Kira Ganga Kieffer (GRS’23/Religious Studies) Argues Vaccine Hesitancy in the US
One of the biggest modern American medical stories has been the rise of vaccine hesitancy. From the decline in childhood vaccinations for measles to apprehension about the COVID-19 vaccines, this trend has real consequences—including lives lost. Consider measles, the highly contagious childhood disease health officials declared eradicated in 2000 thanks to widespread vaccination. But as vaccinations for measles fell below the 95 percent threshold needed to prevent transmission of the virus, cases exploded, according to Johns Hopkins University’s US measles tracker. In 2025, 2,206 reported measles cases resulted in three deaths. Individuals who were vaccinated against measles made up just 6 percent of those cases.
Kira Ganga Kieffer (GRS’23) studies alternative health views like vaccine hesitancy to understand how individuals develop such beliefs. At first glance, this may seem like an unlikely field of study for a religion and history scholar who holds a PhD from BU in religious studies. But Kieffer (GRS’23) contends that vaccine hesitancy is best understood as religious expression—and that may be the key to addressing it as a public health crisis…
To read more, visit ARTS X SCIENCES MAGAZINE where this article originally appeared on April, 2026.