In the late 20th century, the United States was experiencing an unprecedented experience, as the smallpox epidemic was in full swing. During the five years epidemic From 1899 to 1904, government officials in the health sector confirmed 164,283 cases of smallpox, but the actual numbers may have been up to five times higher.
So to slow the spread of the highly contagious and often deadly virus, there has been a national smallpox vaccination campaign. In cities and states with the worst cases, vaccination was mandatory and official vaccination certificates were required so that citizens could go to work, attend public school, board trains, or even go to the theater.
Mandatory orders vaccination outraged many Americans who launched anti-vaccination campaigns to defend their personal freedoms. In an effort to ward off public health officials, who went door-to-door (often accompanied by police) to enforce vaccination laws, some vaccination activists falsified their certificates. Unable to identify whether the certificates were legal, health officials chose a different way of ascertaining citizens’ vaccinations. This was nothing more than a scar that would form on the hand during the vaccination.
Following a technique first developed by Edward Jenner in the late 18th century, smallpox vaccination in 1900 meant waxing the skin of the upper arm, creating a wound with a scalpel or knife, and then dabbing it. wound with live virus.
“The recipient of the vaccine would start to feel quite ill, usually with a fever and a lot of pain in the arm,” said Michael Willrich, a history professor at Brandeis University and author of Pox: An American History, according to history.com.
The area of the vaccine would become more and more irritated, a spot would form which would then fall off and what was left behind would be a small scar about the size of a nickel. And so the officials would have known that the citizen had been vaccinated, with this scar functioning directly as a natural form of certification.
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