The Chronicles Of Grant County
"The Jet Injector Gun (in photo above) and the Ped-O-Jet are air-powered medical injector devices designed to administer vaccinations very efficiently," according to the Pan American Health Organization. "Invented by Aaron Ismach, these medical devices were bought in mass quantities by the U S government and provided to governments around the world to eradicate smallpox and other diseases. (The photo was provided courtesy of the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization – © PAHO/WHO, May 28, 2010.)
One of the key disagreements regarding COVID-19 involves the mandating of vaccines for children attending school. Mandates for vaccination against several diseases for school-age children have been in place for more than 100 years in New Mexico. The goal has been to prevent a variety of diseases from affecting young people as well as others throughout the community.
Parents and guardians are able to request exemptions from vaccination mandates for their children for medical and religious reasons in New Mexico. According to a document from the New Mexico Health Department, the state does not allow for childhood vaccination exemptions based on personal or philosophical reasons.
As noted in a previous edition of The Chronicles Of Grant County, some see these mandates as a responsible use of governmental power to protect children and the general society. Others see these mandates as an overreach of governmental power that infringes on individual freedoms and parental rights.
One of the key vaccines used throughout the years was one to prevent smallpox.
According to the U S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "…The last natural outbreak of smallpox in the United States occurred in 1949…Routine smallpox vaccination among the American public stopped in 1972, after the disease was eradicated in the United States." In 2006, the Congressional Research Service reported that "Smallpox vaccinations are no longer administered since smallpox has been eradicated worldwide as of 1980."
For decades, though, the smallpox vaccine was part of the regular health regime for people in Grant County and throughout the region.
This vaccine was mandated for New Mexico children "…at the time the [New Mexico] Division of Public Health Nursing (which in later years became the Department of Health) was established in 1919," according to the New Mexico Department of Health.
Many other states had similar regulations and laws regarding the mandating of the smallpox vaccine. A few states, though, chose to either not mandate or remove mandates for the smallpox vaccine for children. One of those states was the State of Arizona.
While Arizona was affected by smallpox to a similar extent as New Mexico and other states, its voters changed the role of the state government regarding childhood vaccination against smallpox.
A smallpox outbreak in southeast Arizona (not far from Grant County) in 1912 was the "…spark that triggered the debate about whether and how to require vaccination as a prerequisite for attending school," according to a statement dated February 6, 2012, from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
"The first cases were in Tucson and Douglas with a few dozen cases and several deaths…and there were a few additional cases in Nogales and Globe," the statement noted. "Of course, all the cases were among folks that hadn't been vaccinated. The public health interventions of the time were much like what we would do today – case contact follow up with targeted vaccinations of folks that had contact with cases."
The statement from the Arizona Department of Health Services noted how the "…Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Health implemented an aggressive targeted vaccination effort following the Nogales case. From the 1912 records, we know that…[the Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Health] immediately began a 'house-to-house vaccination campaign, vaccinating every person within a radius of six or seven miles of the case under quarantine, except one person who secreted herself and escaped vaccination, but developed smallpox instead.' These two cases were the only ones reported from Santa Cruz County."
The impact on children was considered critical by Arizona leaders at that time.
"As the outbreak progressed in the following months, the State Board of Health weighed in on the public health response that had been undertaken in the various counties," the statement from the Arizona Department of Health Services continued. "The 1912 State Board of Health minutes stated that: 'In our opinion this (contact and ring vaccination campaigns) is not sufficient, as there is no one to keep check on the patient or guardian to see that vaccination is done. Our public health law should be amended to read: In addition to the above stated section, no principal, teacher or superintendent shall permit any person to attend school, unless they have been vaccinated. A large per cent of the children of Arizona have not been vaccinated and will not as long as they are allowed to attend school without first having been vaccinated.'"
The next edition of The Chronicles Of Grant County will detail how Arizona voters decided to both repudiate mandates for childhood vaccinations and ban unvaccinated children from attending school during smallpox epidemics.
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