Vaccination Act

Vaccination Act

The UK Vaccination Acts of 1840, 1853 and 1898 reflect the continuing argument over vaccination policy in the United Kingdom. Similar legislation was passed in the USA and other countries.

Alfred Russel Wallace gave an account of smallpox and vaccination in 1895 in which he characterized the historical policies into encouragement, compulsion, and penal compulsion. Wallace's views have commonly been considered anti-vaccinationist, however this attribution may not be wholly accurate. Charles H Smith from Western Kentucky University claims that it "is important to note, however, that he never believed--as has been commonly reported--vaccination to have been wholly hurtful historically. Rather, his argument was that whatever the level of success it may have had in stemming the tide of smallpox in the first half of the nineteenth century, by the latter part of that century unsanitary vaccine production and administration techniques, wholesale vaccination efforts, and a general improvement in societal sanitation and hygiene were making its mandatory application no longer advisable." Wallace made an argument similar to the one which toward the end of the 20th century been made for polio vaccination, first in the United States and later in the UK, that as the prevalence of the disease changes, the approach to immunization must change.