Postcards From The Hedge

Dr Geert vanden Bossche is a Belgian veterinarian with a PhD in virology. He came to prominence in March 2021 with an open letter to "all authorities, scientists and experts around the world" in which he called for a stop to mass vaccination due to concerns that the programme will 'select' more virulent vaccine-resistant variants, in an analogy with the evolution of antibiotic resistance. There have been numerous takedowns already, eg here , here and here , and there is no danger of his proposals ever being adopted, but his influence is significant in what we might call 'contrarian' circles, so, to echo Zuckerkandl and Pauling in a different context, "some beating of dead horses may be ethical, when here and there they display unexpected twitches that look like life" [1] .  The first thing to note is that a great many advocates for vanden Bossche are anti-vaxxers, although not all may self-describe as such. They appear only to read the first two wor...