A Brief History
On November 13, 1922, the United States Supreme Court decision called Zucht v. King, upheld the discretion that allowed a Texas school board to require mandatory vaccination of school children against smallpox.
Digging Deeper
The court cited a previous decision, Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905), that allowed states to force vaccination and claimed that the “police power” of the state to maintain “health and safety” of the public justified such measures.
Today, smallpox is virtually eradicated, but other old diseases keep cropping up as do new germs and viruses. As we found out in 2020, mankind is always in danger of a deadly epidemic that may not come with a warning.
During the Covid pandemic of 2019 through 2021, many employers and school systems mandated workers and students be vaccinated, including the US military. Despite widespread resistance to mandatory vaccines, there are actually 17 vaccines US troops may be required to take, depending on assignment.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Amantonio, A. To Vaccinate or not to Vaccinate: A Review of Scientific Literature on Vaccines. Independently published, 2020.
Anonymous. Turtles All The Way Down: Vaccine Science and Myth. The Turtles Team, 2022.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1921, is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.
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