Thread by @c0nc0rdance

If only there were some way to know what the Founding Fathers thought of vaccines and vaccine mandates?

Oh, right, they wrote extensively on the subject, and by their actions showed their commitment to public health.
(thread)

You may know the history of Washington's variolation of troops at Valley Forge, making them immune to the smallpox scourge that led to tragedy at the Battle of Quebec. The process was not without risk, but according to figures, inoculation lowered case fatality from 45% to 2%.

During the war, he also mandated quarantine for civilians and soldiers under his direction, enforced by troops and general order.

Inoculation in America has African roots: Puritan minister Cotton Mather purchased a slave he named Onesimus, who taught Mather how his tribe rubbed a cut with pus from infected. Other slaves confirmed story & by 1716, Mather spread inoculation throughout New England.

Mather recruited Zabdiel Boylston, a Boston physician & great-uncle to Pres. John Adams, to inoculate 248 people in the midst. 6 died in the process, or 1 in 40. Among uninoculated Bostonians, 1 in 7 died during the same period.

Resistance to his method was violent.

Following the death of his 4 yr old son of smallpox, Ben Franklin established in 1774 "The Society for Inoculating the Poor Gratis" to inoculate the poor of Philadelphia.

When Edward Jenner's much safer vaccine became available, it was first introduced by Boston physician Benjamin Waterhouse in 1800, who sent a sample to President Thomas Jefferson, along with instruction on how it could be distributed, preserved.

Jefferson even ordered explorers Lewis & Clark to carry with them the "kine pox" and to share it with native tribes, although the travel conditions spoiled the serum and it was inert by the time they reached their winter camp.

During his second term, Jefferson wrote to Jenner a sort of fan letter:
"I avail myself of this occasion of rendering you a portion of the tribute of gratitude due to you from the whole human family.Medicine has never before produced any single improvement of such utility."

In 1813, President James Madison signed "An Act to Encourage Vaccination", which created a National Vaccine Agency, also authorizing the US Post Office to carry any package (<0.5 oz) for free if it contained smallpox vaccine material.

We've faced pandemics before in our Republic, & the Founding Fathers were no strangers to conflict between individual rights & public health. They seem, in every case, to have been advocates for a course of action that lessens suffering, increases the strength of our nation.