It’s hard for many people to understand resistance to vaccines.
Why would anyone oppose preventing a preventable disease — for themselves, their child, or the community at large?
Kira Ganga Kieffer understands.
She’s not an anti-vaxxer, or a vaccine skeptic. She went through the Westport schools, from 1st grade through Staples High’s Class of 2004. She graduated from Brown University, then earned a Ph.D at Boston University.
Dr. Kira Ganga Kieffer
Now Dr. Kieffer is back in Westport, married to classmate Aaron Eisman (who begins a medical fellowship in cardiology at Yale next month). She is a visiting assistant professor of religious studies at Fairfield University, after teaching stints at BU, the University of Vermont and Wesleyan University
She studied American history and religion in college. Her honors thesis was an ethnographic study of 2 evangelical churches in Rhode Island. Kieffer sees vaccine hesitancy through the lens of religion.
It’s a nuanced view. She explains it in her new book, “Unvaccinated Under God,” tying debates over vaccine safety and mandatory vaccinations into “existential concerns about justice and morality.”
Kieffer says that vaccine hesitancy can be a religious expression — not the product of scientific misinformation.
She offers her insights at 7 p.m. tonight, in a Westport Library discussion with fellow Staples and Brown graduate, primary care physician Dr. Caroline Andrew.
It’s part of the “Saugatuck Scribes” series, spotlighting Westport authors.
The book’s genesis dates back nearly a decade. Kieffer was studying alternative health in contemporary America, and looking as far back as smallpox. Her advisor — knowing Kieffer’s interest in religion — suggested examining the subject from that angle.
When COVID hit, Kieffer published an article on how a vaccine rollout — still in the future — might be difficult. A religion editor tracked her down, and asked if she could turn it into her book.
The result — “Unvaccinated Under God” — was published this week.
“I want people to think about vaccine hesitancy and refusal not as scientific illiteracy or ignorance, but as innate religiousness,” Kieffer says. “Fear of vaccines can be transformative.”
By not addressing the religious component, she adds, “we’re not moving the needle” among people who distrust the medical establishment. “We need to understand where they’re coming from.”
That means “speaking more of their language, about their fears — without making them feel talked down to.”
There have been 6 vaccine controversies since the 1980s, Kieffer says. They involved issues like mothering; what one puts into one’s body; authority and politics — along with religious freedom.
Readers have been surprised at how “even-handed” her book is, Kieffer says. As vaccination debates are politicized by “both sides,” she hopes that “people in public health, medicine and on the liberal side will change their tone or attitude to people they see as non-compliant, to win their trust back.”
Pins like these may not be the best way to reach vaccine-hesitant people.
Many pediatric practices will not accept patients whose parents refuse full vaccinations, Kieffer notes.
The need to protect other patients is “totally understandable. But it shoves people away, to fringier medical providers who give them more reasons not to get vaccinated.
“The ‘believe in science’ banner of liberals and progressives in the culture wars can be reductive. It pushes people away. ‘Belief’ is a religious term.”
Meanwhile, measles cases are on the rise. The number of children entering kindergarten without measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are rising too.
Vaccines are crucial. But reaching vaccine-hesitant people by understanding their feelings — and addressing their fears and concerns, in a belief-centered, religious realm — is crucial too.
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Kudos to Dr. Kieffer. For systemic progress on contentious issues, we need more people and more listening to the “whys”, instead of knee-jerk blaming and gaslighting. Good stuff here.
is medical literature and scientific research gas lighting.?
My belief i,God has given some people to ability to study and create vaccines to protect us. Let’s listen to them
I would suggest an AI search on religion and political ideology on vaccine hesitancy. is that gas lighting ? is it more of that Fake News.?
It’s not clear to me how a fear of vaccines can be “transformative”. Fear can useful when confronted with a Sabre toothed tiger, but is self defeating when used to decline vaccines that prevent getting or transmitting a deadly disease. Vaccine hesitancy always result in more people dying.
And then there’s this: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/well/children-vaccines-illnesses.html?smid=url-share
I wish there was a vaccine against rude and sarcastic comments on blogs! But seriously, I wish I could be there tonight. I’m sure it’ll be interesting.
Jack, we all have fun out here. It’s a guilty pleasure. Never take it personally and keep telling your stories because we will miss them when they’re gone.
Hey David, I appreciate your kind words!!!!!!!
Jack B. Ryan is not arrogant. He is kind and polite
Richard, I see how polite Ryan is. He called me arrogant. He’s very kind and polite. I never mentioned names in my vaccine comment. It was a general comment !But this kind man singled me out! I won’t respond with anything negative. He’s very nice and kind.
Jack, spare me the passive-aggressive politeness routine. You started with sarcasm about wishing for a “vaccine against rude comments,” then mocked skeptics. Calling that out as arrogant isn’t unkind. It’s accurate.
Jack, the real vaccine we need is one against arrogant people like you who mock skeptics and demand everyone conform to their views.
