An Illustrated History of Vaccines in Schools

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, History of Science,  Nature of Science, Medicine, Health

Ed Hessler 

NPR's Goats and Soda gives us a comic written by Anya Kamenetz and art/illustrations by LA Johnson on a historical timeline of vaccines in schools. "The first time kids had to get a vaccine to go to school was more than 200 years ago" and I bet you know the disease. Smallpx. "The reason for vaccination" requirements are straightforward. "High rates of vaccination dramatically cut deaths and have all but eliminated some diseases."

However, there have "anti-vaccinations" and in this country there have always been  with "the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the constituionality of school mandates nearly a century ago, and that has pretty much been upheld to this day." At the same time "there's also a strong tradition of granting exemptions to vaccine requirements based on religious and philosophical beliefs" times of "lax enforcement and an unwillingness to punish students by keeping them out of school."

The comic provides a great history.