With the flu spreading, health officials are urging people to get the flu vaccine to ward off more cases. People avoid vaccinations for various reasons, ranging from fear of developing other illnesses to suspicions about components in the vaccine. Eula Biss writes about the history of vaccines and the social divide they can create in the latest issue of Harper’s Magazine. Biss and Laurie Zoloth, Professor of Medical Humanities & Bioethics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, tackle listeners’ calls about the fears of vaccines, and whether they can impugn personal health privacy. Photo: Dr. Joseph Ballinger gives Marjorie Hill, a nurse at Montefiore Hospital in New York, the first Asiatic flu vaccine shot to be administered in New York City, Aug. 16, 1957. (AP)