VACCINATION BOTH A THEORETICAL AND A PROVED CAUSE OF EPIDEMICS
In a previous letter to the Secretary of War, dated October 14, 1918, and published in the Washington Herald of November 20, 1918, I have pointed out the dangerous nature of vaccination, particularly during epidemics, and the hygienic importance of suspending all vaccination during our recent epidemic of influenza and pneumonia, and the further desirability of making all vaccination strictly free and voluntary. I also then called attention to the probability that the repeated and multiple vaccinations of millions of men, in this country and Europe, with various septicemic infections for the last two years, may have had some relation to this epidemic, which seems to have been more severe among the vaccinated men in the military camps and hospitals than among the rest of the population. And I would now like to repeat here some of the important facts which I have stated in said letter as to both the probable and the proved relation of vaccination to many deadly epidemics.