Vaccine Mandates Past and Present: A Conversation with Dorit Reiss

In recent months, there has been a raging debate over whether the state--or private actors--can require vaccine mandates.  Some resisters claim that such a mandate stands in opposition to their religious liberty; others maintain that the state should not have this authority.  Where did vaccine mandates--and the fierce resistance to them--come from?  Dorit Reiss, Professor of Law and James Edgar Hervey ’50 Chair of Litigation at UC Hastings, and one of the country's leading authorities on vaccine mandates, joins then & now to discuss vaccine hesitancy and resistance throughout history, the role of religious exemptions, and the politicization of the pandemic.