For years, studies have pointed to one especially powerful influence over whether a person will get a vaccine: a clear recommendation from their doctor. Throughout most of her career, Nola Ernest, a pediatrician in rural southeastern Alabama, could reassure families who were hesitating to vaccinate their kids'in many cases by explaining that she had enthusiastically opted into the same shots for her own sons. In the past few months, though, she's spoken with several families who, at her recommendation, had previously immunized all of their older kids'and yet are now adamant about not vaccinating their newborn. 'I reassure them that I am still the same pediatrician,' Ernest told me. 'They say, 'We still trust you. We just think a lot of the things have been pushed on us for a long time that were not actually necessary, or were harmful.'' Until recently, doubt about vaccines might have been seeded mainly by cautions from friends and family, or by unreliable information online. Now,...
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