General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA history of vaccine mandates
Kenneth Bridges, Ph.D.
... In the winter of 1777, while his troops were at their encampment in Morristown, N.J., Washington ordered variolation for all troops who had not had smallpox ...
By 1917, smallpox vaccinations were a requirement in Arkansas for school attendance ...
Smallpox was eradicated in the United States by 1952 ...
By the early 1950s, up to 50,000 children each year were infected with polio ...
The Arkansas state legislature passed a law mandating vaccinations for polio, diphtheria, tetanus and measles in 1967 for all public and private students, with rubella added in 1973. The result was measles, mumps and rubella were eliminated in the state within a few years ...
https://www.swtimes.com/story/opinion/2021/09/26/oped-history-vaccine-mandates/8363060002/
struggle4progress
(118,278 posts)Updated: Sep. 26, 2021, 8:38 a.m. | Published: Sep. 25, 2021, 8:00 p.m.
By Katherine Rodriguez | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
... A top health official in California said Thursday he is mulling a statewide mandate ...
New York City, home to the nations largest school district, has mandated its 20,000 student-athletes participating in sports get vaccinated ...
At least four school districts in Virginia will require anyone participating in winter or spring sports provide proof of vaccination ...
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas all have banned schools from mandating COVID vaccines ...
https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2021/09/covid-vaccine-mandates-in-schools-heres-whats-happening-around-the-us.html
struggle4progress
(118,278 posts)Updated: Sep. 26, 2021, 11:53 a.m. | Published: Sep. 25, 2021, 10:44 a.m.
https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2021/09/portland-school-board-will-consider-vaccine-mandate-for-students-12-and-up.html
paywall
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,129 posts)I love history. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it
Link to tweet
Thats why Washington eventually made the bold decision to inoculate all American troops who had never been sickened with smallpox at a time when inoculation was a crude and often deadly process. His gamble paid off. The measure staved off smallpox long enough to win a years-long fight with the British. In the process, Washington pulled off the first massive, state-funded immunization campaign in American history......
By the following winter, Washington and his troops were camped in Morristown, New Jersey, where the threat of smallpox was as dire as ever. Americas stoic general waffled back and forth on whether to inoculate or not, even making the mass inoculation order and then rescinding it. Finally, on February 5, 1777, he made the call in a letter to John Hancock, president of the Second Continental Congress.
The small pox has made such Head in every Quarter that I find it impossible to keep it from spreading thro the whole Army in the natural way. I have therefore determined, not only to innoculate all the Troops now here, that have not had it, but shall order Docr. Shippen to innoculate the Recruits as fast as they come in to Philadelphia.
Fenn says that inoculating all troops without natural smallpox immunity was a daunting task. First, medical personnel had to examine each individual to determine if they had contracted the disease in the past, then they conducted the risky variolation procedure, followed by a month-long recovery process attended by teams of nurses.
Meanwhile, this entire processthe first of its kind and scalehad to be conducted in total secrecy. If the British caught wind that large numbers of American soldiers were laid up in bed with smallpox, it could be the end.