The Patriotic Antecedents for Getting the
Covid-19 Vaccine
"Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk
logistics."
-
General Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith
Among George
Washington's regulars during the War for Independence, 90 percent of deaths
were caused by disease. The Variola smallpox virus was the most vicious of them
all. After witnessing the disaster wrought by the Variola virus in the wake of
the Canadian campaign, Benedict Arnold and Benjamin Franklin worried that the
virus would be the army's undoing.
There were no vaccines in 1777, but inoculating
individuals with pus or scabs from other infected people, a less deadly form of
the disease, was widespread throughout Europe. Inoculation against smallpox was
dangerous; one to two percent of the inoculated died, compared with 30% who
succumbed when the virus was acquired naturally. After survival, people were
immune. Most British troops were immune
to Variola, while the Indians and slaves fighting for the British died in large
numbers.
Less than a quarter of the Continental Army had ever had
the virus, and its prevalence in camp was deterring recruits. Washington
ordered the mass inoculation of the army and all recruits on February 5, 1777.
Joseph Ellis, the Revolutionary War historian, along with others, says that
Washington's unpopular decision to innoculate his army against the Variola
virus was the strategic stroke of genius that won the war.
Eisenhower and the Spanish Flu
Sometime during the fall of 1917, ducks and geese migrating
from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico dropped billions of bird viruses on Kansas
farms, infecting pigs that in turn infected farmers.
In early February 1918, a physician west of Dodge City noted
a dramatic uptick of extremely virulent influenza cases. Young, healthy
patients were struck down quickly, and many died. Then, as suddenly as it
appeared, the epidemic was over, and life returned to normal.
In the March of
1918, those men from Dodge City went to Camp Funston at Ft. Riley for basic
training before shipment to Europe. Apparently, some of the recruits arrived at
Camp Funston carrying the flu virus.
The soldiers
from Camp Funston, some infected with the flu virus, disembarked in France. As
they waited in crowded marshaling yards near Boulogne, they mixed with wounded,
sick, resting, and transient British soldiers. The virus then spread rapidly up
and down the front and all over Europe. In this first wave, millions were
infected, but few died.
That changed on the first of August. Somewhere, somehow,
the virus mutated into a killer. By late August 1918, the second wave of flu
hit widely scattered Atlantic ports, including Boston's crowded piers. The flu
spread to Fort Devens crammed with 45,000 transit troops.
On September 8, Fort Devens reported its first case.
Shortly thereafter, a shipment of draftees from Ft. Devens arrived at Camp
Colt. Within a week, 1/3 of the camp became sick, and ultimately 175 died.
Major Dwight Eisenhower was commander of the Army Tank
Corps at Camp Colt in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Once the flu was detected, Ike followed the
recommendations of Chief surgeon Lt. Colonel Thomas Scott.
All serious cases were promptly admitted to the hospital.
Every man in camp was required to have his throat and nose sprayed with
germicidal solution daily. Every man was examined when sprayed to prevent
hiding symptoms of influenza.
Places of
amusement in Gettysburg were closed to soldiers, and military police prevented
soldiers from entering stores except in small numbers. Intermingling or forming
groups in areas of the camp was prohibited, including crap games, which was
extremely unpopular with the soldiers.
Beds and
bedding were aired and sunned for the entire day. Tents were furled for the
entire day. Eisenhower ordered more tents to be put up to allow for isolation
of men with any symptoms, even if the isolation was simply a canvas partition
between beds. Every tent was limited to four men, and Military Police prevented
anyone from entering or leaving the post.
In addition, Ike ordered inoculations against smallpox,
typhoid, and other infectious diseases to be given so that the situation would
not be more complicated.
Eisenhower also had the forethought to cooperate with the
town to control the spread of the epidemic. He helped coordinate donations of
food along with gifts of medical supplies and bedding.
By the end of October, the epidemic had abated. Although
deaths ultimately reached 175, that number was below the average for Army
camps. Eisenhower's quick reaction, early declaration of quarantine, and cooperation
with the town of Gettysburg helped keep a terrible situation under control. The
War Department then asked that Eisenhower send thirty of the doctors to explain
the measures taken so they could be replicated on other posts.
The Smallpox epidemic of 1721 in
Boston
In 1721, Boston
had an outbreak of smallpox. Onesimus, a slave owned by Cotton Mather, had told
his master of being inoculated against smallpox while in Africa. Mather had
also read of the procedure taking place in Turkey. Slaves with pockmarks taken
from Africa were more desirable than the unblemished. However, the provenance
of the procedure led to its denigration by the free white population. How could
the enslaved, who were considered by some to be little more than animals,
without souls and unfit for independent life, teach anything lifesaving to
their masters?
Only Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of Harvard responded positively
to Mather's call for a campaign of public inoculation. Boylston inoculated
Thomas, his six-year-old son, and then his 36-year-old slave and the slave's
two-year-old son. All survived with mild cases and no disfigurement.
Eventually, Boylston inoculated 247 people with six fatalities (2.4%) compared
to 5,759 Bostonians who acquired the disease naturally of whom 844 (14.6%) died.
Had the entire 10,600 population of Boston been
inoculated, 587 lives would have been saved. As a testament to the enduring
strength of the race prejudice in the United States, Onesimus's contribution to
public health is little known or admitted and did nothing to change people's
opinion of Africans or Africa. Instead, perhaps, the attitudes steming from
slave times three centuries ago continue to this day, encouraging resistence to
inoculation, and its modern offspring, vaccination.