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Vaccinations began as public health practice
Dr. Edward Jenner developed a vaccine for smallpox disease. Was created from the cowpox virus - a disease similar to smallpox that only infected cows. -
Massachusetts 1st state to mandatory vaccinations for small pox
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mandatory vaccination of school children was challenged and upheld in the case
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Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio
disease that had crippled, paralyzed, and sometimes killed thousands of children in the US. The US implemented a national polio vaccination program that by 1965 had reduced the number of paralytic polio cases to 61 (the last case of the disease in the US was reported in 1993). -
Between 1988 and 2009 1,322 families whose children suffered brain damage from vaccines
The United States Court of Federal Claims Office of Special Masters -
30,000 cases of adverse reactions to vaccines have been reported annually to federal government
13% classified as serious, meaning associated with permanent disability, hospitalization, life-threatening illness, or death. According to the CDC, infants (children less than one year old) are at greatest risk for adverse medical events from vaccination including high fevers, seizures, and sudden infant death syndrome -
US Congress passed the "Comprehensive Childhood Immunization Act
increase the percentage of children who received vaccinations. The Act created the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program to provide vaccinations free of charge to children in need. However, by 1998 fewer than half of all two-year old children were fully vaccinated. The federal government is (as of Jan. 11, 2010) the largest purchaser of vaccines in the country with about 50% of all childhood vac -
5,500 cases alleging a causal relationship between vaccinations and autism
under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in the United States Court of Federal Claims. -
more than 10 million vaccines are given to children under 1 years of age in US
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British Medical Journal-link between vaccination and autism
On Jan. 5, 2011, the British Medical Journal published an editoral (371 KB) [52] stating that Dr. Wakefield's 1998 study connecting autism and vaccines was "an elaborate fraud," hoping that the declaration would "close the door for good" on lingering beliefs in a link between vaccination and autism.