When things work, we take them for granted. Call it hedonic adaptation if you will, but the unfortunate truth about successful science, technology, or governmental policy is that when it actually works, it’s not long before people stop noticing the problem was solved or even existed in the first place. In 1916, the infant mortality rate was 99.9 per 1,000 (viaNIH); literally 10% of infants would die (and 18.5% of Black infants). In 2017, the average infant mortality rate was 0.57%. That’s incredible improvement, and we’ve seen health and quality of life increase in so many areas (while still in proportion with social and racial inequality).
It wasn’t really that long ago, across the span of our speck in time, that diseases ran rampant, killing and disabling large portions of humanity. Today, most of us don’t even know what diphtheria is; smallpox has literally been eradicated; polio morbidity has decreased by a full 100%. But the generations who are birthed into better futures never had to live through the problem, so they have no appreciation for the solution. Enter vaccine skepticism.
The newdocumentaryShot in the Armfrom Scott Hamilton Kennedy (Food Evolution) puts a people-first approach to vaccines, diseases, skepticism, and science. It’s obviously a pro-vaccine film because it’s a pro-science, pro-truth, and pro-humanity film, though it studies and interviews various top dogs in the anti-vax brigade and explores the consequences of their misinformation. It might not change anyone’s mind on vaccines, but it is a great document of a disturbing moment, and a strong rallying cry for science.
A Measles Documentary Gets COVID in Real Time
Shot in the Armwas going to be a very different film.In the late 2010s, measles outbreaks were occurring in very specific areas, generally religious communities such as Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn and Rockland County. These are the types of close-knit communities where there is a lot of social gathering and interaction, but also where religion is generally prioritized over science; these communities were also specifically targeted by anti-vax hucksters spreading dangerous messages.
Scott Hamilton Kennedy saw this and the horrific measles outbreak in Samoa, which appears to have been stoked specifically by people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (more on him later), and decided to make a film about it. What was happening? Why were vaccines for antiquated diseases which had practically been eradicated suddenly a problem?
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Of course, 2019 turned into 2020. It’s fascinating to see Kennedy’s film transpire in real timeas COVID-19 hits, and suddenly vaccines and disease take on a much more global significance. Kennedy shelters in place with his wife and daughters, and we get some intimate scenes of working and schooling from home, and the lethargic confusion of those times. Of course, when a vaccine does come nearly a year later thanks to the near-superhuman skills of different scientists and organizations, the anti-vaxxers return with even bigger numbers.
Shot in Arm Shows When Skepticism Kills
One of the most refreshing aspects ofShot in the Armis that the film lets people speak for themselves. “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time,” as Dr. Maya Angelou said. It doesn’t use any trick editing, nefarious music,or critical voiceoverto indict the anti-vaxxers, but rather lets them speak for themselves. It shows footage of council and school board meetings with many angry moms, conferences of vaccine skeptics held by grifters like Del Bigtree and Andrew Wakefield, and interviews with said skeptics. Their behavior and lack of rational thinking speaks volumes in and of itself.
Perhaps the most damning interview is with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who won’t call himself an anti-vaxxer despite the documentary evidence. He denies things that are on the obvious record, like visiting Samoa before the country decided to abandon all measles vaccines after two infants died (from not receiving the proper vaccine, it later turned out). Because of this, 5,700 Samoans contracted measles and 83 people died. Similar measles outbreaks occurred in Tonga, the Philippines, and New Zealand.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is seen at a massive anti-vax rally in Berlin attended by various far-right groups, and some outright Nazis. It’s here where Scott Hamilton Kennedy begins to piece together the threads that connect vaccine hesitancy with right-wing populism, election denial, and bigger conspiratorial thinking. They’re all stitched together by the same damaging needle of ‘skepticism,’ but this goes far beyond Cartesian doubt and into downright cynicism and anti-truth denial. We’re at a point where large swaths of the population don’t believe in any of the objective facts and science which hold a society together, even while seven million people died from COVID.
The People Keeping Society Together
It’s enough to put yet another dent in one’s faith in humanity, thoughShot in the Armoffers many glimmers of hope, mainly in the individuals it follows. There’s Blima Marcus, a nurse practitioner and former vaccine skeptic who learned the science during school and did everything she could to help care forher Jewish communityduring the measles outbreak and then COVID. There’s Dr. Peter J. Hotez and Dr. Paul Offit, whose interviews are endlessly informing and interesting. There’s Scott’s wife, Catherine, and their two daughters, who emotionally ground the film.
These are the people who believe in and uphold the social contract, Rousseau’s foundational idea that there are sacrifices and compromises every citizen must make in order for a society to exist and maintain the general will of the people. In this sense, getting a vaccine is not just about you; it’s about protecting all the people around you, your fellow citizens, who may contract the disease. Ironically, refusing vaccines is a selfish act if you live in a community, because disease and truth is not an individual thing.
From Black Valley Films and Diamond Docs,Shot in the Armis currently screening in New York City at the iconic Angelika Film Center, and will then be released in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Cinemas on November 17th before expanding to other markets across North America. You can find more information at theShot in the Armwebsiteand can watch the trailer below:
