I have already taken on the Ebola scare and in doing so I seem to have stirred up a bit of trouble for myself. It seems that there is a significant number of people who are still "anti-vaccine". Although I had heard of this movement in light of news stories on autism issues, I was not aware just how broad the movement truly was. It is a movement with a long and storied past. The 1802 cartoon above entitled "Cow Pock - or - the Wonderful Effect of the New Inoculation!" is an early example of public fear of vaccination. Cow heads protrude from the recipients noses, arms, legs and rear ends.
But for me this movement is not just a historical curiosity, it hits much closer to home.
As a museum director dealing with 19th century medicine, prevention of diseases like Smallpox is a major issue for me. During the Civil War there was robust response to outbreaks of Smallpox and vaccination was a major part of that response. But this is not the only reason for my interest in preventative vaccination and inoculation. My father had Polio as a child. For my entire life, I never saw my father raise his right arm; that part of him never came back. Later in life my father suffered from post-polio syndrome Although both of his parents lived well into their eighties, my fathers lungs failed at age 72. I watched polio slowly take my father back; weakening his muscles, taking his breath, slowing his pace. He lived with Polio every day and I lived with my father's limitations and grandmothers words ringing in my ears: "always get your shots".
Growing up in the 1960's I can still remember getting my shots: Tetanus, Rubella, Smallpox, etc. I also remember swallowing the oral Polio vaccine. My grandmother once quizzed my mother asking if I was getting all my shots. She related, with deep pain, a story she often told. In 1955 when the Polio vaccine was made public, my grandmother went to every door in her neighborhood begging the parents to get their children vaccinated. One mother, whose daughter was a close friend of my father, refused. My grandmother begged and pleaded, but no response. Within one year her daughter was dead from a disease that is now nearing eradication.
Rebellion against vaccines is nothing new. The cartoon above shows peoples fears of Cowpox inoculation to prevent Smallpox. In 1796 Edward Jenner developed this method with great success. This first scientific attempt to control infectious disease would give credibility to the procedure and begin a world-wide effort to control other diseases as well. Benjamin Jesty later vaccinated his children successfully against Smallpox during an outbreak where they were regularly exposed to the disease. They remained disease free. This first vaccination changed our world.
Now I am not one to set aside all fears of this life saving procedure. There are certainly dangers in vaccination and history has shown this. During the Civil War, vaccination using pulverised scabs of those either vaccinated or healing from mild cases of Smallpox, resulted in complications such as passing on Syphilis!! Such "spurious" vaccination was a known problem and much effort was was put forth after the war to make sure that such problems did not occur again. And it worked. Safer methods were developed and , like Polio, Smallpox is no longer the scourge it once was.
It is this point that brings me back to the beginning. As I read the Facebook pages and websites of anti-vaccination proponents, I was surprised at many of their arguments. I posted a response on one article and was told that the reason Polio went away had nothing to do with vaccine, it had to do with improved water sanitation. My problem with this argument is that water sanitation did not improve that dramatically between the 1952 record setting Polio outbreak and the 1955 vaccination effort. Between 1955 and 1957 there is an 85-90% drop in polio cases. The only substantial difference in frame was the introduction of vaccines, not a massive effort to build new water treatment plants. The same can be said of many other diseases such as Smallpox. Their disappearance coincides with effective vaccination efforts.
I am sure that some people have negative reactions to vaccines. Just as some patients have complications from general anesthetics, joint replacements and aspirin. If autism, which is so often blamed on vaccines, is on the rise, then why was it not on the rise from 1955 to 1970? This is when so many of our vaccines were developed and given. Some blame Thimerosal ,but this ingredient is no longer in general use. I cannot say whether there is a connection or not. But I can say this: vaccination has helped control or eradicate some of the most dread diseases known to man. Unfortunately, the next epidemic may come from something we already conquered but came back because we would not take the vaccine.
I do not get paid by pharmaceutical companies, I am not paid by insurance companies either. I am not a lobbyist. I am s simple historian who can read and understand historical events. I am also a witness who saw my father die because a vaccine was still six years away. And, I am a father and grandfather. I do not want to see us return to a world where Yellow Fever, Whooping Cough, Smallpox, Polio and Rubella come back to haunt my grandchildren. I look forward to a world where Ebola can be eradicated as well....but only if we are willing to take the vaccine when it comes about.
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