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allow legal loopholes called nonmedical
exemptions, which give parents the
right to refuse vaccinations for their
children on the basis of religious,
philosophical or personal beliefs.
Skipping vaccination is not new
in America. The country got its irst
taste in the 19th century. Like today,
many who chose not to vaccinate their
children hailed from large cities, were
educated and earned a decent living.
Their reasons for opting out also
mirror those of modern activists. But
instead of refusing MMR, the irst
American vaccine opponents were
refusing inoculation for a virus we
almost never hear about today.
BIRTH OF A MOVEMENT
By the 19th century, smallpox had
been killing people for centuries. Once
infected, patients had a 3 in 10 chance
of dying.
In 1796, British doctor Edward
Jenner developed a vaccine for the
virus. It’s based on exposing people
to smallpox in a small dose, which
activates the immune system; they
might get a little sick, but afterward
they’ll be immune. As more people get
vaccinated, it creates herd immunity,
which gives the virus no place to go
because it can’t pass from person to
person. This is how diseases eventually
become eradicated.
The vaccine arrived in New England
in 1800 and was immediately embraced
by Thomas Jefferson. Starting with
Massachusetts in 1809, and for decades
after, states including Minnesota,
West Virginia and California enacted
mandatory vaccination laws.
But pushback was happening,
as well. Most of it came from
middle-class citizens who didn’t trust
government, science or medicine.
Rebellion against what is considered
excessive government oversight is as
American as apple pie and Chevys; in
1882, abolitionist Frederick Douglass
told a reporter that mandatory
vaccines encroached on people’s liberty
from acne to strokes. And it wasn’t
until 1902 that vaccine manufacturers
were federally regulated.
Around that time, Boston doctor
Immanuel Pfeiffer declared that
healthy people were not at risk from
smallpox. To prove his point, he visited
a hospital on Gallops Island in Boston
Harbor, where infected patients were
being quarantined. He caught the
virus and nearly died, but continued
to oppose vaccines.
Lora Little of Minneapolis believed
compulsory vaccine laws impinged on
people’s personal liberty and parental
authority. Her activism was driven by
the death of her 7-year-old son in 1896,
seven months after his vaccination. FROM TOP: THE HISTORICAL MEDICAL LIBRARY OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA; POPPERPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES; VACCINATION: A CURSE/J.M. PEEBLES/THE TEMPLE OF HEALTH PUBLISHING CO. 1900and freedom of choice. And although
medicine had made substantial
advances in the 19th century, it was
still inding its way. For example, some
doctors still practiced bloodletting,
sometimes by afixing leeches to a
patient’s skin, as a remedy for anythingImages from
anti-vaccination
publications from
1892, left, and
1900, bottom;
physician Edward
Jenner, below,
developed a
smallpox vaccine
in the late 18th
century that began
the eradication
of the disease.History
Lessons