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+--- Thread: Article The anti-vaccine movement goes back almost 300 years ago (/thread-20774.html)
The anti-vaccine movement goes back almost 300 years ago - C C - Jul 2, 2026
The strange history of the anti-vaccine movement
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250905-the-strange-history-of-the-anti-vaccine-movement
EXCERPTS: . . there is a long history of protests against them, including anti-vaccine riots in 1850s England, 1880s Canada and 1890s America. In 1905 in Boston, US, vaccination opposition led to widespread protests and a Supreme Court case, which would go on to deem vaccine mandates constitutional.
Interestingly, opposition to the idea of vaccination existed even before vaccines themselves. Variolation – a precursor to modern immunisation, which used material from smallpox victims to induce a less serious reaction and immunity – was introduced in the UK and America in the 1720s.
It immediately drew the ire of critics. [...] Religious opposition to vaccination was not the sole form of objection. ... one common trope was that immunisations should be avoided because they were "unnatural" – making vaccines the latest victim of the "appeal to nature" fallacy ... Some critics also believed that a vaccine might not just change your defences against a disease, but somehow transform your body itself... Claims that vaccines were poisons also were common...
[...] But there were other reasons for anti-vaccine campaigning, too. One of the biggest arguments hinged on concerns about bodily autonomy and individual freedoms. ... The "personal freedom" argument, in particular, seemed to be especially compelling to the residents of Stockholm, Sweden – only 40% of whom were vaccinated against smallpox in 1873..
[...] Anti-vaccine activism did not disappear, however. Instead, the advent of the information age – particularly the internet – gave new life to some of the messages first spread 225 years ago... (MORE - details)