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Dave Edmonston

The Measles Vaccine Came From His Body. He Went Anti-vax. Not Anymore.

As a boy, David Edmonston was the source of today’s measles vaccine. Now he regrets vaccine doubts.
by Marc Fischer via Washington Post on March 12, 2025
Magazine article entitled "Don't take immunity for granted!"
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When Good Housekeeping Meant Getting Vaccinated Against Polio

The pages of 1950s lifestyle magazines offer a glimpse of a time when childhood vaccines were anything but controversial.
by Katherine Churchill via HNN on February 19, 2025
Young boy receiving polio vaccine from doctor

Hesitancy Against Hope: Reactions to the First Polio Vaccine

Hesitancy and opposition to vaccines has existed in the past, and such awareness provides needed context to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine within American history.
by Stephen E. Mawdsley via Process: A Blog for American History on January 9, 2024
Edward Jenner (1749-1823) vaccinating against smallpox.

At the Start of the Spread

The march toward revolution in America coincided with a smallpox epidemic. True freedom now meant freedom from disease as well.
by Mark G. Spencer via The Wall Street Journal on January 4, 2023
Smallpox vaccine vial and syringe.

Never Forget That Early Vaccines Came From Testing on Enslaved People

The practice of vaccination in the U.S. cannot be divorced from the history of slavery.
by Jim Downs via STAT on June 19, 2022
Two photos of children being vaccinated.

Vaccinating Kids Has Never Been Easy

Uptake of COVID vaccines for kids has been slow, but it has been slow for other vaccines too.
by Sarah Zhang via The Atlantic on March 10, 2022
Masked Japanese Internment Camp Prisoner

Ask a Historian: Did Japanese Americans Have Access to Vaccines in WWII Incarceration Camps?

Shibutani, Haruo Najima, and Tomika Shibutani reported that the vaccination lines stretched as long as 200 yards. “The conditions were atrocious.”
by Brian Niiya via Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment on March 9, 2022
Statue of three women scientists.

The Unsung Heroes Who Ended a Deadly Plague

How a team of fearless American women overcame medical skepticism to stop whooping cough, a vicious infectious disease, and save countless lives.
by Richard Conniff via Smithsonian on February 23, 2022
A painting by Alfred Touchemolin showing French army recruits being inoculated with cowpox to protect them from smallpox, circa 1895

The Deep Roots of Vaccine Hesitancy

Understanding the battle over immunization—from the pre-Victorian era onward—between public health and the people may help in treating anti-vax sentiment.
by Mark Honigsbaum via New York Review of Books on December 14, 2021
Ben Franklin portrait

'I Long Regretted Bitterly, and Still Regret That I Had Not Given It To Him'

Benjamin Franklin's writing about losing his son to smallpox is a must-read for parents weighing COVID-19 vaccines today.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on November 2, 2021
Elvis receiving polio vaccine

Elvis Presley Gets the Polio Vaccine on The Ed Sullivan Show, Persuading Millions to Get Vaccinated

In 1956, Elvis Presley was vaccinated backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show in order to encourage teenagers to get the polio vaccination.
by Josh Jones via Open Culture on September 15, 2021
An artistic syringe with RNA sequence in it

The Tangled History of mRNA Vaccines

Hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough.
by Elie Dolgin via Nature on September 14, 2021
Moscow COVID-19 vaccination center
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The U.S. and Russia Could Join Forces to Get People Vaccinated. They Did Before.

The forgotten history of Soviet-American vaccine diplomacy.
by Yana Demeshko, Ruth Gabor, Ivan Grek, Kristen Ho via Made By History on September 1, 2021
Painting of smallpox vaccination

The Long History of Mandated Vaccines in the United States

Vaccines against smallpox during the Revolutionary War are one example of how mandates have protected the health of Americans for more than two centuries.
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via Governing on August 5, 2021
Person getting vaccinated

Vaccine Mandates Are as American as Apple Pie

Those who claim that vaccine resistance is an expression of liberty are historically illiterate.
by Matt Ford via The New Republic on July 30, 2021
Illustration of men around an old printing press

Benjamin Franklin's Fight Against a Deadly Virus

Colonial America was divided over smallpox inoculation, but he championed science to skeptic.
by Mark Canada, Christian Chauret via The Conversation on July 1, 2021
John Haygarth.
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Paying People to Get Vaccines is an Old Idea Whose Time Has Come Again

While smallpox was ravaging late 18th century Britain, John Haygarth thought up of a plan to pay people for public health compliance.
by Margaret DeLacy via HNN on June 6, 2021
A comic overview of vaccine development production trials to deliveries.

