Ben Franklin Has The Best Comeback For Anti-Vaxxers And It Was Written 230 Years Ago
There are no shortages of debates between anti-vaxxers and the rest of the world on the internet, but if you open up a history book you will find these arguments are centuries old. As it turns out Benjamin Franklin was not just a founding father, but a staunch supporter of vaccinations.
In 1736 Franklin lost his son to smallpox, which sparked him to write an important message on the topic decades later. In the text, he urged parents to inoculate their children – and even though the science behind it was still underdeveloped in the 18th century, his main points till hold today. Scroll down below to see what this founding father had to say.
During the great smallpox epidemic of 1721 James Franklin was part of the charge against vaccines, while his brother Benjamin Franklin took a more neutral stance
Image credits: wikipedia
But then something happened that would transform Benjamin into one of the early advocates for vaccines and in the final portion of his 1788 “Autobiography” he made sure to include why
And his message is still relevant today
Franklin’s son Franky, as his parents called him, died at the age of 4. The words: “The delight of all who knew him,” were inscribed on his tombstone
Image credits: wikipedia
Edward Jenner is recognized as the father of the smallpox vaccine, through his 1796 scientific trials studying the relationship between exposure to cowpox and smallpox immunity
Smallpox vaccine, connaught labs, 1954 (Image credits: Sanofi Pasteur Canada)
And in 1976 the World Health Organization began a global campaign to eradicate smallpox
Smallpox in Windsor, 1924, showing vaccinated and unvaccinated siblings (Image credits: J.J. Heagerty)
On May 8, 1980 they made this announcement: “The world and all its people have won freedom from smallpox, which was the most devastating disease sweeping in epidemic form through many countries since earliest times, leaving death, blindness and disfigurement in its wake”
Smallpox infected mother with vaccinated child, Windsor, 1924 (Image credits: J.J. Heagerty)
But people on the internet still agree that not even founding father Benjamin Franklin can change these anti-vaxxers minds
138Kviews
Share on FacebookI think anti-vaxxers should be dropped in a deep pit and left there. Fed up with them.
noooooo... just regroup on a nice island. So when an epidemic come...
Load More Replies...We may have eradicated small-pox, but moving forward people need to continue taking vaccines seriously. I just finished an essay on the WHO. Campaigns to manage the measles virus have failed two years in a row! (The WHO still did a lot, but never fulfilled their final target numbers) Do people seriously want to let a horrible disease that could be eradicated continue raging? Listen to Franklin guys.
Measles is the leading cause of death in children in the Third World - and people travel. All it takes is one person getting off one plane in a major city and thousands of people are at risk of dying.
Load More Replies...When on of the founding fathers of your nation tell you that you're wrong, you know you're wrong. Vaccinate guys! Flu season is coming up.
[Invasion of the Body Snatchers voice] It's heeere already!
Load More Replies...As I have stated before you have: 1) people who think the earth is flat 2) AIDS was created in a laboratory 3) The oil companies are suppressing free energy, a car that runs on water and perpetual motion 4) The moon landed was a hoax 5) Doctors suppress a cure for cancer 6) 9/11 was an inside job. 7) Global warming is a myth 8) GMO's are dangerous 9) vaccinating your child will kill them.....and (drumroll please) the grand daddy of them all the 10) The young earth creationists! All of it is an attack on science which is the one light in the darkness for discovering existing truths.
About the comment asking if those people don't vaccinate their pets either, sadly yes there are people who don't want their pets get vaccinated :( BTW: Not really relevant but "Franklin’s son Franky" I stopped reading and for a few moments seriously thought the poor kid was named Franky Franklin.
Franklin's wife opposed vaccinating, which is likely the reason it wasn't done to their son. After the death of his son, Franklin spent most of the rest of his life representing the U.S. overseas. Despite repeated admissions of his affections and promises to return at the earliest convenience, his wife died while he was away. He likely held her as responsible as himself for Franky's death.
To be fair - they didn't have the smallpox vaccination in the 1730s. They instead inoculated a child with material from a smallpox pustule to purposely get the child sick with a less severe form of smallpox. This allowed the body to produce a natural immunity. I can understand why a parent wouldn't have wanted to purposely get a child sick with a lesser form of smallpox.
