Paula Larsson | |
---|---|
Nationality | Canadian |
Occupation | Historian |
Awards | Mary Lemessurier Award, James Burns Scholarship |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Oxford |
Doctoral advisor | Professor Mark Harrison |
Academic work | |
Discipline | History |
Sub-discipline | Medicine,colonialism,Canadian history |
Institutions | Uncomfortable Oxford |
Website | https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/people/paula-larsson |
Paula Larsson is a Canadian historian of medical and colonial history at the University of Oxford. She is most notable for her research into the history of eugenics,social darwinism,the First Nations of Canada,and most prominently the history of anti-vaccine conspiracies in Canada. [1] [2] She is a winner of both The James Burn Scholarship and the Mary Lemessurier Award.
Paula Larsson grew up in a large family based in Calgary,Canada. She was once a volunteer with a charity organisation known as Feed the Hungry. [3]
Larsson's activities largely involve public engagement with local history in Oxford. She was one of the developers of the Oxford and Empire Network,and the co-founder of Uncomfortable Oxford. [4] She is also a writer for The Conversation,where she contributes to the history of vaccine hesitancy in the English speaking world,and topics such as racism within anti-vaccinations movements, [5] [6] the polio vaccine heist of 1959, [7] and the recycling of anti-vaccine talking points from the nineteenth century to the present day. [8] She is also a contributor to the Canadian Eugenics Archive. [9]
Larsson was one the president of the University of Oxford's Canadian students society. [3]
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe,its toxins,or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as a threat,destroy it,and recognize further and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future.
Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio). Two types are used:an inactivated poliovirus given by injection (IPV) and a weakened poliovirus given by mouth (OPV). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends all children be fully vaccinated against polio. The two vaccines have eliminated polio from most of the world,and reduced the number of cases reported each year from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to 33 in 2018.
Hilary Koprowski was a Polish virologist and immunologist active in the United States who demonstrated the world's first effective live polio vaccine. He authored or co-authored over 875 scientific papers and co-edited several scientific journals.
Pulse Polio is an immunisation campaign established by the government of India to eliminate poliomyelitis (polio) in India by vaccinating all children under the age of five years against the polio virus. The project fights polio through a large-scale,pulse vaccination programme and monitoring for poliomyelitis cases.
Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance,or refusal,of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate,delaying vaccines,accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain about their use,or using certain vaccines but not others. Although adverse effects associated with vaccines are occasionally observed,the scientific consensus that vaccines are generally safe and effective is overwhelming. Vaccine hesitancy often results in disease outbreaks and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. Therefore,the World Health Organization characterizes vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats.
Brian Martin is a social scientist in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry,Faculty of Arts,Social Sciences and Humanities,at the University of Wollongong (UOW) in NSW,Australia. He was appointed a professor at the university in 2007,and in 2017 was appointed emeritus professor. His work is in the fields of peace research,scientific controversies,science and technology studies,sociology,political science,media studies,law,journalism,freedom of speech,education and corrupted institutions,as well as research on whistleblowing and dissent in the context of science. Martin was president of Whistleblowers Australia from 1996 to 1999 and remains their International Director. He has been criticized by medical professionals and public health advocates for promoting the disproven oral polio vaccine AIDS hypothesis and supporting vaccine hesitancy in the context of his work.
Vaccination and religion have interrelations of varying kinds. No major religion prohibits vaccinations,and some consider it an obligation because of the potential to save lives. However,some people cite religious adherence as a basis for opting to forego vaccinating themselves or their children. Many such objections are pretextual:in Australia,anti-vaccinationists founded the Church of Conscious Living,a "fake church",leading to religious exemptions being removed in that country,and one US pastor was reported to offer vaccine exemptions in exchange for online membership of his church.
