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- TL;DR Summary
- A couple of reports of 1895 smallpox outbreaks in two cities - Montreal , Milwaukee - and the reaction of citizens.
Someone should find these interesting reads, with the backdrop of the last year or so of the epidemic.
https://www.marquette.edu/cgi-bin/cuap/db.cgi?uid=default&ID=5982&view=Search&mh=1
... however Milwaukee had in late 1894 and early 1895 one last epidemic, in some ways the most notable, for it brought to the surface latent animosities and resentments against the relatively new science of public health. It was a revolt, some thought, against newly emerging scientific knowledge. In 1894 south side residents openly resisted Milwaukee Health Department policies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/08/10/montreal-vaccine-riot-smallpox/
Though inoculation against smallpox wasn’t new, some feared the vaccinations were dangerous. Some didn’t understand how contagious the disease was. Some believed rumors that city vaccinators were going into bedrooms and tying down children to be vaccinated.
One anti-vaccination pamphlet read “Stop! People Driven Like Dumb Animals To The Shambles.” Some religious groups called the smallpox shot the biblical “mark of the beast” — the same claim being made by conspiracy theorists about the Coronavirus vaccines on the social networks of some Christian groups.
And sadly,
Two weeks later, Dr. Alexander Ross, one of the anti-vaccination city council members who had incited the protesters, was stopped aboard the Chicago Express train from Montreal by a Canadian health inspector, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported. A search revealed “the great advocate of the ignorant antivaccination party had been vaccinated recently.”
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/193/14/E490
The outcome of the riot was neither capitulation to the demands of antivaccine activists, nor a heavy-handed enforcement of policy. Rather, after this epidemic, the opposition to vaccination shifted to courtrooms and activist leagues. Ontario passed a Vaccination Act in 1887, which required that “parents must have their children vaccinated against smallpox within three months of birth and re-vaccinated when necessary every seven years.” It allowed cities to issue vaccination orders in the event of a smallpox outbreak, and allowed school boards to demand that students provide a vaccination certificate.9 The Anti-Vaccination League of Canada emerged in 1900, in part a reaction to the Vaccination Act, modelling its rhetoric and methods on British antivaccine groups. The British Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League had been founded in 1867, and in 1885 had its own (peaceful) march in Leicester with an estimated 100 000 attendees.10
https://www.marquette.edu/cgi-bin/cuap/db.cgi?uid=default&ID=5982&view=Search&mh=1
... however Milwaukee had in late 1894 and early 1895 one last epidemic, in some ways the most notable, for it brought to the surface latent animosities and resentments against the relatively new science of public health. It was a revolt, some thought, against newly emerging scientific knowledge. In 1894 south side residents openly resisted Milwaukee Health Department policies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/08/10/montreal-vaccine-riot-smallpox/
Though inoculation against smallpox wasn’t new, some feared the vaccinations were dangerous. Some didn’t understand how contagious the disease was. Some believed rumors that city vaccinators were going into bedrooms and tying down children to be vaccinated.
One anti-vaccination pamphlet read “Stop! People Driven Like Dumb Animals To The Shambles.” Some religious groups called the smallpox shot the biblical “mark of the beast” — the same claim being made by conspiracy theorists about the Coronavirus vaccines on the social networks of some Christian groups.
And sadly,
Two weeks later, Dr. Alexander Ross, one of the anti-vaccination city council members who had incited the protesters, was stopped aboard the Chicago Express train from Montreal by a Canadian health inspector, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported. A search revealed “the great advocate of the ignorant antivaccination party had been vaccinated recently.”
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/193/14/E490
The outcome of the riot was neither capitulation to the demands of antivaccine activists, nor a heavy-handed enforcement of policy. Rather, after this epidemic, the opposition to vaccination shifted to courtrooms and activist leagues. Ontario passed a Vaccination Act in 1887, which required that “parents must have their children vaccinated against smallpox within three months of birth and re-vaccinated when necessary every seven years.” It allowed cities to issue vaccination orders in the event of a smallpox outbreak, and allowed school boards to demand that students provide a vaccination certificate.9 The Anti-Vaccination League of Canada emerged in 1900, in part a reaction to the Vaccination Act, modelling its rhetoric and methods on British antivaccine groups. The British Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League had been founded in 1867, and in 1885 had its own (peaceful) march in Leicester with an estimated 100 000 attendees.10
