Viruses and vaccines are part of American history. The battle waged against these epidemics have always been fought with cautious experimentation, some speculation, but eventual inoculation. However, it was different when COVID-19 came to America in late 2019. On December 14, 2020, health professionals administered the first COVID-19 vaccine. However, the discovery of a COVID-19 vaccine did not meet the same fanfare as other vaccines.
Then came the government mandates related to COVID-19 and vaccinations. Again, these mandates are nothing new to American history. But, when federal, state, and local governments imposed mask and vaccination mandates, they were meet with resistance. Let’s visit the historical record.
George Washington and the Revolutionary War
In 1777, the Father of our Nation, George Washington, ordered all of his troops immunized against smallpox. Smallpox was a virulent strain that had a very high mortality rate. It was estimated, during the American Revolution, smallpox killed about thirty percent of those it infected.
Washington told Patrick Henry that the smallpox outbreak was, “more destructive to an Army in a Natural Way, than the Enemy’s Sword.” The disease was so devastating to the rebel soldiers, during that time, it almost cost Washington the war. In 1775, the infection rate destroyed the American assault on Quebec. It also threatened the main American Army camped at Morristown, N.J.
Medicine was primitive during the Revolutionary War. However, it was discovered that if one scrapped the pustule of an infected person and placed it into the body of an uninfected person, the person receiving the smallpox would contract a milder case and immunity. They had no needles in 1777. So, a doctor would insert or rub powdered smallpox scabs or fluid from pustules into superficial scratches made in the skin, a process called variolation. The infected person had a mortality rate of only 3% as opposed to 30%. This procedure was so successful that Washington ordered all of his men to be variolated. This became the first mandated vaccination in America. Thus, the smallpox virus disappeared from the Army.
In 1796, after the war, an English scientist by the name of Edward Jenner discovered a safer way to immunize against smallpox by using cowpox. Cowpox was proven to be a milder but related virus.
It was during this time that most Americans opposed being vaccinated against smallpox on religious grounds. Many believed that their creator would not want a foreign substance in their body. Because Jenner’s vaccine lowered smallpox outbreaks during the 19th century, states passed laws mandating vaccinations for school children, prisoners, paupers, and orphans.
The Great Influenza of 1918 aka “The Spanish Flu”
Before moving straight into the Great Influenza of 1918, we must first look at what was transpiring during this time. Picture a time when there was little scientific knowledge of viruses or bacteria. The belief in laboratory experimentation hardly existed. Being a doctor was not the same as it is today. The doctors in 1918 did not not undergo ruthless hours of internship and mindful studying. They did not focus on one particular area of expertise. Appointment to a medical school was based upon parental status in the community and not ones grades. Medicine or scientific knowledge to cure common ills were nonexistent.
Also, in 1918, the world was at war (World War I). In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson finally decided to end America’s neutrality in the war. At first he was reluctant to join in. However, once he decided he was going to declare war, Wilson determined it would be a crusade and he would litigate the war as such. Wilson was so passionate about the war he predicted,
“Once lead these people into war, and they’ll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance. To fight you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fiber of our national life, infecting Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street.”
Picture hundreds of thousands of men, Army recruits, being moved from middle America (Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, so forth) to the eastern shore. Army recruits were being sent east to be deployed overseas, to France or England. Once they arrived in places like New York or Pennsylvania, they were placed into barracks with no ventilation and packed on top of each other. From the barracks, they moved into crowded ships to make the long journey overseas. They had even less ventilation and room to move around.
It is a common theme with war. More soldiers die from disease than combat wounds or battle. Another theme, epidemic disease routinely spreads from armies (conquering or retreating) to civilian populations. So, you can begin to understand how the Great Influenza spread around the world.
But governments did not want to discuss or disclose the ill effects of the disease and how it was affecting the population. It was always the war. Prosecute the war, nothing more. Wilson would not listen to doctors studying the disease. They begged him to decrease troop movement in an attempt to decrease the spread of the disease; remember, this was his crusade.
Most countries in the war acted the same way. The press was forbidden to report on the disease for fear it would provide the enemy with strategic information. Indeed, the only country that could report on the disease was a neutral country, one not involved in the war, Spain. The majority of the news about this terrible disease came from Spain and so people believed the disease originated from Spain. Therefore, the world called it, “The Spanish Flu.”
After the war, in late 1918, America focused on fighting the epidemic. The measures used to fight the epidemic did not include the flu vaccine because it had yet to be discovered. Instead, Americans were told to: use face masks, social distance, no public events, and, schools and businesses were to be closed (sound familiar).
