the history of antivaccinism

March 1885, In the manufacturing city of Leicester in England one enjoyed one of the first beautiful days of spring.

Thousands from neighboring areas, from surrounding towns gathered in protest against what they felt was an unjust law imposed by their British government.

Although vaccination against smallpox was in use since the 1800s, the government had not introduced any obligations before the decrees of 1840 and 1853.

The law of 1853 set up the government apparatus to demand that every child be vaccinated within three months of birth. Through a series of laws over the years the British government had, at the time of the Leicster protest made a crime the refusal of small game vaccination punishable by fines or imprisonment.

The "Vaccination Act" of 1867 consolidated the existing laws on vaccines and instituted a fine for parents who did not present their children for vaccination within three months of birth.

Despite the government's action to ensure a very high vaccination rate, a massive epidemic of smallpox struck not only Leicester but all of England and other parts of the world in the early 1970s.

The Leicester epidemic involved thousands of cases of smallpox and hundreds of deaths shaking the confidence of many people in the protective powers of the vaccine.

https://www.le.ac.uk/lahs/downloads/1967-68/1967-68%20(43)%2035-44%20Ross.

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The reflexive observer must be struck by the fact that all the recent epidemics of smallpox have appeared among populations in which the laws obliging the vaccine have been carried out with rigorous systematicity. 96% of newborns in London are protected by the vaccine "(1884," Leicester Mercury ").

The laws were first approved after people had rejected the vaccine once they noticed the negative consequences. Later, they were subjugated because of the new laws and yet they were still affected by deadly smallpox epidemics. After that, more and more people had rebelled.

Although it was against logic, the government had decided to increase the vaccination rate by resorting to health officials who would have persecuted parents who refused to vaccinate their children.

"The prosecutions in the cities increased from 2 in 1869 to 1,100 and more in 1881, and the total in those 12 years was over 6,000. Of these, 64 had led to arrest and foreclosure "(" British Medical Journal ", 18 December 1948)

The violations fell disproportionately on the poor who, if they could not afford to pay the penalty for failing to comply with the vaccination law, would be forced to compensate for the payment due with foreclosures and the sale of their assets.

Because of the serious and sometimes fatal outcome of the procedure and the government's decisive support for forced vaccination by means of fines and arrests, people were motivated to revolt. In large numbers they poured into the streets of Leicester to protest ...

At the time of the demonstration, thousands of criminal procedures were conducted against parents who refused vaccination for their children.

"At the moment there are more than 5,000 people sued for refusing to comply with the law ... the summons for the year 1884 had only been 7, or a little more than one every two months, while at the moment each 45 hearings or convocations are called for week meetings "(" The Times ", 24 March 1885).

It was a festive atmosphere with music and hundreds of flags and banners unfolding that said things like "freedom is our right to birth and freedom is what we ask", "oppressive laws make people unhappy", "the three pillars of vaccination: Fraud, Force and Madness », and« we no longer implore, we demand control over our children

Both the sets and the mottos were very copious. One represented an effigy of Dr. Jenner with the inscription "infanticida", another was a whole funeral procession consisting of a coffin on an open catafalque, mourners, etc., and the inscription "Another victim of the vaccine"…"

("The Leeds Mercury", 24 March 1885).

The 2 mile long procession marched two hours through the city receiving the support of people in their own right at various points along the way. The citizens demonstrated their support by waving banners with flags and mottos along the way. Event organizers estimate that the number of participants was between 80,000 and 100,000.

"Many of those present had suffered from the laws, and all they asked was that in the future, they and their children could be left in peace.

A large and growing portion of the public was of the opinion that the best way to get rid of smallpox and similar diseases was to use lots of water,

good food, light and airy houses, making sure the city council kept the streets clean and the sewers in good condition ». ("Leicester: sanitation versus vaccination", 1912).

These fearless people wanted to be able to decide for their own health and that of their children and so they fought for self-determination.

"The terrible mortality from smallpox in a completely vaccinated and presumably well protected Leicester in the years 1871-72, had the effect of destroying the faith of the people in the" protective "vaccine. The result was that the poor like the rich, the workers and the aristocrats, and the municipal authorities began to refuse the vaccine for their children and for themselves. Waste continued until 1890 when, instead of 95%, the vaccination reached only about 5% of all newborns "(" Twentieth Century Magazine ", 16 January 1911).

The public reaction culminated in England in the great Leicester demonstration of 1885.

That same year, the municipal council of Leicester, which had pressed for vaccination through the use of fines and arrests, was replaced by a new junta that opposed the mandatory vaccine. Already in 1887 the vaccination coverage rates had fallen to 10%.

The "Leicester Method" relied on quarantine for smallpox patients and complete disinfection of their homes.

