I think opposing vaccination is selfish and foolish – even unpatriotic. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington ordered the Continental Army to get immunized against small pox. This was in 1777.
Interesting you mentioned this. I've noticed a few anti-mask/antivaccine types displaying the Gadsden "DON'T TREAD ON ME" flag (1775). I find myself wondering how many of them know that George Washington ordered immunization of his troops and also quarantined his troops (the effectiveness of the quarantine was doubtful, which apparently drove Washington to order innoculation despite the 5-10% fatality rate).
>>>Variolization still had a case fatality rate of 5 to 10 percent. And even if all went well, inoculated patients still needed a month to recover. The procedure was not only risky for the individual patient, but for the surrounding population. An inoculee with a mild case might feel well enough to walk around town, infecting countless others with potentially more serious infections.
When Washington weighed the risks at Boston in July 1775, he feared that a large-scale inoculation would sideline his troops, or worse, lead to a full-blown epidemic. So during the
Siege of Boston, Washington opted for a strict quarantine of both sickened soldiers and civilians. Civilians showing smallpox symptoms were held in the town of Brookline, while military cases were sent to a quarantine hospital located at a pond near Cambridge. “No Person is to be allowed to go to Fresh-water pond a fishing or on any other occasion as there may be a danger of introducing the small pox into the army,” wrote Washington on July 4, 1775, his second official day as general.
The quarantine did its job, isolating the sick long enough for the British to surrender Boston. But as the fight for independence moved elsewhere, smallpox followed the American army like an unshakeable curse. . . . By the time America
officially declared its independence on July 4, 1776, the effectiveness of quarantine was thrown into doubt and there was no easy way of calculating the risk of a mass inoculation of the beleaguered American troops. . . .
By the following winter, Washington and his troops were camped in Morristown, New Jersey, where the threat of smallpox was as dire as ever. America’s 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.”<<<
As commander of the Continental Army, Washington faced dual enemies: the British and smallpox. So he made a risky call.
www.history.com
Quarantines are obviously not new, and fear of innoculation is also not new:
>>>Members of the English colonies as well as English officials were proactive in establishing quarantine guidelines in order to protect the public. One of the earliest recorded examples of this was a quarantine established in 1647 by Puritans in order to prevent the spread of disease from ships coming from the Caribbean. In 1731 an act, entitled
"An Act to Prevent Persons From Concealing the Smallpox", was passed. This act made the heads of households mandatory reporters for smallpox; these individuals were required to report smallpox in their house to the selectmen of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Infected households would then be indicated with the placement of a red flag. . . . At the time of its introduction, almost all colonists were extremely wary of this new medical procedure. It was difficult for them to understand how the infection of an otherwise healthy individual could have a positive outcome. However, inoculation saved many lives and may have protected the Continental Army from destruction. The smallpox inoculation program paved the way for the global public health system that is responsible for the control and eradication of many deadly diseases, including but not limited to
polio,
measles, and
diphtheria. <<<
en.wikipedia.org
Apparently there is a controversy (as if we need more) about the meaning of the Gadsden flag:
How do we decide what the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, or indeed any symbol, really means?
www.newyorker.com
