The first reading of the Declaration of Independence in Boston, July 18, 1776.
Tichnor Brothers Collection, Boston Public Library via Digital Commonwealth
In the summer of 1776, Boston offered smallpox inoculation to everyone and required those who declined to leave town or stay in their homes.
As a printer’s apprentice in 1721, Franklin had a front-row seat to the controversy around a new prevention technique.
ClassicStock/Archive Photos via Getty Images
When Bostonians in 1721 faced a deadly smallpox outbreak, a new procedure called inoculation was found to help fend off the disease. Not everyone was won over, and newspapers fed the controversy.
A 1975 stamp printed in St. Vincent shows U.S. presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who were all vocally pro-inoculation and vaccination.
(Shutterstock)
In the early years of the United States, several American presidents were in favour of public health inoculation and vaccination strategies.