Kira Kieffer (PhD, Boston University) is a scholar of religion and has written a book on the intersection of vaccine hesitancy and religion called Unvaccinated Under God. The book covers my lifespan (so it’s hard for me to call it a history, lol), but it is not just a survey of the past, it is definitely prevalent in our current culture. From MMR to Covid to HPV, Kira covers the culture surrounding vaccine hesitancy and how the movement relates to religion and is in itself, in many ways, religious.
Mentioned in this episode:
Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America by Kira Ganga Kieffer
Up First from NPR, “Primary Election Results, US Missile Stockpiles Running Low, New Flu Vaccine,” August 5, 2026
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