Medicine Wesley R. Elsberry on 17 May 2009 11:34 am
Benjamin Franklin and the Anti-Vaccination Argument
I ran across this in the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin:
In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.
The anti-vaccination impulse seems to be ancient, and anciently rebutted.
CafePress Shop