Why were so many people hesitant to take mRNA vaccines? Elizabeth Tracey reports
Update: 2025-11-10
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mRNA vaccines can help the body fight cancer, a new study found, yet when we look at what has been called ‘vaccine hesitancy’ we see many people are suspicious of vaccines in general, let alone mRNA vaccines. Johns Hopkins mRNA expert Jeff Coller says history bears this out.
Coller: The efficacy of the vaccines was extremely high and the safety profile was extremely high but there has been a long history associated with vaccine hesitation and vaccine mis- and disinformation that goes way back, even to the very first vaccine from Jenner. You can read on the history of this and it's probably part of the human experience that there's a general distrust of you know what we call preventative medicine. We could learn lessons from the past of how to deal with that sort of general distrust. :29
Jenner used cowpox virus to vaccinate people against smallpox in 1796, and is credited with saving millions of lives by doing so, much the way Covid vaccines are credited with saving millions of people during the pandemic. Yet Jenner’s work took years to be accepted and adopted worldwide, just as mRNA technology is being closely scrutinized today. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
Coller: The efficacy of the vaccines was extremely high and the safety profile was extremely high but there has been a long history associated with vaccine hesitation and vaccine mis- and disinformation that goes way back, even to the very first vaccine from Jenner. You can read on the history of this and it's probably part of the human experience that there's a general distrust of you know what we call preventative medicine. We could learn lessons from the past of how to deal with that sort of general distrust. :29
Jenner used cowpox virus to vaccinate people against smallpox in 1796, and is credited with saving millions of lives by doing so, much the way Covid vaccines are credited with saving millions of people during the pandemic. Yet Jenner’s work took years to be accepted and adopted worldwide, just as mRNA technology is being closely scrutinized today. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
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