When Populism Can Kill
By validating unfounded fears about vaccines, Italy's opposition Five Star Movement and Greece's Syriza-led government risk exposing children and other vulnerable members of society to preventable infectious diseases. When the "war on expertise" targets health-care practitioners, it has gone too far.
LONDON – Unfounded skepticism about vaccines in some communities, in developing and developed countries alike, has emerged in recent years as one of the most serious impediments to global progress in public health. Indeed, it is one of the primary reasons why eradicable infectious diseases persist today.