Load More Replies...The thing is that autism and adhd did not have names 200 years ago. They existed, but kids were just categorized and naughty, or just bad kids, or stupid whatever their thought was. Now that these special kids are born with this "special" diseases, it MUST be caused by something. ????? no.
Anti-vaxxers of course! They are a danger to their children and society. Vegans do not pose a threat to anyone. (I'm not a vegan btw!)
Load More Replies...I've been vaccinated against many diseases, and I'm not autistic, or dead. The only downside to a vaccination is getting a piece of metal jabbed into your body for a few seconds.
I had to look up how Ben Franklin advocated for the smallpox vaccine in 1788 when it hadn't been invented until 1796. Initially I thought inoculation was an 18th century term for vaccination, but reading more up on it, the inoculation was when they introduced material from a smallpox pustule into the skin to produce a less severe form of the smallpox. The body then made a natural immunity to it. Information for anyone else who didn't understand.
Yes dear. Those were vaccinations. They just didn't involve syringes.
Load More Replies...Well I don't wish to wish any small box or any other child hood disease we have whipped out because of our vaccination, but you idiots who would rather bring them back ,than to not vaccinate, I wish your child be the first to contract this deadly disease and any others because you are fools.
Well, I believe in them with all of my heart! I had everyone of my children vaccinated and they are normal adults. However, I had a gay, unmarried, childless friend unfriend me over the dangers of vaccines! I wish I could sent this to her, the know it all!!
The real problem with anti-vaxxers is not that they are misinformed or ignorant, but that the outcome of that deficit is the suffering and possible death of innocent children, theirs and other people's. Vaccines were developed against diseases because those diseases can be fatal.
When someone of such high intelligence KNEW vaccination worked and saved lives way back in the 1700's, why do stupid people just refuse to vaccinate 200+years later. Have said this before but - who do the anti-vaxxers blame when their unvaccinated child is diagnosed with Autism?? It's like - "my child was incredibly intelligent when it was born, but now age 6 they have Autism. The only thing we did was vaccinate, so we will blame the innoculations against killer diseases for it". Autism has obviously been around for as long as humans have (pre-vaccinations) - only recently recognised.
Interestingly, the first ever recorded case of Autism was probably made in 1800 - by reading symptoms recorded by doctors then (and since) the similarities to those recorded now can be easily seen. Dr Andrew Wakefield's fictional research and report plus autism symptoms tending to appear at the time the vaccination is administered does explain why people would make that connection. What is NOT understandable to me is the failure to believe all of the very well researched evidence produced since that debunks all of that.
Load More Replies...No, I'm sorry Diane but I completely disagree. Other factors or disabilities were probably responsible. I have known autistic people who were not slow. So, just doing a very small amount of research I found the following: In 2014, a U.S. study found that almost half of the children with ASD had average or above average intelligence.. Less than a third of the children with autism had intellectual disability, and 23% had IQ scores in the "borderline range". I think many people with Autism would, justifiably, find this offensive.
Load More Replies...I think anti-vaxxers should be dropped in a deep pit and left there. Fed up with them.
noooooo... just regroup on a nice island. So when an epidemic come...
Load More Replies...We may have eradicated small-pox, but moving forward people need to continue taking vaccines seriously. I just finished an essay on the WHO. Campaigns to manage the measles virus have failed two years in a row! (The WHO still did a lot, but never fulfilled their final target numbers) Do people seriously want to let a horrible disease that could be eradicated continue raging? Listen to Franklin guys.
Measles is the leading cause of death in children in the Third World - and people travel. All it takes is one person getting off one plane in a major city and thousands of people are at risk of dying.
Load More Replies...When on of the founding fathers of your nation tell you that you're wrong, you know you're wrong. Vaccinate guys! Flu season is coming up.
[Invasion of the Body Snatchers voice] It's heeere already!