Mask were mandated during the Great Flu Epidemic. The masks were called muzzles, germ shields and dirt traps. They gave people a “pig-like snout.”
Science cannot say for certain why the Great Influenza disappeared, or if it really ever did. The theory of “herd immunity” is sometimes applied because so many became sick, or died, that eventually man developed immunity. What is certain, the Great Influenza caused the deaths of approximately 675,000 Americans. This occurred when the population of America was less that a third of what it is today.
Post World War II: Mass Inoculations
During World War II, the American public became more accepting of vaccines and vaccine mandates. The government made it mandatory for all U.S. Military personnel to be vaccinated against such diseases as typhoid, yellow fever, and tetanus.
Also, the science became better. Hospitals and laboratories employed the scientific method to explain the cause and effect of disease and possible cures. Childhood diseases such as polio, measles, mumps, and chickenpox became non-existent. As a result, the public became more accepting of vaccinations. Eventually, all 50 states passed laws mandating vaccines for all school age children. Medical and religious exemptions were provided but they were few.
Re-emergence of a Public Health Crisis
During the Winter of 1991, five children in Philadelphia died from measles. The vaccine for measles was found in 1963 and mandatory inoculations made it almost extinct, so thought scientists.
But in February 1991, doctors and lab specialists discovered that the source of the measles outbreak was confined a church that rejected “all means of healing apart from God’s way.” Church members did not believe in medicine, saw no medical doctors, and did not own medical equipment. They did not believe in birth control which lead to large families residing in small homes. The more dense the population, the worse the outbreak. City officials had to work through the courts to inoculate the children of this church. Once the children were inoculated, the measles, once again, disappeared.
COVID-19 and the Aftermath
COVID-19 came to America in late 2019. Doctors, scientists, and lab technicians worked effortlessly to find a vaccine that would stop the spread of the disease. Finally, in December 2020, laboratories discovered a vaccine and the FDA gave its approval.
The vaccine is unique. It is unique because it relies upon genetically altering the RNA strand of COVID-19’s genetic structure. Once the altered RNA strand is reintroduced into the body (by way of vaccination), it hunts for the COVID-19 genetic structure and kills it. It has been called the “Pac-Man” of vaccines.
Some Americans are resistant to receiving the vaccination even after it has been proven effective in slowing the spread of COVID-19. Their hesitation is believed to have caused COVID-19 to mutate into the Delta Variant. This is the same way the Great Influenza acted in 1919. Many doctors in 1919 believed that the virus was dying. However, between 1919 and 1920, the virus came back and continued to kill thousands more. Back then the scientist did not fully understand that viruses could mutate.
On September 8, 2021, President Joseph Biden announced vaccine requirements. The new requirements would require the following to be vaccinated for COVID-19: all federal workers and contractors doing business with the federal government, healthcare facilities that receive funding from Medicare and Medicaid, and any member of the U.S. Military. In addition, any employee of a business that has 100 workers or more would be required to be vaccinated or obtain weekly COVID-19 testing.
In imposing these mandates, President Biden said, “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us.” President Biden was speaking in terms of the economy, as well as, the general health of the country.
The Current Historical State of Inoculations
Washington’s historic decision to variolate his army, the success of the campaign to begin inoculations of school children in the 1950’s, and the success of containing the measles outbreak in 1991, is largely forgotten. However, these were successful campaigns that saved millions of lives. There have been many more outbreaks not discussed in this post: Ebola, SARS, Bird Flu, and more.
The Great Influenza was not so successful. A cure was not to be found and millions lost their lives. COVID is compared to The Great Influenza in terms of lives lost and overall volatility of the disease. However, scientists have found a vaccine for COVID and people still resist inoculation. Therefore, like the Great Influenza, it mutated into the Delta Variant and continues to kill.
There are questions we must ask ourselves. Why do we not look and see what history can teach us about these epidemics? Why do we continue to ignore the facts of the present and question facts of the past? The past is written and is not going to change.
Sources:
- David Oshinsky, “The Long History of Vaccine Mandates in America,” Wall Street Journal, Saturday/Sunday, September 18-19, 2021.
- John M. Barry, The Great Influenza, The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History: Penguin Random House, LLC, New York, New York: 2004 – revised 2005, 2009, and 2018.
- Walter Isaacson, The Code Breaker, Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race: Simon & Schuster, New York, New York: 2021.
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