Vaccines

Mythology, Ideology, and Reality

By: John Leake, Peter A. McCullough MD MPH

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

The word “vaccine” derives from the Latin word for cow. The English physician, Edward Jenner, coined it in his 1798 pamphlet An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae. The last two Latin words mean “Smallpox of the Cow,” or cowpox. Jenner postulated that cowpox causes mild disease in humans while protecting them from the more dangerous smallpox. His proposal for inoculation with a weak form of disease-causing matter to prevent serious illness became the central concept of infectious disease medicine and has remained so ever since. The word “vaccine” was subsequently applied to immunizations against all infectious diseases. Its etymology is amazingly apt, because vaccines are the ultimate sacred cow.

Vaccines: Mythology, Ideology, and Reality tells the story of this technology and the celebrated men who developed it with some success, but also with failures that are never mentioned in the celebratory literature on vaccines. Vaccine advocates often proclaim that they “follow the science,” but most vaccine development has been a matter of guesses, gambles, and wild experimentation. Its key figures have been biased by religious faith, wishful thinking, ideology, and a desire for recognition and money.

Though credit is due to some vaccines for reducing infectious disease morbidity and mortality, their contribution to public health in developed nations has been grossly exaggerated by propagandists. Dramatic improvements in nutrition and sanitation were the primary drivers of this trend. The authors do not dismiss the concept of vaccination but seek to promote a more informed and less dogmatic discussion about its risks and benefits. Critical evaluation can only make the technology safer and more effective.

©2025 Copyright © 2025 by John Leake and Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH (P)2025 Skyhorse Audio

Critic reviews

“Dr. Peter McCullough and John Leake have done the near-impossible: cutting through the noise and contemporary dramas around the issues of vaccines, they have produced a page-turning history and a gripping analysis of vaccines as myth and social ideology. This astute combination of intellectual and medical history, cultural analysis, and hard-hitting medical and scientific exposition could not have been accomplished by any other team. Vaccines will change the way you think about medical history, and how the collective mind, shaped by powerful interests, may propagate illusions out of thin air. This is an essential book for navigating our frenzied times with knowledge and insight, and it is one that will outlast us—a beautifully written classic of medical history and the history of ideas.”

—Dr. Naomi Wolf

“The appeal of vaccines that can prevent disease and death is obvious. Unfortunately, blind faith in vaccines has replaced critical thinking and robust cost-benefit analysis. Dr. Peter McCullough and John Leake provide both as they recount the history of vaccination in their must-read book.”

—Senator Ron Johnson

“A sweeping historical investigation that presents objective and competent guidance to the promise, folly, and dangers of vaccines—an industry that clearly needs a reset in light of evidence.”

—Jeffrey Tucker, Brownstone Institute

Easy listen, clear evidence, interesting stories.

I enjoyed listening to this informative history of many vaccines up to the COVID vaccine. This is an excellent read. Provides true stories of how some major vaccines were developed as well as risks and efficacy (or lack there of).

Well cited!

Informative book supported with citations. Must read for those who understand health is a personal responsibility.

History unknown

I liked that history of vaccines has basically been deleted from the current narrative. This book lays everything out chronologically & historically on most of the contagious diseases & how money wins out over science & the health of the nation/world.

A balanced review of the history of vaccines

I was looking for a book that doesn’t set out to completely discredit vaccines, uses confirmation bias and cherry picking to underpin a presupposed conclusion, but instead acknowledges the complexity of human biology and examines the issue of taking or not taking a vaccine using a risk framework: what is the upside and what are the downside risks, are there viable treatments, does the current schedule of administering the vaccines still make sense etc.

This book delivers on all of these and is a lot harder to dismiss by dogmatists who unconditionally defend all vaccines administered in all situations no matter the risk.

I wish the narrator was an actual human, the synthesized voice does a great disservice to the otherwise great book. If you can get a hard copy instead.

Go Beyond The Headlines and Propaganda

Every once in awhile, a boom comes along that I recommend EVERY American should read. THIS is one such book.

This is not"anti-vax". It is pro-science, common sense and pro-facts.