Peter McKnight: Vaccine skepticism has caused countless deaths — actually that’s countable deaths

“Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty per cent of people know that.”

— Homer Simpson

“The Creator stamped on man the divine image, but Jenner placed on him the mark of the beast.”

The Jenner in question is none other than Edward Jenner, who in the late 18th century created the world’s first vaccine from cowpox blisters, an innovation that would ultimately lead to the eradication of smallpox. The beast in question is … well, you know, what Jenner’s critic was referring to there.

But that’s not the only beast the critics summoned. Thanks to Jenner and his diabolical vaccine, critics insisted that people started sprouting horns and hoofs as the vaccine’s bovine origins began exacting a beastly toll on the vaccinated.