THE END OF ROUTINE SMALLPOX VACCINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-492
Author(s):  
C. Henry Kempe
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Public Health Service ◽  
United States Public Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Smallpox Vaccination ◽  
Surgeon General ◽  
American Academy Of Pediatrics ◽  
Mixed Feelings ◽  
American Children

1971 was the year in which the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, the Redbook Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Territorial Health Officers agreed that the time had come to discontinue routine primary smallpox vaccination for American children. As a result of this it may also be expected that school vaccination laws presently in effect in some 28 states will soon be repealed or will not be enforced with vigor. The American pediatrician views these developments with mixed feelings, since there have been extensive and often spirited debates regarding the timing for discontinuation of routine smallpox vaccination.

scholarly journals The discontinuation of routine smallpox vaccination in the United States, 1960-1976: an unlikely affirmation of biomedical hegemony

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 471-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Rich
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Public Health Service ◽  
United States Public Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Smallpox Vaccination ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Medical Journals ◽  
The 1960S

This article seeks to understand the discursive context of the cessation of routine smallpox vaccination in the United States in the early 1970s. The United States has a long tradition of opposition to compulsory smallpox vaccination, usually expressed in terms of concerns about personal liberties, the extent of state authority, and challenges to the hegemony of orthodox biomedicine. The practice of routine smallpox vaccination continued in the United States until its termination in the 1970s, following a 1971 recommendation against the practice issued by the United States Public Health Service. This history investigates the ways in which opposition to compulsory smallpox vaccination in the 1960s and 70s was articulated and understood by contemporaries through an analysis of the rhetoric used in leading medical journals and popular newspapers. It finds that this ultimately successful movement to end routine smallpox vaccination drew upon the language of biomedical authority rather than political protest.

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