"The Method consists in this: as soon as a case of smallpox emerges, the doctor, the owner are obliged to declare it immediately in the town hall, under penalty of a fine. The ambulance in charge of smallpox cases is immediately called, which takes care of all the necessary procedures, and so, within a few hours, the patient is safe in the hospital. The family and the inhabitants of the house are placed in quarantine, in comfortable surroundings and the house is disinfected from top to bottom. The result is that in every respect the disease is eradicated in a prompt and complete manner at a low cost ". ("The Times", March 24, 1885)

Although it was clear that the "Leicester Method" was superior to the vaccine, those who strongly supported the validity of the vaccination, believed that the immunity enjoyed by the city of Leicester was momentary and that sooner or later the town would suffer from a vast epidemic of smallpox.

Sir D. Corrigan, a physician in charge of the 1871 committee stated about the Vaccination Act: "an unvaccinated child is like a bag of gunpowder that could blow up the whole school and therefore should not be admitted to school unless do not get vaccinated "(" Twentieth Century Magazine ", 16 January 1911).

It was the first case of blackmail for vaccination

Dominic Corrigan

Caso vuole che anche Dominic Corrigan faceva parte della House of House of House of Industry Hospitals 

"Unprotected children will be those on whom the scourge will fall most strongly, and the surrounding countryside will suffer the consequences of an epidemic." ("Boston Medical and Surgical Journal", April 16, 1885) .– I leave the story for a moment to say only "the years go by but the slogans remain, at most they evolve" -

The prophecy that eventually would have been scourged by disaster never came to pass.

Leicester enjoyed the best success against smallpox compared to other English cities with high vaccination rates. In 1893 smallpox exploded in the well vaccinated districts of Mold in Flintshire, England, and had a mortality rate 32 times higher than that of Leicester.

Even after 30 years from the success of the Leicester experiment, there were those who still thought that eventually a disaster would hit "unprotected fools" who were not in favor of vaccination.


An article from 1914 in the "New York Times" stated: "we can predict without fear of making a mistake that a terrible showdown will fall on England. It might be fair to say that this is the natural system for eliminating the fools who do not have enough common sense to live in modern communities, but among the dead there will be many who have been misled by men considered worthy experts "( "New York Times", April 5, 1914).

Vaccination against smallpox was suspended almost 100 years later, but the fact that the practice was superfluous and caused unnecessary suffering and death was never recognized or admitted. Instead, despite all the serious problems it had generated, and the lack of evidence to prove its efficacy, it is still defended as an example in promoting today's faith in vaccines.

1948 ended the mandatory vaccination in England.

After the 1872 epidemic in Leicester the vaccination rates together with those of smallpox mortality went down. Contrary to what vaccine enthusiasts say today, overall child mortality declined after 1885 as vaccination rates plummeted. Decades of strict vaccination laws did absolutely nothing to improve the general life expectancy of children in various age groups.

"Contrary to popular belief, smallpox has not been eradicated by mass vaccination" ("History Today", March 1999).

The experiment, which lasted more than 60 years, not only attested to the success of the method, but also demonstrated that the scientific thought considered proven could be in error.

In 1911 Dr. J. W. Hodge said: "the experience of the unvaccinated Leicester opens the eyes of the people and represents a thorn in the side for all vaccinists in the world. Here is a large manufacturing city with a population of almost a quarter of a million inhabitants, which has demonstrated, with the crucial proof of an experience that has lasted for more than a quarter of a century, that an unvaccinated population is far less susceptible to smallpox, and far less afflicted by that disease, since he abandoned vaccination, compared to how much at the time when 95% of newborns were vaccinated and the adult population was vaccinated several times "(" Twentieth Century Magazine ”, 16 January 1911)

Tratto da “Malattie, vaccini e la storia dimenticata”, di Suzanne Humphries e 

Roman Bystrianyk.

Suzanne Humphries          

Roman Bystrianyk.

On the vaccines, returning to our home in addition to the Gruaro massacre, there were those who were already 70 before through the Camillo movie and Don Peppone talked about it.

It was 1947 when Giovannino Guareschi, the father of dear Don Camillo and Peppone, thundered against the abuse of the state over the skin and the health of the children.

They lie to you when they want you to believe that this battle against State Syringation has only been in the last few years.

In the story "The October Revolution", published later in the "Corrierino delle Famiglie, this is what Mastro Guareschi wrote, addressing his daughter Carlotta, nicknamed" La Pasionaria "because of her particularly tough character:

"Adios, Pasionaria! At one time, when I flipped through the very old Sundays of the Corriere, I read with a smile the explanation of Our color pages and I was sorry for the little women of the far south countries who were revolutionizing themselves to prevent them from vaccinating their children.

But then I didn't understand an accident and I thought of the heavy ignorance, and of the fat mists of superstition that induced the poor little women to consider the government doctors emissaries of those who never knew what a frightening central curse.

And instead the little women acted by instinct and believed they were defending their creatures from the curse, while defending them from the abuse of the state.

It is a necessary injustice but the hand of the doctor who, by law, inoculates the beneficial vaccine in the arm of your child, is a tusk of the great monster, the State, which binds a new tender victim ".

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