With the development of the COVID-19 vaccine in late 2020, anti-vaccine rhetoric in the U.S. expanded dramatically. Vaccines have been routinely recommended in the U.S. since the early 20th century, and they have significantly reduced the prevalence of diseases like polio, measles, and tetanus. But with the pandemic, what was once a mostly politically neutral topic — immunization — became a politically controversial one in much of the country.
Kirstin R.W. Matthews, a fellow in science and technology policy at the Baker Institute, and Rekha Lakshmanan, chief strategic officer of The Immunization Partnership and a Baker Institute nonresident scholar, joined Baker Briefing to explore the discourse surrounding vaccines, their politicization, and what’s ahead for vaccine policy under the incoming Donald Trump administration.
Subscribe and listen to Baker Briefing on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
This conversation was recorded on Nov. 21, 2024. A transcript of this episode is available here. This text was AI-generated and has not been through editorial review.
Discussants
Rekha Lakshmanan
Nonresident Scholar, Baker Institute; Chief Strategic Officer, The Immunization Partnership
Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Ph.D.
Science and Technology Policy Fellow, Baker Institute
The Honorable David M. Satterfield
Director, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy; Janice and Robert McNair Chair in Public Policy
Baker Briefing is a podcast that tackles the most critical foreign and domestic policy issues of the day in conversations with experts at the Baker Institute. Hosted by the Honorable David M. Satterfield, director of the Baker Institute, new episodes are released weekly.
Certain episodes of Baker Briefing are recorded in front of a live audience at Rice University in Houston, Texas. You can attend live recordings by joining the Baker Roundtable, the Baker Institute’s membership forum.
This material may be quoted or reproduced without prior permission, provided appropriate credit is given to the author and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The views expressed herein are those of the individual author(s), and do not necessarily represent the views of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
