The Chronicles Of Grant County

"Under a magnification of 370,000X, this transmission electron microscopic (TEM) image depicts a number of smallpox virus virions," according to a statement from the U S Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. "These organisms display an internal, dumbbell-shaped structure that represents the viral core, which contains the viral DNA. This DNA acts as the blueprint by which the virus replicates itself once it is released into the host cell." (The photograph was produced by Dr. Fred Murphy and Sylvia Whitfield and provided courtesy of the U S Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, 1975.)

As some people today demand the right to not be vaccinated against COVID-19, it's important to consider how people faced an even greater danger – the scourge of smallpox – and were able to blend together individual freedoms and overall responsibilities in society.

The year after attaining statehood, the State of Arizona enacted laws mandating vaccinations of children. In 1913, the State of Arizona included Paragraph 4396 in its Civil Code:

"Each parent or guardian, having the care, custody or control of any minor or other person shall cause such minor or other person to be vaccinated."

The same 1913 Code also included Paragraph 4397:

"No principal, superintendent or teacher of any school and no parent or guardian of any minor child shall permit any child having scarlet fever, diphtheria, small pox, whooping cough, measles or any other dangerous, infectious or contagious disease or any child residing in any house in which such disease exists, or has recently existed, to attend any public or private school until the local board of health shall have given permission therefor."

Vaccines had been developed and were being used against smallpox at this time in Grant County and other areas of both New Mexico and Arizona.

Five years later, in the midst of the Pandemic of 1918-1919, voters in Arizona went to the polls and decided to blend together the freedom that some demanded at that time with the responsibility to protect their neighbors from potential harm and death. On November 5, 1918, a vote was hold on an initiative petition that would ban mandatory vaccination of children.

The ballot was printed as follows:

"An Act"

"Providing that minor children shall not be subjected to compulsory vaccination without the consent of their parents or guardians, and relating to and providing regulations to govern the attendance of non-vaccinated children at the public schools during the period of an epidemic of smallpox, and repealing Paragraph 4396, Chapter 1, Title XLI, Revised Statutes of Arizona, 1913, Civil Code."

"Be it enacted by the People of the State of Arizona:"

"Section 1. No minor child shall be subjected to compulsory vaccination without the consent of the parent or guardian having the care, custody, or control of such minor. PROVIDED HOWEVER, that no minor child shall be permitted to attend any public school in any school district in the State of Arizona during the period in which a smallpox epidemic may be prevalent in said school district unless said minor child shall have first been vaccinated."

"Section 2. That paragraph 4396, Chapter 1, Title XLI, of the Revised Statutes of Arizona, 1913, Civil Code, be, and the same is hereby repealed."

"Section 3. That all acts and parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed."

By a slim majority, voters decided to repudiate mandates for vaccinations for children and at the same time plan for the safety of society by banning unvaccinated children from public school during epidemics. While the text of the ballot did not include "smallpox" in the first sentence regarding the banning of "compulsory vaccination," the ballot did include "smallpox" in the second sentence dealing with "a smallpox epidemic." Vaccinations at that time typically focused on smallpox.

According to records from the State of Arizona, 13,941 people (51% of all people voting) voted in favor of the ballot, while 13,411 people (49% of all persons voting) voted against the ballot.

Through this vote in the midst of the suffering and deaths caused by the Pandemic of 1918-1919, the voters of Arizona decided to blend the freedom for people to choose to have their children unvaccinated with the responsibility that those who chose to be unvaccinated would not bring harm or death upon others.

In essence, the voters decided that personal freedom does not give people the right to endanger others.

That balance, through this election in 1918, only applied to children.

To put this vote into perspective, consider what was happening at the time by reviewing a few news reports in September, October, and November of 1918:

On September 13, 1918, The Arizona Daily Star of Tucson reported that the Arizona Board of Health sent a letter to the Tucson School District No. 1 that stated "You are hereby instructed to not allow children who have not been successfully vaccinated within five years past against smallpox to attend school…The same rule applies to teachers."

The letter went on to explain that "Smallpox may be a very terrible and disfiguring disease. The death rate in some epidemics is very high. Severe cases may develop from mild ones…In the past 12 years, 31,000,000 vaccinations have been performed and there have been no serious complications proven to have come from the vaccinations. In years long gone by there were some ugly complications, but these were from lack of proper cleanliness."

On November 6, 1918, the Weekly Journal-Miner of Prescott reported that the Arizona State Fair planned for Phoenix had been cancelled on October 31st because of Pandemic of 1918-1919. The fair had already been postponed from November to December, according to the newspaper, because of the pandemic.

The same edition of the Weekly Journal-Miner also included a news article dated October 30th that included the title and subtitle of "Vaccination Law Should Not Be Repealed – Dr. Rupert Blue, Surgeon General of U S, Urges Such A Course In The Interest Of State." This news article quoted from a letter dated March 8, 1918, in which the U S Surgeon General wrote "Urgently advice promulgation of order by State Board of Health requiring vaccination of school children throughout Arizona. Re-vaccination of adults should be urged. This order is essential as a war measure and for industrial efficiency, especially in view of constant occurrence of smallpox and large per cent un-vaccinated population…"

The Coconino Sun of Flagstaff included an article on its front page on November 22, 1918, that was entitled "Influenza Serious Among The Navajo." On page two on the same date, the newspaper included an article entitled "'Flu' Hits Apache Hard." In this second news article, The Coconino Sun reported that "So terrible has the influenza become on the San Carlos Indian reservation that it is impossible to build coffins in which to bury the dead…"

There was no vaccine for the virus that caused the Pandemic of 1918-1919.

A vaccine against smallpox, though, did exist at this time.

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Contact Richard McDonough at chroniclesofgrantcounty@mail.com.

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© 2021 Richard McDonough