1. Wstęp. 2. Działalność ruchu antyszczepionkowego. 3. Rola środków masowego komunikowania na postawę wobec szczepień ochronnych. 4. Wpływ poglądów religijnych na postawę wobec szczepień ochronnych. 5. Podsumowanie

Abstract: Vaccines have accompanied humans for centuries. On the one hand vaccinology development resulted in growing popularity of infectious diseases prophylaxis, on the other vaccine refusal attitudes have been also noted. Religious or world-view reasons are given by vaccine opponents as an explanation to why they refuse immunization. They mention that obligatory immunization constrains liberty and freedom. They try to convince that vaccines or their components have a noxious effect or they overrate the significance of a natural exposure to pathogens. Despite the fact that smallpox has been eradicated and most of the infectious diseases incidence has dropped, resistance towards vaccination does not decline. Moreover, opposition is getting more and more commonplace. Mass media effectively helps propagate antivaccination idea. The Internet provides its users with a wealth information, both reliable with scientific background and the biased one. What is worrying is the fact that growing number of parents look for information on health related topics on the Internet. Selection of methods and parents’ gullible way of thinking lead to increased likelihood of these parents to believe in falsified and unreliable data. As a result, erroneous perception of the infectious diseases and antivaccination attitudes cause hazardous behaviors, such as so-called a pox-parties, which are previously planned exposures to a certain pathogen. Also celebrities take part in spreading out antivaccinationopinions. Nowadays, society tends to perceive celebrities as role-models and often obey them blindly.

1. Introduction. 2. Activity of antivaccine movement. 3. Role of the mass media on the attitude towards immunization. 4. Influence of religious beliefs on the attitude towards immunization. 5. Summary