Mandatory Vaccinations: Historical and
Political Views
Introduction
Immunization can be traced back to 1000 A.D when it was used by Chinese monks, who
believed if you put some of the infection in their bodies, they’d be immune if they ever got sick,
and that’s how early inoculation, or variolation, techniques started out. Laws passed to regulate
vaccines have been met with speculation and protest by many parents, who might find vaccines
unethical or believe their children will have an adverse reaction to the ingredients. Many
reformers who are pushing for mandatory vaccinations focus on the health of the public and how
the mortality rates in children has risen in past years due to them being exposed to vaccine–
preventable diseases. Many false reports have come out in last 20 years that try to instill fear in
my parents by leading them on that by vaccinating their children they’re putting them at risk.
Even though these reports have been discredited they have a long–standing effect on people’s
beliefs because they make people wary. Overall, vaccines are recognized for having eradicated
diseases like smallpox and they’ve also eliminated diseases like polio.
Early History of Vaccines
Vaccinations weren’t popular until the late 1700s when English scientist Edward Jenner
came up with the vaccine for smallpox using cultures from a cowpox infected person, which
created a mild version of smallpox in humans, this created an immune response to the disease.
He came up with it when he heard a tale that milk-maids who’ve had cowpox can’t get smallpox
(Meacham). According to University of Massachusetts, “He tested his theory by inoculating 8–
year-old James Phipps with cowpox pustule liquid recovered from the hand of a milkmaid, Sarah
Nelmes. …tried to infect James with smallpox but found the boy was immune. … known as
vaccination because it used an alternative and weakened form of the disease, cowpox from other
people.” This vaccine was revolutionary because smallpox was one of the biggest killers of its
time, it killed one-third of the people infected with it (Flight). Massachusetts became the leading
state to use vaccines and push people to get them. This started with Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, a
physician and co-founder of Harvard Medical School, he used Jenner’s “Cowpox Vaccine,” to
help towards the elimination of smallpox which was killing “5,989 persons out of the 11,000
inhabitants of Boston, killing 840,” according to the University of Massachusetts. Waterhouse
helped further the spread of vaccination in the United States he started when he “convinced
Boston’s Board of Health to sponsor a public test of vaccination. Nineteen volunteers were
