VIRULENT: THE VACCINE WAR explores the highly contentious, emotionally fraught firestorm surrounding vaccines, charting the collision between scientists and charlatans, truth and lies.

Public health experts' worries that the coronavirus vaccine could create fear of all vaccines appear to have been borne out by the resurgence of previously eradicated childhood diseases including measles and pertussis. Doctors admit that they have not learned how to effectively communicate science to their patients, leaving them susceptible to the influence of expertly manipulated and increasing extreme messaging on social media platforms. In post-pandemic America, the vaccine controversy continues to cut across political, cultural, racial and socio-economic lines, engulfing doctors and patients as well as conspiracy theorists, celebrities, influencers, and opportunists looking to cash in. The film also takes a close look at the ways in which minorities are targeted by anti-vaccine misinformation.

Taking us deep into these opposing worlds are Dr. Paul Offit, one of the world's preeminent virologists; Dr. Peter Salk, Jonas Salk's physician son; Arthur Caplan, PhD, founder of NYU's Division of Bioethics; New York Times columnist Kevin Roose, who writes about how bad science spreads online; NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny, who has exposed how anti-vaxxers target grieving parents and has herself become a target; and the voices of many former vaccine skeptics, including those who lost children to vaccine-preventable illnesses.

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