Horrors of vaccination exposed and illustrated /

by Chas. M. Higgins

The third great falsehood in this tissue of Jennerian mendacity is the claim that one vaccination rendered the vaccinated person “perfectly secure” “through life” from “the infection of the smallpox.” This was, of course, a most reckless and absurd claim on its face, for how could Jenner, with a few experiments and tests extending over a few years, declare with any honesty, or with any logical or scientific warrant, that cowpox inoculation gave absolute security from smallpox for life? This reckless claim was, of course, soon proved to be a rank falsehood by the wide-spread failure of vaccination to protect from smallpox as soon as the vaccinated persons were exposed to actual infection or epidemic conditions where they readily contracted the disease, as they do to this day notwithstanding their vaccination! A new apology had therefore to be invented for this wholesale failure of vaccination soon after its first adoption, and this was made by abandoning the false claim of unlimited life protection from one vaccination and substituting the modified claim of a limited protection for seven years—more or less—and the consequent necessity of frequent or periodical re-vaccinations to get any continued or reliable protection from the operation.

Now Jenner’s original false and absurd claim of unlimited or life protection from one vaccination was probably partly due to his ignorance of the real nature and history of smallpox and his credulous adoption of the old fallacy and superstition, in common use, that one attack of smallpox gave sure immunity for life from a second attack, which proposition never really had any scientific basis in theory or fact, as it has been repeatedly proved that smallpox may, and often does, occur two or three times in the same person, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, and that there is no regularity or certainty in the alleged protection given either by smallpox or vaccination, but that immunity depends largely on sanitary, hygienic and constitutional conditions. In fact, some students seem to think that the person who has once had smallpox is more likely to have it again than one who has never had the disease! It was, therefore, at this first demonstrated failure of vaccination to protect from smallpox that Jenner’s chief assistant, Dr. James Moore, wrote a very interesting little book called “The History of Small Pox,” London, 1815. The chief purpose of this book was to apologize for the failure of vaccination to protect from smallpox, as originally falsely claimed by Jenner, by showing that even smallpox does not protect with certainty for life or any other period, but that the same person may have smallpox two or three times in succession, instances of which are cited all through the book, thus making the ingenious or crafty plea for vaccination that it cannot be expected to give any more protection than smallpox gives; and therefore reliance must not be placed on one vaccination alone for life, but protection can only be obtained by re-vaccinations repeated at frequent intervals of a few years!

It will thus be seen that Jenner completely abandoned his false and reckless claim of perfect protection from smallpox for life by one vaccination, for which he got his big graft or money prize from the English government; but, please note, he did not make this retreat or acknowledge his great mistake until after he had pocketed his big reward of thirty thousand pounds for his shamefully false claim of the unlimited protection and perfect safety of vaccination!

SHORT DURATION OF VACCINAL PROTECTION AND NECESSITY OF FREQUENT RE-VACCINATIONS NOW ADMITTED. DANGER FROM SUCH REPEATED VACCINATIONS GREATER THAN FROM SMALLPOX

We have seen in the preceding chapter how the original false and reckless claim of Dr. Jenner for absolute protection for life from one vaccination was soon abandoned when put to the actual test of smallpox epidemics and that a modified position was then taken in the necessity of re-vaccination in certain periods of about seven years, more or less. This limited claim has, however, been also abandoned in recent years and the term of alleged vaccinal protection has been getting successively shorter and shorter, until it has now fallen to the ridiculously short protective period of only six months or a year for each vaccination or re-vaccination! This seems to be the present position of our most recent medical authorities and advanced vaccinators, which is not only a great shrinkage in protective claim but is very interesting and significant in that it closely approaches, and admits, the rational position of the anti-vaccinators who have contended consistently and persistently from the days of Jenner that vaccination, at the best, gave merely a limited immunity of only a few months, more or less, and, in some cases, in very susceptible persons, gave no immunity; and that frequent and repeated vaccinations are more dangerous as being multiple and cumulative infections of an artificial or inflicted disease than beneficial as the preventive of a natural disease.

To show the present position of advanced pro-vaccinators on this point and their virtual agreement with anti-vaccinators as to the very limited period of vaccinal protection and the necessity of frequent repetitions, I will now quote from a recent high medical authority, viz., Dr. Robert Olesen, of the U. S. Public Health Service, stationed at Manila in the Philippine Islands, which is supposed to be one of the greatest fields in the world for practical experience with smallpox and vaccination.

In an elaborate article by Dr. Olesen printed in the New York Medical Record of March 4, 1911, he makes these very serious statements as to the necessity of frequent re-vaccinations and the short duration of protection from each vaccination, as follows:

“The Necessity for Re-Vaccination.—There is abundant reason for believing that a person who has been successfully vaccinated is absolutely protected against smallpox during a period varying from six to twelve months, probably the latter. After this time his immunity may or may not continue indefinitely....

“In the absence of means of determining accurately the length of perfect resistance it is best to re-vaccinate once a year.”

Now here we plainly see that this Government Expert after long experience in the fertile field of the Philippines admits clearly and positively the very limited protective power of vaccination, so that it is practically evanescent in duration, or extends over a few months only, or at most can not, or should not, be relied on for sure and safe protection longer than from six months to one year! And for this reason Dr. Olesen carefully advises that “it is best to re-vaccinate once a year.”