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With a reported measles outbreak in New Mexico and Texas, questions and curiosities again arise about the effectiveness and impact of vaccines. Just a year before the global COVID-19 pandemic, filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy began investigating vaccines in the context of the measles outbreak in 2019, filming with top public health officials as well as rare interviews with anti-vaccine activists who were persuading parents by the million to refuse vaccines for their children. But in March of 2020, Kennedy’s focus shifted with the outbreak of what was previously known as the Coronavirus.
SHOT IN THE ARM explores the different sides of the vaccine discussion, with a major focus not just on COVID-19, but also the measles in the early 2000s, as well as the history of polio in the 1950’s and 60’s. Including interviews with officials and scientists like Tony Fauci, Peter Hortez, as well as everyday individuals like Karen Ernst and Blima Marcus whose lives were affected by the topic. In addition to these interviews, the film examines footage of his own family during the 2020 global pandemic, as well as an examination of the media as the pandemic progressed.
Both skeptical and hopeful, SHOT IN THE ARM explores vaccine hesitancy historically and in the context of our modern pandemic. Can we replace cynicism with healthy curiosity and bridge the political divides that make us sick?
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