The Last Time a Vaccine Saved America

Sixty-six years ago, people celebrated the polio vaccine by embracing in the streets. Our vaccine story is both more extraordinary and more complicated.
by Howard Markel via The New Yorker on April 12, 2021
A teenage boy is vaccinated against smallpox by a school doctor and a county health nurse, 1938.

The U.S. Has Had 'Vaccine Passports' Before—And They Worked

History shows that the benefits of such a system can extend far beyond the venues into which such a passport would grant admission .
by Jordan E. Taylor via TIME on April 5, 2021
Nurse Harriet Curley takes the pulse of a patient at Sage Memorial Hospital on the Navajo Indian reservation in 1949. (AP)

How Native Americans Were Vaccinated Against Smallpox, Then Pushed Off Their Land

Nearly two centuries later, many tribes remain suspicious of the drive to get them vaccinated against the coronavirus.
by Dana Hedgpeth via Washington Post on March 28, 2021
Cotton Mather.

The Hellfire Preacher Who Promoted Inoculation

Three hundred years ago, Cotton Mather starred in a debate about treating smallpox that tore Boston apart.
by Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on March 7, 2021
Syringes with the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on a table
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Having Vaccines Alone Isn’t Enough to Defeat Covid-19

Distributing them equally is key to defeating the coronavirus.
by Joyce Chaplin via Made By History on February 23, 2021
Posters reading "Is your child vaccinated? Vaccination prevents smallpox"

The Smallpox-Fighting “Virus Squads” That Stormed Tenements in the Middle of the Night

In the 1800s, they helped lay the groundwork for the anti-vaccine movement.
by Rebecca Onion, Michael Willrich via Slate on February 9, 2021
A painted picture of someone receiving a vaccine

History Shows Americans Have Always Been Wary of Vaccines

Even so, many diseases have been tamed. Will Covid-19 be next?
by Alicia Ault via Smithsonian on January 26, 2021
Children receiving a vaccine.

Throughout History, Mass Vaccine Rollouts Have Been Beset by Problems

As the country scrambles to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, the process has been hindered by many of the same issues that impeded other mass vaccination rollouts.
by Dugan Arnett via Boston Globe on January 10, 2021
Engraving of a vaccinated child.

An Eradication: Empire, Enslaved Children, and the Whitewashing of Vaccine History

Enslaved children were used in medical trials for early smallpox vaccines. They have been forgotten.
by Farren E. Yaro via Age of Revolutions on December 7, 2020
Physician administering a vaccine to a patient.
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Those Most At Risk Might Be Most Wary of a Coronavirus Vaccine

Racism in medicine, including through forced vaccinations, has created skepticism toward public health campaigns.
by Elizabeth Grennan Browning via Made By History on September 11, 2020
Person getting a vaccination.
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A Coronavirus Vaccine Can’t Come at the Expense of Fighting the Virus Now

Government investment into a cancer vaccine had drawbacks.
by Robin Wolfe Scheffler via Made By History on July 24, 2020
Engraving of Reverend Cotton Mather, 1721, surrounded by a crowd.

The Slave Who Helped Boston Battle Smallpox

Like so many black scientists past, the African who brought inoculation to the American colonies never got his due.
by Lashyra Nolen via UnDark on April 2, 2020

The History of Smallpox Shows Us Nationalism Can’t Beat a Pandemic

“America First” is a fairly useless strategy in the quest for a COVID-19 vaccine.
by Charles Kenny via Slate on March 31, 2020
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