comes limping after, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over and the tale has had its effect.”
Jonathan Swift, 1710

“This documentary is honest scientific information about all vaccines and how crucial they are to community health.”
RADM (ret) Pamela Schweitzer, Pharm.D. Former Assistant Surgeon General 2021

As Covid-19 spread worldwide, Americans became increasingly polarized as to its reach, scope and effects. Vaccinations for this and other diseases have become flash-points in communities across the country.

While discussions around vaccinations have become heated, former Assistant US Surgeon General, Pamela Schweitzer is encouraged, “Our hopes to slow Covid-19 and get back to some kind of ‘normal’ hinges on peoples’ understanding of and willingness to become vaccinated. And that understanding and willingness will carry over to other vaccines.”

To that end, Dr. Walter Dohority suggests, “The pandemic has really offered us an opportunity to educate and engage citizens about all vaccines and viruses.”

“Vaccination from the Misinformation Virus,” a one-hour documentary, explores how important and safe vaccines are, how crucial they are to community health and how they save millions of lives annually. Hear from infectious disease experts, epidemiologists, pharmacists, physicians and academics with expertise in misinformation as well as health disparities.

“The medicine that has saved more lives than anything else is vaccines.
It’s really a remarkable contribution to human health.”
John D. Grabenstein, RPh, PhD

One difficulty of understanding the importance of vaccination may have to do with how successful vaccines have been.  “I don’t know anybody who’s ever had measles.  I’ve never seen mumps.  I’ve never seen rubella.  Now my children, they don’t even know what chickenpox is,” explains the Director of Tricore Labs infectious diseases, Karissa Culbreath, PhD. “That’s the challenge of the vaccines arguments because now disease doesn’t happen and we have to remind people who’ve never seen the disease that the disease exists.”

The program also addresses the future of vaccines, which appears to be bright. “The good news is that two technologies that were in development have now been proven to be really effective,” explains John Grabenstein, RPh PhD of the Immunization Action Coalition.  “Now scientists can go back into the labs and test them against viruses and bacteria where there is no vaccine right now.”

“Our lifespan for most of human history is short. We had 40 years if we were lucky and 40% to 45% of kids, depending on the era of history, died before the age of 5. So the idea that we get these long lives … we can expect to see our children grow up. This is a gift of science.”
Bette Korber, PhD Computational Biologist and Biophysicist
Los Alamos National Laboratory