Load More Replies...As I have stated before you have: 1) people who think the earth is flat 2) AIDS was created in a laboratory 3) The oil companies are suppressing free energy, a car that runs on water and perpetual motion 4) The moon landed was a hoax 5) Doctors suppress a cure for cancer 6) 9/11 was an inside job. 7) Global warming is a myth 8) GMO's are dangerous 9) vaccinating your child will kill them.....and (drumroll please) the grand daddy of them all the 10) The young earth creationists! All of it is an attack on science which is the one light in the darkness for discovering existing truths.
About the comment asking if those people don't vaccinate their pets either, sadly yes there are people who don't want their pets get vaccinated :( BTW: Not really relevant but "Franklin’s son Franky" I stopped reading and for a few moments seriously thought the poor kid was named Franky Franklin.
Franklin's wife opposed vaccinating, which is likely the reason it wasn't done to their son. After the death of his son, Franklin spent most of the rest of his life representing the U.S. overseas. Despite repeated admissions of his affections and promises to return at the earliest convenience, his wife died while he was away. He likely held her as responsible as himself for Franky's death.
To be fair - they didn't have the smallpox vaccination in the 1730s. They instead inoculated a child with material from a smallpox pustule to purposely get the child sick with a less severe form of smallpox. This allowed the body to produce a natural immunity. I can understand why a parent wouldn't have wanted to purposely get a child sick with a lesser form of smallpox.
Load More Replies...The thing is that autism and adhd did not have names 200 years ago. They existed, but kids were just categorized and naughty, or just bad kids, or stupid whatever their thought was. Now that these special kids are born with this "special" diseases, it MUST be caused by something. ????? no.
Anti-vaxxers of course! They are a danger to their children and society. Vegans do not pose a threat to anyone. (I'm not a vegan btw!)
Load More Replies...I've been vaccinated against many diseases, and I'm not autistic, or dead. The only downside to a vaccination is getting a piece of metal jabbed into your body for a few seconds.
I had to look up how Ben Franklin advocated for the smallpox vaccine in 1788 when it hadn't been invented until 1796. Initially I thought inoculation was an 18th century term for vaccination, but reading more up on it, the inoculation was when they introduced material from a smallpox pustule into the skin to produce a less severe form of the smallpox. The body then made a natural immunity to it. Information for anyone else who didn't understand.
Yes dear. Those were vaccinations. They just didn't involve syringes.
Load More Replies...Well I don't wish to wish any small box or any other child hood disease we have whipped out because of our vaccination, but you idiots who would rather bring them back ,than to not vaccinate, I wish your child be the first to contract this deadly disease and any others because you are fools.
Well, I believe in them with all of my heart! I had everyone of my children vaccinated and they are normal adults. However, I had a gay, unmarried, childless friend unfriend me over the dangers of vaccines! I wish I could sent this to her, the know it all!!
The real problem with anti-vaxxers is not that they are misinformed or ignorant, but that the outcome of that deficit is the suffering and possible death of innocent children, theirs and other people's. Vaccines were developed against diseases because those diseases can be fatal.
When someone of such high intelligence KNEW vaccination worked and saved lives way back in the 1700's, why do stupid people just refuse to vaccinate 200+years later. Have said this before but - who do the anti-vaxxers blame when their unvaccinated child is diagnosed with Autism?? It's like - "my child was incredibly intelligent when it was born, but now age 6 they have Autism. The only thing we did was vaccinate, so we will blame the innoculations against killer diseases for it". Autism has obviously been around for as long as humans have (pre-vaccinations) - only recently recognised.
Interestingly, the first ever recorded case of Autism was probably made in 1800 - by reading symptoms recorded by doctors then (and since) the similarities to those recorded now can be easily seen. Dr Andrew Wakefield's fictional research and report plus autism symptoms tending to appear at the time the vaccination is administered does explain why people would make that connection. What is NOT understandable to me is the failure to believe all of the very well researched evidence produced since that debunks all of that.
Load More Replies...No, I'm sorry Diane but I completely disagree. Other factors or disabilities were probably responsible. I have known autistic people who were not slow. So, just doing a very small amount of research I found the following: In 2014, a U.S. study found that almost half of the children with ASD had average or above average intelligence.. Less than a third of the children with autism had intellectual disability, and 23% had IQ scores in the "borderline range". I think many people with Autism would, justifiably, find this offensive.
Load More Replies...
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