I remember when polio was “off the charts” in Westport and people would head for the hills in droves during the summer to avoid catching it. Then the Salk and later the Sabin vaccines became mainstream and were administered en masse at the elementary school level. But those days where Drs. Lebhar, Lynch and Shiller ruled the roost are long gone. Instead adherence to common sense and your family physician has become as passé as losing weight by counting calories. Fear of vaccines has replaced fear of the diseases that they vanquished. Why do I need a shrink to tell me to stop fearing a vaccine that could save my life?
I got my Polio shot at Greens Farms School and I even remember who was standing next to me, Robin McCoy, who eventually graduated from Staples in 1965.
Do another Ai search in where old diseases are spreading today due to vaccine hesitancy population. One such population is measles spreading into the orthodox Jewish community.
Just to be clear, no one in the United States has ever been subjected to a forced vaccination “mandate” against their will. It has been a condition of employment or school attendance, etc.., but individuals are free to accept those conditions or not. No one was forced to get a Covid vaccine.
Fauci was and is, a fraud.
Dr. Kieffer’s attempt to frame vaccine hesitancy as some kind of noble religious expression is dangerously naive. It completely sidesteps the serious safety issues with the COVID vaccines. We’ve seen far too many cases of young, healthy people developing heart inflammation, myocarditis, and sudden cardiac events shortly after vaccination. These problems were extremely rare before the rollout. My own father got the shot and came down with COVID not long after. For many people, especially those at low risk, it was utterly pointless. Fauci and the public health establishment pushed these mandates with endless flip flopping, censorship of dissenting voices, and outright misrepresentation of the data. He should be tried in court for the deaths and suffering that resulted. Hesitancy isn’t a spiritual journey to be gently understood. It’s a rational response to real harms and broken trust. Instead of reframing refusal as “innate religiousness,” we need honest acknowledgment that these vaccines caused damage and that people have every right to reject them.
There were no “mandates”. Everything single person in the USA had the option to be vaccinated or not. It was their choice. No one was vaccinated against their will.
That’s just false. There absolutely were mandates. Millions lost jobs, couldn’t attend school, travel, or keep their military careers unless they got the shot. “Your choice” under threat of being fired, barred from society, or discharged is not real choice. It was coercive pressure from the top.
The “mandates” you referenced are actually terms of employment or participation that any employer or organization is free to implement as they see fit. You don’t like how I run my business? There’s the door.
I wonder how many people died due to the “mandate” hysteria whipped up by the antivax crowd and 47? Of course, HE got vaccinated and was happy to take credit for the success of the vaccine.
That’s it for me on this thread.
Calling coercive mandates “just terms of employment” is a weak cop-out. When the federal government pressured employers, threatened OSHA fines, blocked military careers, barred students from school, and restricted travel unless you got the shot, that’s not free choice. It’s government-backed bullying.
Plenty of people lost jobs, livelihoods, and futures over this. Meanwhile, the shots carried real risks like myocarditis and heart inflammation in young healthy people at rates far above background, plus breakthrough infections like my dad got right after his vaccine.
You can defend “terms of employment” all you want, but the flip-flopping, censorship, and one-size-fits-all pressure destroyed public trust. Fauci and the establishment pushed this hard and should be held accountable in court for the harm and deaths that resulted.
Hesitancy wasn’t hysteria. It was people seeing the overreach and risks and refusing to comply. Glad you’re done with the thread.
Some hostile folks here today for this story. Perhaps because I was a health care provider for 40 years and consider myself to be a scientist, and maybe because I served in the military for over 31 years and have received every vaccine under the sun and miraculously survived, I fail to understand the mistrust in what is an objective and proven medical intervention.
Sure, there will always be some people who suffer adverse reactions to vaccines but this is not the result of some evil conspiracy by those in the public health community to kill Americans.
During the pandemic the situation was quickly evolving in real time and guidelines had to be modified on the fly as new data was processed shaping the response. Yes, things were confusing at times but under the circumstances that was not surprising. Ultimately the goal was to serve the greater good and protect the population at large.
As far as religion goes, if you find solace in a religious or spiritual belief that’s wonderful and I’m glad it helps you get through life. However when your religious beliefs have the potential to negatively impact the lives of others in the community at large, or infringe on the rights of others, then I have a problem with it.
No medical intervention is zero-risk — the question is always whether the benefit outweighs the harm, and for COVID vaccines across the broad population, it did. Also, I won’t dignify the 8:00 pm comment someone made about me.The person obviously doesn’t know me.
Thank you Jack. I thought everyone knew that all interventions carry risk. Even baby aspirin.
The number of paralytic polio cases declined by 99%, and the vaccine has saved more than 5 million children from paralysis. 
In short: a sore arm versus possible lifelong paralysis or death. The math was never really close. True the early polio vaccines carried more risk, but the newer IPV shot is extremely effective and safe!
Aaron, Dr. William Batsford, a Cardiologist from Yale before he retired from Yale, was my Cardiologist for maybe 25 years. In total he has 55 years of experience and was a good friend of mine. I credit him for my good health. He was the best!
