Today in Labor History February 20, 1905: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Massachusetts's mandatory smallpox vaccination program in Jacobson v. Massachusetts. There were lots of problems early on with the vaccine. For one, they reused needles, causing the transfer of syphilis from infected to uninfected people. They also had problems with bacterial contamination of the vaccine that made some people sick. On the other hand, because of global mandatory vaccination programs, the disease was eradicated in 1977, the only human disease to be completely wiped out. By the mid-1950s, over 2 million people were dying worldwide annually.
With respect to personal freedom, the Court ruled in Jacobson that individual liberty is not absolute and is subject to the state’s use of police power. Consequently, Jacobson has been invoked in other Supreme Court cases to justify police power. The ruling led to a mobilization of the anti-vaccination movement and the creation of the Anti-Vaccination League of America. The Jacobson ruling was later invoked to support forced sterilization of those with intellectual disabilities (Buck v Bell, 1927); the federal partial abortion ban (Gonzales v Carhart, 2007); drug testing of students (Veronica School District v Acton, 1995); and, most recently, COVID mitigation mandates, like face masks and stay-at-home orders.
Feels slightly 'off' that #DougFord, who put so much effort into hiding his mandate letters, hasn't let out a peep since @globalnews "leaked" them.
Shouldn't he "be like an 800 lb gorilla" on their backs?"
Apparently, there is more to come over the next few days,
So far, the overarching mandate instructions appear generic.
The individual ministry mandates have yet to be released.
The billion dollar question : why did #DougFord waste millions of dollars fighting in court to keep the ministry mandates hidden.
For the "masks don't work" crowd:
"Our results support universal masking as an important strategy for reducing #Covid19 incidence in schools and loss of in-person school days." #WearAMask
@augieray
My #AntiMask relative got on another kick now that #N95#masks are recommended for #wildfire#smoke. While trying to demonstrate how evil #COVID mask #mandates are, he accidentally showed me a video explaining what I've told him all along: #ClothMasks are effective at reducing COVID #transmission because the COVID #virus requires the protection of a saliva droplet to be effectively transmitted. Cloth masks catch most of these droplets. That left him speechless.