Virulent: The Vaccine War

The film interweaves the personal accounts of polio survivors with the story of an ardent crusader who tirelessly fought on their behalf while scientists raced to eradicate this dreaded disease. Based in part on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky, Features interviews with historians, scientists, polio survivors, and the only surviving scientist from the core research team that developed the Salk vaccine, Julius Youngner.

Who are the people behind the international anti-Covid-vaccine movement and why are they doing it? This journey inside the astonishing world of the anti-vaxxers finds out.

Tracing the dramatic and controversial rise of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., FRONTLINE examines how the scion of a storied dynasty endured tragedy and scandal, broke with the Democratic Party and his family, stoked conspiracy theories, and is reshaping government and public health.

A Perilous Quest to Save the World’s Children tells the inspiring story of Dr. Maurice R. Hilleman, a man with a singular, unwavering focus — to eliminate the diseases of children. From his poverty-stricken youth on the plains of Montana, he came to prevent pandemic flu, develop the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, and invent the first-ever vaccine against human cancer.

Public health scientists and clinicians tout vaccines as one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine. But for many ordinary Americans vaccines have become controversial. Young parents are concerned at the sheer number of shots — some 26 inoculations for 14 different diseases by age 6 — and follow alternative vaccination schedules. Other parents go further. In communities like Ashland, Oregon, up to one-third of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids at all. This is the vaccine war: On one side sits scientific medicine and the public health establishment; on the other a populist coalition of parents, celebrities, politicians and activists.

The film looks behind the fear, hype and politics that polarize people into emotionally charged pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine camps with no room for middle ground. Verite stories of individuals and their families, whose lives have been forever changed by vaccine choices, interwoven with interviews from leading experts in the field, will re-frame the vaccine debate and offer, for the first time, the opportunity to have a rational, scientific and factual discussion on how to create a more effective vaccine program in America today.

Examines the step-by-step process that led German medical professionals down an unethical road to genocide.