COVID truthers aren't new: Anti-vaccination conspiracy theories go back hundreds of years

[marmar]

COVID truthers aren't new: Anti-vaccination conspiracy theories go back hundreds of years
As long ago as the 1700s, conspiracy theorists were spreading misinformation about vaccines

By MATTHEW ROZSA
PUBLISHED JUNE 12, 2021 10:00AM


(Salon) Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert who has written extensively about the history of inoculations, is often attacked by anti-vaxxers. These conspiracy theorists sometimes claim that because Offit has financial ties to vaccine-makers (which he is open about), he is compromised, and his insistence that vaccines do not cause autism thus suspect. (Tellingly, anti-vaxxers do not apply this same standard to scrutiny of the financial ties to those in their own movement.) Offit, who openly discloses his ties and says they do not influence his views, has faced harassment and even death threats from anti-vaxxers for pushing back against their conspiracy theories. He does not stop, he says, because he believes science matters and wants to save lives.

Plus, as Offit told Salon, he knows his history. Anti-vaxxers have existed in some form for centuries; these new iterations, though different in some ways, are not terribly unique. Offit recalled to Salon how, in 1802, many people sincerely believed they would develop cow features if they took the smallpox vaccine developed by an English doctor named Edward Jenner.

"The premise was really the same as today's premise, which is 'Don't make me get vaccinated and don't make my child get vaccinated,'" Offit recalled. "It was this scary notion that Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccine could turn you into a cow." He noted that anti-vaccinators circulated documents that purportedly proved that those who had been inoculated developed "bovine characteristics." (Sound familiar?)

....(snip)....

And all of this happened long before 1998, a signal year for anti-vaxxers. That's when gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a now-discredited article about the MMR vaccine, tying it to autism. Wakefield may have inadvertently inaugurated the modern anti-vaccination movement.

"There was a major vaccine scare in the 1970s when a pediatric neurologist called John Wilson went to the press to claim that the whooping cough vaccine in use at the time was causing epilepsy and intellectual disability," immunologist Dr. David Miles told Salon by email. "It was disproved but at the time, it caused more disruption to the vaccine program than Wakefield ever did." .........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/06/12/covid-anti-vaxxers-arent-newanti-vaccination-conspiracy-theories-go-back-hundreds-of-years/

[krispos42]

1. I've been listening to the "Sawbones" podcast the last few months.

Working my way up chronologically to the present. And way before the pandemic, the hosts had episodes on vaccines and various outbreaks of diseases, and invariably there are people that won't get them, that won't wear masks, and think it's a hoax.

It's a bit depressing in light of the current situation. The hosts (a family doctor and her professional podcaster husband) do a great job, and dedicated many episodes in the last 15 months to the covid-19 crisis.

The podcast itself is very good, and I recommend it. It's on the Maximum Fun website.

[3catwoman3]

2. A relative is the head of a major anti-vaxx organization.

This relative sued Dr. Offit for libel in 2010. The case was dismissed.

[Pas-de-Calais]

3. Wonder if truthers existed during the

Polio shot time period. I got mine in the local school cafeteria after waiting in line for a long time.
This was in the early 60’s. I got the Popeye variety. Hurt like the dickens too.
64 yrs old now. Can still see a feint outline of Popeye on my left deltoid

[hatrack]

4. Jenner, with an effective vaccine to prevent a horrible disease, had this shit to deal with:

The caption's a bit hard to read: "The Cow Pock - or The Wonderful Effect Of The New Invention".

EDIT

Images like Gillray’s were an early indicator of the ability of vaccination to capture the public imagination in a way few other medical developments would over the ensuing decades. This only intensified in the mid-19th century, when the Compulsory Vaccination Act of 1853 decreed that all babies should be vaccinated. Compulsory vaccination aroused accusations that personal liberty was under threat. In its wake, resistance to vaccination ramped up considerably.

Vaccine hesitancy was amplified by the tumultuous world of print which characterized the Victorian age.

Improved printing technologies and lower prices gave rise to a rapid increase in the number of periodicals and newspapers available. Information was democratized, as cheap papers and periodicals became accessible to women and the working classes. Medical and health issues were mined by journalists for their dramatic content, and tropes of the vaccination debate we see today were given shape by the information revolution of the late 19th century.

Indeed, it was during this time that the polarisation between “pro” and “anti” vaccination camps solidified. Use of the phrase “anti-vaccination” rocketed at the end of the 19th century. Pamphlets and magazines sprung up in opposition to its use, claiming that vaccination was a dangerous, toxic procedure that was being thrust upon society’s most vulnerable citizens: children.

The not so catchily named National Anti-Compulsory-Vaccination Reporter, a magazine which began in 1876, sold hundreds of copies every month. The paper revelled in its radicalism, its opening editorial announcing: "As sound-hearted and enlightened Anti-Vaccinators, it is our bounden duty, and should be our steady and constant aim, to work towards the complete destruction of Medical Despotism."

Meanwhile, humour publications such as Punch and Moonshine skewered organisations like the Anti-Vaccination League for their zealotry and irrationality. In an of age of self-professed scientific medicine, the movement’s association with radical religious beliefs and other non-conforming lifestyle choices, such as vegetarianism and abstinence from alcohol, made it a target for lampoonery.

EDIT

https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-02-28/cow-pox-mumps-people-have-always-had-problem-vaccination

EDIT

Smallpox affected all levels of society. In the 18th century in Europe, 400,000 people died annually of smallpox, and one third of the survivors went blind (4). The symptoms of smallpox, or the “speckled monster” as it was known in 18th-century England, appeared suddenly and the sequelae were devastating. The case-fatality rate varied from 20% to 60% and left most survivors with disfiguring scars. The case-fatality rate in infants was even higher, approaching 80% in London and 98% in Berlin during the late 1800s.

EDIT

Although he received worldwide recognition and many honors, Jenner made no attempt to enrich himself through his discovery. He actually devoted so much time to the cause of vaccination that his private practice and his personal affairs suffered severely. The extraordinary value of vaccination was publicly acknowledged in England, when in 1802 the British Parliament granted Edward Jenner the sum of £10,000. Five years later the Parliament awarded him £20,000 more. However, he not only received honors but also found himself subjected to attacks and ridicule. Despite all this, he continued his activities on behalf of the vaccination program. Gradually, vaccination replaced variolation, which became prohibited in England in 1840.

EDIT

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/