Sharpening the Critique of Vaccination Mandates: A Review Essay

Abstract

This review essay discusses Aaron Siri's book Vaccines, Amen: The Religion of Vaccines and Del Bigtree's documentary film An Inconvenient Study, both from 2025, as contributions to the critique of vaccination mandates. The author argues that the COVID-19 experience drew unprecedented attention to the assumptions underlying vaccination policy, and attributes the privileged status of vaccines to the power of the US pharmaceutical industry and to the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which exempted vaccines from product liability. The essay summarises Siri's deposition of Dr. Stanley Plotkin and Siri's argument that none of the routine childhood injected vaccines were licensed on the basis of a placebo-controlled trial, as well as the evidence both works present on vaccines associated with increased deaths from other causes, including, according to Siri, the COVID-19 mRNA shots. It describes the Henry Ford Health System study at the centre of Bigtree's film, which is reported to have found a lower probability of being free of chronic health conditions among vaccinated than unvaccinated children, and the study director's decision not to submit it for publication. The author contends that censorship rather than scientific method sustains the veneration of vaccines and argues that neither work implies a right-wing agenda. Siri's book is presented as a comprehensive treatment of vaccine use across infectious diseases, including MMR and polio.

Abstract prepared by the editorial office from the full text of the article; the authors did not supply one.