Michael Willrich News Today

Variety of titles feeds our freedom to read as fall books start hitting the shelves.

Variety of titles feeds our freedom to read as fall books start hitting the shelves.

Of note this fall: deep dives into storied American lineages, reckonings with racist forebears, reconsiderations of the Roman empire, and biographies of both prominent and obscure African Americans of the 19th century.

If there is any comfort in this gloomy news, it’s that we have faced ugly diseases before.

Anti-vaxxers are furious at the thought of a COVID-19 vaccine passport but haven't realised that they've been in use since 1899.

POLICY Massachusetts broke ground on mandatory vaccination in 1905. History may repeat itself with COVID-19. by Stephen Ornes One spring morning in 1902, E. Edwin Spencer, the city physician of Cambridge, Massachusetts, visited the home of Henning Jacobson, a local Lutheran preacher. Spencer had the vaccination for smallpox. Jacobson refused it for both himself and his family. The standoff between the two men would lead to what historian Michae...

California encourages venues to require vaccine passports - just dont call them that Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times April 19, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail A series of photos showing a mobile application with a QR code showing a health passport for covid-19LEREXIS/Getty Images LOS ANGELES – California health officials have repeatedly said they have no plans to institute COVID-19 vaccine "passports" — digital or paper passes that allow vaccinated residents or those whove tested negative into co...

Print California health officials have repeatedly said they have no plans to institute COVID-19 vaccine “passports” — digital or paper passes that allow vaccinated residents or those who’ve tested negative into concerts, baseball games and other sports arenas. But this month, the state announced reopening rules for indoor live events that give businesses an incentive to demand such proof from ticket holders. Businesses can hold larger events when they verify either of the safeguards. �...

Smallpox ‘virus squads’ and the mandatory vaccinations upheld by the Supreme Court Gillian Brockell © National Library of Medicine/National Library of Medicine This illustration depicts a compulsory vaccination drive in New Jersey, circa 1880s. E. Edwin Spencer had no way of knowing he would be making history that day when he knocked on Henning Jacobson’s door in Cambridge, Mass. All he knew was that smallpox was spreading in their city at the dawn of the 20th century...

In the 1800s, they helped lay the groundwork for the anti-vaccine movement.