Coming in March on FRONTLINE

Next month, FRONTLINE investigates two heated battles: the fight against ISIS, and the resurgent vaccine debate.

First, as a new secretary of defense takes the reins of the U.S. mission against ISIS, we’ll bring you an encore presentation on March 17 of The Rise of ISIS — our 2014 look at how the brutal Islamist group came to power in Syria and Iraq. The New York Times described the documentary as “required viewing,” and The Baltimore Sun called it “a superb work of journalism” that’s both “harrowing” and “revealing.”

Next, on March 24, we’ll re-examine a newly topical question: should vaccinating children be a choice for parents? In our 2010 documentary The Vaccine War, public health experts and doctors warned that the growing anti-vaccine movement could enable the return of preventable diseases previously thought to be eliminated. Now, those warnings appear to be coming true, and measles is making a comeback — including in an outbreak that has been linked back to Disneyland.

Against this backdrop, we’ll revisit the science and politics of vaccine safety, bringing you a newly updated version of The Vaccine War.

Here’s a closer look at our March lineup:

March 17 | The Rise of ISIS

Veteran FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith reports from Iraq on how and why ISIS came to power.

March 24 | The Vaccine War

Amid a new outbreak of measles, health officials are once again urging parents to immunize their children and reassuring them that there is no link between vaccines and disorders like autism — but the war over vaccines rages on.

Check your local PBS listings here.