Vaccination And Its Opponents
Caption: "My little Boy, Sir, died when he was only Two Months old, just after he had been Vaccinated." "How very sad! Had he been Baptised?" "Yes, Sir; but it was the Vaccination as carried him off, Sir!" From Punch, September 19, 1891 For some reason, vaccination has always been the target of the ire of rabble rousers. This was true in the 19th century when smallpox vaccination was targeted by many ill informed activists and is true today when a band of people with motives which are not really obscure anymore try to perpetuate fears regarding vaccination and in the process subject children and their families to unnecessary risks with often fatal outcomes. Edward Jenner introduced cowpox vaccination a safe alternative to the then prevalent smallpox vaccination in the last decades of the eightieth century. Its benefits were quickly recognized and this resulted in the Compulsory Vaccination Act in 1853 in the UK. This legislation required parents to vacc...