Frank W. Stahnisch is a historian of medicine and neuroscience at the University of Calgary in Canada,where he holds the endowed Alberta Medical Foundation/Hannah Professorship in the History of Medicine and Health Care. He is jointly appointed in the Department of History,Faculty of Arts,and the Department of Community Health Sciences,Cumming School of Medicine,and is a member of the Calgary Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the O'Brien Institute for Public Health. He has also received an adjunct professorship in the Department of Classics and Religion of the Faculty of Arts. His research interests in the history and philosophy of the biomedical sciences cover:the development of modern physiology and experimental medicine,the history of neuroscience and the history of psychiatry,as well as the development of modern medical visualization practices. Since 2015,he has succeeded Professor Malcolm Macmillan as an Editor-in-Chief of the international "Journal of the History of the Neurosciences",and since 2021 he is also an Associate Editor for the History and Philosophy of the Behavioural Neurosciences with "Frontiers in Psychology"
Pakistan is one of the two remaining countries in the world where poliomyelitis (polio) is still categorized as an endemic viral infection,the other one being Afghanistan. While it has yet to fully eradicate Polio,there has been a major downwards trend in the number of reported cases per year;the total count of wild poliovirus cases in Pakistan in 2019 was down to 147,compared to 84 in 2020,1 in 2021,20 in 2022,6 in 2023 and 8 as of June 2024.
Vaccine shedding is a form of viral shedding which can occasionally occur following a viral infection caused by an attenuated vaccine. Illness in others resulting from transmission through this type of viral shedding is rare. Most vaccines are not attenuated vaccines,and therefore cannot cause vaccine-induced viral shedding,though the idea of shedding is a popular anti-vaccination myth.
Vaccine Choice Canada (VCC) is Canada's main anti-vaccination group. It was founded in the 1980s under the name Vaccination Risk Awareness Network (VRAN) and adopted its current name in 2014. The group has been contributing to vaccine hesitancy in Canada,encouraging citizens to forgo immunization and legislators to support anti-vaccine regulations and legislation.
Rajan Sawhney is a Canadian politician from the United Conservative Party in Alberta. She was elected in the 2019 Alberta general election to represent the electoral district of Calgary-North West in the 30th Alberta Legislature. On April 30,2019,she was appointed to be the Minister of Community &Social Services in the Executive Council of Alberta. On July 8,2021,she was shuffled into the Minister of Transportation.
The New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice (NJCVC) is a state-level anti-vaccination group advocating against mandatory vaccination. Scientists and medical experts have countered many of these statements,arguments against vaccination being contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
Learn The Risk is an American anti-vaccine group founded in 2015. It is known for its billboard campaigns asserting vaccines are responsible for a large number of deaths of young children. Arguments against vaccination are contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.
Misinformation related to immunization and the use of vaccines circulates in mass media and social media in spite of the fact that there is no serious hesitancy or debate within mainstream medical and scientific circles about the benefits of vaccination. Unsubstantiated safety concerns related to vaccines are often presented on the internet as being scientific information. A large proportion of internet sources on the topic are mostly inaccurate which can lead people searching for information to form misconceptions relating to vaccines.
COVID-19 vaccination in Romania started on 27 December 2020. It was announced that the process would be divided into three phases. Medical personnel would be vaccinated first,followed by the population at risk,and finally by the rest of the population. Vaccination was declared free and non-mandatory. As of March 2022,five types of vaccines were authorized to be used in Romania. This is the largest vaccination campaign in the modern history of Romania.
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the United States is the sociocultural phenomenon of individuals refusing or displaying hesitance towards receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the United States can be considered as part of the broader history of vaccine hesitancy.
In many countries,the dissemination of varied claims and perspectives regarding COVID-19 vaccines has sparked widespread public discussion. These include concerns about potential side effects,differing interpretations of how the immune system responds to vaccination,and debates over the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally,stories such as COVID-19 being linked to 5G technology and other debated information have also emerged. This spread of information,including content from anti-vaccination advocates,may have influenced people's attitudes towards vaccination. In response,governments and private organizations around the world have introduced measures to encourage or mandate vaccination,such as lotteries,mandates,and free entry to events. These measures have further fueled debates about their legality and effectiveness.
COVID-19 vaccination in Ontario began in December 2020,when the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were administered. In February 2021,shipments for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines increased significantly. By May 2021,over 50 percent of Ontarians had received their first dose. By the beginning of 2022,over 80 percent of Ontarians had received their first dose.
19 to Zero is a not-for-profit behavioural sciences initiative based in Calgary,Alberta,Canada. Hosted at the University of Calgary,the public–private partnership is made up of around 500 members including public health specialists,academics,behavioural psychologists,marketers and multimedia creators. Its purpose is to increase confidence in vaccines for COVID-19 and other diseases by tackling vaccine hesitancy. The group publishes materials on its website and through partner organizations,including videos,billboards,presentations,brochures and in-person events.