Ryan. I don’t know where you get your research from. Ask AI to statistically provide red state versus blue states death during COVID. Sure there are side affects. But the statistical analysis by AI clearly demonstrates how blue states had a much lower mortality. So many opinions on this blog can can be evaluated by using AI. I would suggest that anyone interested in any subject use AI to help you understand.
Relying on “ask AI for red vs blue stats” as your gold standard for truth is adorably naive. It’s like outsourcing your critical thinking to a chatbot trained on the same biased sources that pushed the narrative.
Sure, some analyses show higher COVID mortality in red states post-vaccine rollout, but they conveniently ignore massive confounders like population density, age demographics, obesity, comorbidities, early hospital protocols in blue cities like New York, and how deaths were counted. Blue states got hammered early with lockdowns and nursing home disasters before vaccines existed.
Meanwhile, the mRNA shots had confirmed risks: myocarditis rates in young males hit dozens per million doses after the second shot (far above background), with documented heart inflammation and sudden cardiac issues in otherwise healthy people. My dad got the vaccine and came down with COVID shortly after anyway. Breakthroughs were common once efficacy waned.
Fauci’s flip-flopping, censorship, and coercive mandates destroyed trust for good reason. Hesitancy wasn’t ignorance. It was rational skepticism toward a one-size-fits-all experiment that caused real harm. Next time, maybe use AI to look up actual risk-benefit data by age group instead of simplistic state color comparisons.
What follows is long and to some will be superfluous-
In the 1940’s and 1950’s, those of us old enough to remember those times got every conceivable “childhood disease”- measles, German measles, mumps, chicken pox, diphtheria, whooping cough- and everyone we knew in school got those diseases!!
I will add- sadly my older brother got sick with polio in 1952 (one year pre Salk vaccine), was rushed to the Willard Parker hospital for contagious diseases (on the upper east side of NYC and lived with an iron lung machine at his bedside for weeks) spent the rest of his life living on crutches and toward the end in a wheel chair. (My younger brother and I were give multiple shots of gamma globulins to hopefully prevent us from getting the disease or at least a non paralytic case!)
I wouldn’t wish any of those diseases on any child, and certainly not polio. The generations after the 1950’s and 1960’s got vaccinated and never had those diseases and really don’t know what being sick with them feels like. Many really don’t know what to be afraid of- the vaccinations they should get or the diseases they or their children may/will get if they don’t get vaccinated!
As a physician I was drafted into military service during the Vietnam war and spent two years assigned in the USPHS at the CDC- then called the communicable disease center – and saw first hand the terrible diseases in this world- that I didn’t get as a child but that were lurking out there (think hanta virus, ebola, Marburg virus, Sars, Mars, psittacosis, equine encephalitis, AIDS -ad nauseum- and some of them did get here.
You didn’t have to be a MD to realize if we let our medical guards down those diseases could come to the US. But fortunately because of CDC and its Epidemiology Service with officers scattered all over the world only a few of them did get here – and we had developed vaccines for many of them.
I know we should be more afraid of the things that will happen if we are not vaccinated and we get sick than the things someone thinks might happen from getting vaccinated.
Bottom line and my humble but informed opinion based on a medical education and personal experience-
Get vaccinated. Get your kids vaccinated.
A test- – if Covid had had a 50 to 75% mortality rate (instead of 2% over all but as high as 10 to 25% in older patients) and there was a vaccine for it – wouldn’t everyone demand to be vaccinated immediately if not sooner? Oh- there was a vaccine but we were told not to get it or we didn’t have to get it!!!
A question- If you got polio as child and spent the rest of your life in a wheel chair wouldn’t you wish that there was a vaccine available? There wasn’t for my brother.
If your child got mumps and it caused sterility for the rest of their life? Should they have been vaccinated.
If your daughter got German measles during pregnancy and then either lost it or had a badly affected infant? Hmm- there is a vaccination for that one also.
I will end by para phrasing Linda Stein’s (my wife) opening post-
“My belief is if God has given some physician scientists the ability to study and create vaccines to protect us. Let’s tjust hank them and God. And let’s get educated enough to listen to the healers.
Bottom line- “Vaccines are good, Hesitancy is not so good”
Dan, I listen to TWiV weekly, this week in virology .Last weeks clinical update sighted a study done about the measles cases in Texas .There were 325 confirmed measles cases, 18.5 %, 60 children were hospitalized 90% were under age 18 ,89% had no underlying conditions.54 of them were not vaccinated. Hospital length of stay ranged from 2 days to 20 days. 72% had pneumonia, 46% dehydration,1child had hepatitis, 1 child had a seizure. 70% needed oxygen including 2 who were intubated and on a ventilator. 7% were in ICU, and 1 child died. I am so glad that I am no longer a practicing nurse. This willfully allowing children to get seriously ill drives me crazy. When my daughter was young, I did everything to keep her healthy.