by Michael Willrich
Penguin Books
Copyright (c) 2011
ISBN13: 9781594202865
Page Count: 422 pages
Genre: Non-fiction, history of health
When did the current controversy about vaccines really start? According to Willrich’s history, the controversy about vaccines started all the way back with Jenner’s discovery of vaccination. Although smallpox once killed thousands of people each year in America, vaccination against smallpox was still controversial. A small fraction of people had adverse reactions, including death.
Obviously, this scared people. It especially scared those who were in oppressed groups, like blacks in the American South. This book tells their story in a greater narrative of how science and popular belief tried – again and again – to reconcile to each other.
The resolution of Willrich’s tale lies with the Supreme Court case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts in 1905. In the final chapter, he masterfully brings out the drama and nuance of this case. (If this book consisted of just that very chapter, it would be worth reading.) In the decision, SCOTUS upheld the rights of states to force vaccination, but in tension, it also upheld the right for people with real beliefs (not just “obstinacy”) to decline forced vaccination.
This book is worth reading for those with medical or historical interests. It also provides a worthy pericope into popular American history. In contemporary culture where science can sometimes become overbearing, this story reminds us that “scientific triumphalism” and “antiscientific denialism” are really two sides of the same coin.