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Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America
How vaccine hesitancy can be understood as religious expression
Vaccine hesitancy in America didn’t begin with the uproar over the mRNA vaccines for Covid-19. The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw resistance to a wide variety of vaccines. In Unvaccinated Under God, Kira Ganga Kieffer shows that debates over vaccine safety and mandatory vaccination were about more than diseases or injections. They have been proxies for existential concerns about justice and morality. Kieffer argues that vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. should be understood as religious expression—not as the product of scientific misinformation.
Through a series of historical case studies, which range from the “mother warriors” who claimed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism during the 1990s to opposition to masking and vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic, Kieffer frames vaccination controversies as contests over religious freedom and moral authority. These debates concerned bodily, spiritual, and sexual purity; the morality of state-mandated medical risk; the importance of children; and the authority of parents and doctors. Kieffer explains that diverse groups of Americans utilized religious ideals and practices to question or resist vaccination. With this new, illuminating perspective on vaccine hesitancy, Kieffer offers a novel and even-handed way to understand Americans’ changing and increasingly divided attitudes toward biomedical knowledge and technology. Her account offers readers an accessible set of tools for how to “think with religion” when it comes to contemporary contests over medical authority.
Vaccine hesitancy in America didn’t begin with the uproar over the mRNA vaccines for Covid-19. The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw resistance to a wide variety of vaccines. In Unvaccinated Under God, Kira Ganga Kieffer shows that debates over vaccine safety and mandatory vaccination were about more than diseases or injections. They have been proxies for existential concerns about justice and morality. Kieffer argues that vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. should be understood as religious expression—not as the product of scientific misinformation.
Through a series of historical case studies, which range from the “mother warriors” who claimed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism during the 1990s to opposition to masking and vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic, Kieffer frames vaccination controversies as contests over religious freedom and moral authority. These debates concerned bodily, spiritual, and sexual purity; the morality of state-mandated medical risk; the importance of children; and the authority of parents and doctors. Kieffer explains that diverse groups of Americans utilized religious ideals and practices to question or resist vaccination. With this new, illuminating perspective on vaccine hesitancy, Kieffer offers a novel and even-handed way to understand Americans’ changing and increasingly divided attitudes toward biomedical knowledge and technology. Her account offers readers an accessible set of tools for how to “think with religion” when it comes to contemporary contests over medical authority.
- GenresNonfiction
304 pages, Hardcover
Published May 19, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 25, 2026
As an atheist working in public health, this was definitely not a fun read. In some moments I felt the author was more critical of public health than I thought was fair and was more sympathetic to anti-vaxxers than I thought was warranted. However, she also points out legitimate root causes for vaccine hesitancy and ways that public health can be dismissive of anti-vaxxers to our own peril. I don’t think anti-vaxxers or public health people will love this book, which says to me that it’s got a balanced/neutral approach to the topic. It challenged my own perceptions and gave me food for thought on how we in public health can improve the ways we respond to vaccine hesitancy.
June 8, 2026
The author sure is defensive of religious nut bags who won’t vaccinate their kids.
abandoned
July 31, 2026Carrie McKean has a thorough review titled "Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy" on the Reason website, which was enough to convince me that I don't need to read this.
May 20, 2026
Good historical background and a lot of interesting themes that ultimately don't come together and doesn't give us a way forward on engaging with the vaccine-hesitant. Full review here: https://www.christianitytoday.com/202...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews