For the history portion of this project, I read article after article about the history, growth and ideologies of anti-vaxxers. I learned in the early history of the movement that there was so little information on the smallpox vaccine other than what it was made of. When people found out it had cowpox in it, people feared that they'd turn into cows or that cows would erupt from their bodies. Such beliefs were ridiculous, of course, especially as there are no recorded cases of horns growing or people mooing after receiving the vaccine, but information was very limited in those days and it was hard to argue with some. The government fought back, creating laws to enforce vaccination and while there was some resistance, they for the most part worked as businesses and schools started requiring vaccination for students and employees.
The next major plague with a vaccine I studied was the polio vaccine. I was fascinated to find that even though the government didn't require citizens would often quarantine and stay away from public pools and volunteered to do whatever they could to bring an end to the polio virus. Celebrities were involved, the anti vax movement had little to no power as far as I could tell- even though at one point there was a major vaccine malfunction in one of the factories that caused hundreds to contract polio and get paralyzed from it. They trusted their government and science. So that made me ask "what caused such a wild change in the US public that has caused so much distrust in the government? What has changed within the last 80 years?" It may not surprise some that I discovered that factor was the internet, and our previous president. With the introduction of the internet, it became easier than ever to spread information, thoughts and feelings as soon as they occur- the same goes for misinformation too. Thus, with the rise of the internet came the rise of anti-vaxxers, especially as the "vaccines cause autism" argument appeared as well. They've gained more attention and political power because of how easy it is to spread their ideology- whether it be through facebook or day time talk shows. However, the reason they've gained a lot more traction within the last five or so years is because of one Donald Trump. Ever since 2008 the man was skeptical of vaccines, semi-believing in the false theory that they're the source of autism. As he started to campaign for his presidency, he doubled down on that belief, going from a mere skeptic to believer. When he was elected, he slowly built a distrust in his supporters for the government, scientists, and anyone who didn't outright support him. This became dangerously problematic when COVID struck. At first, it was him saying that COVID was just going to disappear in Easter. Then, it was that a vaccine would be "coming soon". Afer there it just spiraled as he contradicted numerous scientists and he listed his own cures for COVID, such as injecting bleach (which killed 2 people in Arizona). The distrust he spent the last four years building caused the anti-vax movement to grow tremendously. |
For the english portion, I aspired to create a script for a 1950-esque radio show that through it I could show the direct contrast in the reaction to the polio vaccine versus the reaction to the COVID vaccine. To do that, I borrowed a concept from popular youtube channel, Ryan George's series Time Traveler Discovers. The series features a time traveling reporter who talks to the host of "the 90's Talk Show" about what the future entails. I wanted to borrow such a concept for my project- but with some minor tweaks.
For starters, I made it a radio show with the host being from the 50's (during the Red Scare and Polio virus). With this change came a change in language, and alterations to the overall feel and "vibe" of the product. I made countless references to things both past and modern as I had the two characters discuss the COVID pandemic and the change in attitude towards science in the last 70 years. |
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I'll be honest- the art portion of this assignment was the most difficult part of this project. While partly due to odd scheduling and personal matters, I simply lacked ideas to properly explain my concepts and ideas about the history of anti vaxxers. I had gathered a lot of propaganda (both pro and anti vax) as well as propaganda having nothing to do with vaccines to see if it would give me any inspiration for a final product, but alas, it did not.
However, after I finished my radio show script, I came up with the idea of creating a poster of sorts for it- basing it off of an ad from the 50s for cigarettes. If anything, it was fun to visualize the characters in my script and drawing the different microphones and headphones was fun. Still, my research helped me learn a lot about the fears of the people both past and present through the forms of their propaganda. Were/are their fears outlandish and not backed up by science in the slightest? No, but they were still very real fears. It's important to learn about these things so we know how to best avoid and stop them in the future. |