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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
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Two Opposing Approaches To Public Health May Be on the Ballot in 2024

Governors Ron DeSantis and Gretchen Whitmer took opposite approaches to covid in swing states — but each sailed to reelection.
Surgeon General Vivek Murphy, Texas Children's Hospital chief pathologist Jim Versalovic and first lady Jill Biden visit with kids before they receive their coronavirus vaccine shots on Nov. 14 in Houston.
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History Shows That Passing School Coronavirus Vaccine Mandates Could Require Exemptions

Enacting vaccination mandates demands political give and take.
The illustration “Vaccinating the Poor,” by Solomon Eytinge Jr

The Surprisingly Strong Supreme Court Precedent Supporting Vaccine Mandates

In 1905, the high court made a fateful ruling with eerie parallels to today: One person’s liberty can’t trump everyone else’s.
Painting of smallpox vaccination

The Long History of Mandated Vaccines in the United States

Vaccines against smallpox during the Revolutionary War are one example of how mandates have protected the health of Americans for more than two centuries.
Person getting vaccinated

Vaccine Mandates Are as American as Apple Pie

Those who claim that vaccine resistance is an expression of liberty are historically illiterate.
Two photos of children being vaccinated.

Vaccinating Kids Has Never Been Easy

Uptake of COVID vaccines for kids has been slow, but it has been slow for other vaccines too.
Biden speaking at a podeum, in front of a vaccines.gov logo.
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Bureaucracy Under Fire: How the Supreme Court Has Jeopardized the OSHA Vaccine Mandate

Corporate deregulation has long curtailed OSHA’s power to safeguard workers.
A painting by Alfred Touchemolin showing French army recruits being inoculated with cowpox to protect them from smallpox, circa 1895

The Deep Roots of Vaccine Hesitancy

Understanding the battle over immunization—from the pre-Victorian era onward—between public health and the people may help in treating anti-vax sentiment.
A woman on her knees wearing a cowboy hat with an anti-vaccination protest as the background

The Baffling Legal Standard Fueling Religious Objections to Vaccine Mandates

As anti-vax plaintiffs seek faith-based exemptions, the judicial system will renew its struggle to determine what beliefs are truly “sincerely held.”
Children in New York City waiting in line for immunization shots, 1944

Vaccination Resistance in Historical Perspective

The vaccination skepticism of today is rooted in postwar social movements, prompting a new generation of parents and children to question drugs and doctors.
A stand from 1925, selling William Jennings Bryan's books, featuring a sign reading "Anti-Evolution League: The Conflict, Hell and The High School"

Why the School Wars Still Rage

From evolution to anti-racism, parents and progressives have clashed for a century over who gets to tell our origin stories.
Karen Kuehl, an emergency physician, displays equipment she wears while treating covid-19 patients as she urges the Roanoke County, Va., School Board to retain a mask mandate on Jan. 27, 2022.
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The History of Seat-Belt Laws Shows Public Health Doesn’t Have To Be Partisan

Tennessee’s surprising role in the adoption of life-saving seat belt laws.
A milk maid shows her cowpoxed hand to a physician, while a farmer or surgeon offers to a young man inoculation with cowpox that he has taken from a cow.

Whack-a-Mole

Vaccine skepticism and misinformation have persisted since the smallpox epidemics. With the internet, it's only gotten worse.
Norman Mailer, left, with Jimmy Breslin, in the garment district of New York during his 1969 race for mayor.

Secessionist City

While New York has yet to break away from the rest of the country, it's not for lack of trying.
Photograph of Joe Biden speaking at a podium with a sign for vaccines.gov in the background.

In Praise of One-Size-Fits-All

Critiques of vaccine mandates continue a neoliberal tradition of idolizing private choice at the expense of the public good.
A protestor wearing syringes, protesting the vaccine mandate
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Doubters’ Push for Religious Exemptions from Coronavirus Vaccination May Not Work

With all organized religions supporting vaccination, states may question the sincerity of those claiming exemptions from getting vaccinated.
Posters reading "Is your child vaccinated? Vaccination prevents smallpox"

The Smallpox-Fighting “Virus Squads” That Stormed Tenements in the Middle of the Night

In the 1800s, they helped lay the groundwork for the anti-vaccine movement.

How Mandatory Vaccination Fueled the Anti-Vaxxer Movement

To better understand the controversy over New York’s measles outbreak, you have to go back to the late 19th century.

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