To eradicate smallpox, Cruz convinced the Congress to approve the Mandatory Vaccination Law (October 31, 1904), which permitted sanitary brigade workers, accompanied by police, to enter homes to apply the vaccine by force.

The population was confused and discontented. The city seemed in ruins, many people had lost their homes, while others had had their homes invaded by the health workers and police. Articles in the press criticized the action of the government and spoke of possible risks of the vaccine.

The approval of the Vaccination Law was the proximate cause of the revolt: on November 5, the opposition created the Liga Contra a Vacina Obrigatória (League Against Mandatory Vaccination).

From November 10 through 16, the city became a battlefield. The excited population looted shops, overturned and burned trams, made barricades, pulled out tracks, broke poles, and attacked government forces with rocks, sticks, and debris. On November 14, the cadets of the Escola Militar da Praia Vermelha (military college) also mutinied against the government’s actions. In reaction, the government suspended mandatory vaccination and declared a state of siege. The rebellion was contained, leaving 30 dead and 110 wounded. Hundreds of imprisoned people were deported to the then frontier region of Acre.

After the government resumed control, the vaccination process was restarted.

Wikipedia Article on the Vaccine Revolts


Does this event from history read a bit close to home? How about this one?

The first signs of plague in Moscow appeared in late 1770, which would turn into a major epidemic in the spring of 1771. The measures undertaken by the authorities, such as creation of forced quarantines, destruction of contaminated property without compensation or control, closing of public baths, etc., caused fear and anger among the citizens. The city's economy was mostly paralyzed because many factories, markets, stores, and administrative buildings had been closed down. All of this was followed by acute food shortages, causing deterioration of living conditions for the majority of the Muscovites. Dvoryane (Russian nobility) and well-off city dwellers left Moscow due to the plague outbreak.

An attempt by the Archbishop Ambrosius of Moscow to prevent the citizens from gathering at the Icon of the Virgin Mary of Bogolyubovo (Икона Боголюбской Богоматери) in Kitai-gorod as a quarantine measure served as an immediate cause for the Plague Riot. On September 15, huge crowds of Muscovites began to flow towards the Red Square at the sound of the alarm bell. Pushing aside a military unit, they burst into the Kremlin and destroyed the Chudov Monastery (archbishop's residence) and its wine cellars. Archbishop Ambrosius managed to escape to the Donskoy Monastery.

On September 16, the riot gained in strength. Angry citizens captured the Donskoy Monastery, killed Archbishop Ambrosius, and destroyed two quarantine zones (Danilov Monastery and the one beyond the Serpukhov Gates). In the afternoon, most of the rebels approached the Kremlin and were met by a number of military units.

On the morning of September 17, around 1000 people gathered at the Spasskiye gates again, demanding the release of captured rebels and elimination of quarantines. The army managed to disperse the crowd yet again and finally suppressed the riot. Some 300 people were brought to trial. A government commission headed by Grigory Orlov was sent to Moscow on September 26 to restore order. It took some measures against the plague and provided citizens with work and food, which would finally pacify the people of Moscow.

Wikipedia Article on the Plague Riots

The inoculation riots in Marblehead in January and February 1774 undercut the position of politicians and revealed the influence of resistance movement on the forms of disturbance. Even more so than the Norfolk inoculation riots, the riots threatened authority. The propietors of the smallpox hospital in this New England merchantile community were wealthy leaders of the whig cause. Although the crowd never went further than destroying the windows of the propietors homes, it used threats and coercion, like that applied against stamp agents and loyalists, to wrangle agreement from the hospital owners to shut down. The riots lasted for several days and included practices of rioters concealing their identity and destroying the property of their former leaders until they were forced at last to discontinue their operations.

-Rioting in America by Paul A. Gilje


So, the point of this post is to display to you a historical resistance to the practice of mandatory vaccination policies. Mankind is not a stupid creature, and when his government tries to take control over the composition of his body, some resistance is inevitable. Historically, such riots are short lived, and ultimately, vaccination and inoculation, the contamination of human bloodstreams, is a practice which remains in vogue to this day - despite a continuing historical opposition to it. Take these examples as food for thought as we head into the eye of this storm, the Hone None Virus, keeping in mind that there's nothing new under the sun.

**Post note! "In 1764 Catherine wrote to Voltaire: I have been inoculated, my son and Orloff too, as well as many other courtiers. And it has been introduced into our schools and hospitals." With the declaration of the pandemic in Moscow, in addition to mass quarantines, mass inoculations were common practice, which of course, at the time consisted of deliberate infection of the population with the smallpox virus itself. ***ENDNOTE

[edit on 30-10-2009 by illusionincarnate]

[edit on 30-10-2009 by illusionincarnate]