Between Hope And Fear: A History Of Vaccines And Human Immunity, by Michael Kinch

On the one hand, it would appear that this author received and acted on a mandate to attack the anti-vax movement, a theme that carries on throughout this entire book. Yet, although the book clearly has an ax to grind against the anti-vaccine movement, it is not as if this book is written that makes the other side any better. Most of this book is, admittedly, a bit of a mess, as the author discusses the very messy personal lives of people involved in discussions of vaccines and immunity, and the frauds and fakes that are all too common regardless of where one stands within the scientific community. When one considers that the author has openly admitted that there have been fake vaccines that have done harm, it is hard to go too hard on the parents who are concerned about the safety of vaccines. When the author is limited to a muddled explanation of alpha and beta risk when it comes to vaccines when dealing with the combination of safety and efficacy, he is clearly losing when it comes to demonstrating that it is irrational to oppose mandatory vaccines. Indeed, that appears to be a major point of the author, and an offensive one, that the author has no understanding of the importance of consent when it comes to medical treatment, especially when there are risks of harm involved and a lack of trustworthiness of the pharmaeceutical industry as a whole.

It is also worth noting that this book was written before the Covid vaccine disaster, even though the author’s writing here would clearly put him on the side of the troubled vaccine mandates that people became familiar with over the course of 2020-2022 or so. Although one might think of a support for coercion as being an argument for the strength and efficacy of vaccines, the truth, as conceded by the author, is far worse, in that vaccines typically do not last as long as promised and so offer very little herd immunity at all unless everyone is either exposed to a disease and naturally immune (something that the author does not endorse) or has the vaccine. Yet when one looks at the issue of vaccines being less efficacious than promised, which itself could be viewed as a fraudulent claim that is worthy of sanctions and negative consequences, it undercuts the legitimacy of a lack of consent and volunteerism. Although the book claims to be about vaccines, there are also comments here about antibiotics (which appear to be having a negative impact on gut health with serious consequences for children) that overall indicates that there are some serious health issues that are worth examining even if the author does not find vaccines in particular at fault. Unfortunately, though, this book is so incompetently written that it simultaneously attacks those hostile to vaccines while kissing up to Chinese cruelty and bogus and ineffective vaccine mandates, thus giving people reasons with his own arguments why people should oppose his viewpoint.

After an introduction, the book begins with some grossly inaccurate history about diseases in the ancient world, where the author gets both geography and chronology wrong by a considerable margin (1). This is followed by a discussion of early efforts at vaccination and the eradication of diseases like smallpox (2). This leads to a discussion of the defensive aspects of life (where the author fails to grasp dysteleology as a major role in the virulent nature of bacteria and viruses) (3). After talking about the worst way to die from a disease (Ebola or something like it would probably be my vote) (4), the author discusses the spread of viruses (5). This is followed by a discussion of various aspects of medical theory and history (6), the problem of the rivalry between German and French scientists with different medical approaches (7), and a praise of the gains in public health that came from the development of many vaccines in the 20th century (8). The author closes his argument by talking about contemporary concerns (9) and his view of the future (10), before the book ends with an epilogue, endnotes, acknowledgements, and an index.