In the Washington Post today was this historical essay: First U.S. vaccine mandate in 1809 launched 200 years of court battles (subscription paywall). Jess McHugh recounts the history of the smallpox vaccination from 1809 through a Supreme Court review of Massachusetts’s vaccine mandates. Just as at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a … [Read more…]
The newspaper article below seems too familiar to our current state in July 2020: San Diego Union and Daily Bee 29 October 1918 EPIDEMIC WELL UNDER CONTROL, IT IS REPORTED Health Board Renews Request For Wearing Masks and Suggests Precautions. Two deaths and 40 new cases summed up the course of the Spanish influenza epidemic … [Read more…]
SMALL POX.— The undersigned has just receiv- ed a fresh supply of VACCINE MATTER, and is pre- pared to vaccinate all persons who may call on him. J. P. SHARKEY, State Vaccine Agent, J near 2d street. Sacramento Daily Union, 6 June 1855