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| Hpathy Ezine - March 2004 | ||||
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Sanitation Vs. Vaccination -- Walter S. Hadwen M.D. |
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After Edward Jenner demonstrated the use of cowpox vaccine against smallpox in 1796, vaccinations against smallpox were begun. Despite this, a smallpox epidemic swept England in 1839 and killed 22,081 people. In 1853 the Government made smallpox vaccinations compulsory, but the incidence of the disease kept increasing, and in 1872 another epidemic killed 44,840 people, most of whom were vaccinated. The compulsory vaccination law was abolished in 1948. Similar disasters occurred in Germany and Japan, but possibly the worst was in the Philippines in 1918 when the US government forced over 3 million natives to be vaccinated. Of these, 47,369 came down with smallpox and 16,477 died. In 1919 the program was doubled, and over seven million were vaccinated, of whom 65,180 came down with the disease and 44,408 died. The epidemic was a direct result of the vaccination program. By following the superstitious impulses of Edward Jenner and the ancient tradition of the Gloucestershire dairymaids, the medical profession has lost sight of the vital question, what is the origin of smallpox? The faculty of reasoning upon the subject appears to have become almost extinct; in its place there has arisen a demand for obedience to authority. Fashion has usurped the place of scientific thought, and arbitrary Acts of Parliament and the policeman's truncheon have supplanted logical consistency. When the question is asked, "Why does smallpox break out at all?" the twentieth century scientist answers, "Because the populace have not been 'protected' against it by vaccination." This reply only begs the question. It presupposes that smallpox is a natural visitation of Providence which may strike anybody at any moment, and that the only way by which this presumed inevitable evil can be met, is to compel every human being in this world to undergo a process of "protection," which is to render the system "immune" to attack. This is a negative form of reasoning. It leaves unanswered the crucial question, what is the origin of small pox? Why are we to suppose, as was believed in the eighteenth century, that a smallpox attack is the probable lot of every member of the race? Why must everybody be diseased to protect him against disease, especially if that disease is one from which, owing to altered conditions, he is never likely to suffer? Surely, if a disease breaks out, there must be a cause for it. The Source of All Outbreaks Now one fact stands out pre-eminently in every part of the world where smallpox has appeared -- namely, it has invariably associated with unsanitary and unhygienic conditions. From time immemorial it has been called in Austria "The Beggar's Disease." It has followed in the wake of filth, poverty, wars, pestilences, famines, and general insanitation, in all ages. |
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