Why vaccines should NOT be made mandatory

Individuals react differently to vaccine, which became obvious already during the Swine Flue vaccination 1976. Therefore, every person must have the right to decide whether one wants to take a vaccine or not!

It began at a US Army training base in New Jersey. In February 1976, several soldiers at Fort Dix fell ill with a previously unrecognised swine flu. None had been in contact with pigs, so human transmission was assumed. Testing revealed that the virus had spread to more than 200 recruits.

The pandemics of 1957 and 1968 were still fresh in the memory, and fears soon escalated of another 1918-like influenza pandemic, which had killed tens of millions. Further investigation found that people under 50 years old had no antibodies to this new strain.

Urgent decisions were needed. Public health officials realised it might be possible to get a vaccine to the public by the end of the year if they acted fast. The pharmaceutical industry had just finished manufacturing vaccines for the normal flu seasons. They also had an animal advantage: roosters. Back then, influenza vaccine was produced in fertilised hen’s eggs. That season’s roosters were due for slaughter, so a slow decision would add a delay of several months to vaccine manufacture.

In March, President Ford announced a $137m (£67.5m in 1976) effort to produce a vaccine by the autumn. “Its goal was to immunise every man, woman and child in the US, and thus was the largest and most ambitious immunisation program ever undertaken in the United States,” . . .

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Millions of vaccinations meant dozens of cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare problem where the body’s immune system attacks the nerves. It leads to weakness and tingling in the extremities, and in some cases can be severe, leading to other complications and paralysis.

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After months of negative media coverage, the Guillain-Barre reports brought an overdue end to the swine flu affair. Ford’s programme was suspended in December 1976 with only some 20% of the US population vaccinated. And since the US government had offered liability coverage to the pharmaceutical manufacturers that summer, hundreds of compensation claims from Guillain-Barre claimants followed for years afterward.

The swine flu affair, the New York Times concluded after the programme was suspended, had been a “sorry debacle” and “fiasco” marked by political expediency and unwarranted confidence. “The danger now is that the whole idea of preventive medicine may be discredited,” the editorial warned.

www.bbc.com/future/article/20200918-the-fiasco-of-the-us-swine-flu-affair-of-1976