ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) –An infectious disease expert at the University of New Mexico is leading the charge in a new documentary aimed at stopping myths and misinformation about vaccines. Dr. Walter Dehority is an associated professor of pediatric infectious disease at the university.
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Dr. Dehority began working on the documentary ‘Vaccination from the Misinformation Virus’ back in 2017, with local producer, Chris Schuler. Dr. Dehority says the documentary aims to educate people about the benefits of vaccines. He says against the backdrop of the pandemic, this was the perfect time for the documentary to be released.
“Over the years we found that, in general, the depictions became much more negative in the modern era,” Dr. Dehority said in a news release. “In the early days – the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s – the movies typically portrayed a heroic doctor or researcher who developed a vaccine and saved everybody’s life, stopped an outbreak of a disease or something like that. The vaccine and the medical community were portrayed as the heroes and it was celebrating science, celebrating medicine.”
It airs on New Mexico PBS on Thursday at 7 p.m.
