Is Long-standing Vaccine Case Law Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905) Obsolete?
Over a century ago (1905), when vaccines were still ‘new’, one independent ‘anti-vaxxer’ Pastor Henning Jacobson and his wife resisted mandatory vaccination against smallpox and mumps when made mandatory by Massachusetts. Pastor Jacobson refused vaccinations claiming “he and his son had had bad reactions to earlier vaccinations. Because of his refusal of the vaccination, Jacobson was fined $5 and appealed to the Supreme Court.” [1]
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the authority of the states to enforce compulsory vaccinations laws [1] and that case law has been the foundation of forced vaccination laws ever since, I offer.
The Court’s decision articulated the view that the freedom of the individual must sometimes be subordinated to the common welfare and is subject to the police power of the state. [1]
That common welfare apparently gave rise to what’s become the ‘herd immunity’ theory, now being reclassified as “community immunity,” “population immunity,” or “social immunity.” However, there seems to be a qualitative and technical difference arising legally insofar as vaccines originally were promoted and mandated against the spread of infectious diseases, e.g., smallpox and mumps in the 1905 case, but numerous vaccines since then have come into the marketplace to prevent non-infectious diseases.
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