The History of Anti-Vaxxing

Anti-vaxxing is something that is brought up often in the medical world. This phenomenon can be defined as one’s refusal to get vaccines or get their children vaccinated for different reasons. Most commonly, anti-vaxxers reasoning as to why they are against vaccinations is out of fear that the vaccination will cause the disease being vaccinated against or another unwanted disease. Not getting vaccinations can be very dangerous. Not only is it dangerous for the person who is not getting them, but it also puts others in society at risk. Namely, those who are medically/physically unable to get vaccines, are put at risk by those who are not vaccinated. Typically they rely on something called “herd immunity” to keep them free of disease. However, herd immunity is hard to achieve with the phenomenon of anti-vaxxing because it typically requires that at least 90% of the population is vaccinated. The World Health Organization actually listed anti-vaxxing as one of the top ten global threats of 2019.

So where did this trend come from? The Measles and Rubella Initiative published a timeline following the sequence and history of anti-vaxxers. It all began in France in 1763. An Italian doctor named Gatti introduced the idea of inoculation, which is another word for vaccination. Unfortunately, the doctor did not properly quarantine his patients and it put the health of the other Paris citizens at risk. The French government banned all inoculations that took place in Paris. Eventually, history moved on and the progress with vaccinations moved on as well. In 1796 a vaccination for the smallpox was invented. In 1853 the Vaccination Act of 1853 was passed which made vaccination for infants up to 3 months old required. Of course now, vaccinations are optional.

Fast forward to the year of 2000 in the United States. There were no cases of the measles transmitted by patients within the United States. If there was a case of the measles found, it was imported from an infected patient from outside of the United States. According to this article published by The Atlantic, there were 1,000 cases of Measles recorded in the first five months of 2019. Measles was considered eliminated in the US two decades ago, and now it is back. Is this due to the lack of vaccinations? Records show that since 2000, the number of American children under two years that have gone unvaccinated have quadrupled. Regardless if whether or not this is the cause for the resurgence of Measles, these numbers show the influence the anti-vaxx movement has had during the modern times.

Thoughts and feelings about vaccinations have changed over the years, and it would not surprise me if it changed again sometime in the future.