Vaccination: 5 Things You Didn't Know
4- Vaccination laws created the "conscientious objector"Would-be soldiers have been claiming “conscientious objector” status for decades as a means of avoiding fighting in a conflict in which they do not believe, but few of them were aware of the fact that the legal concept of a "conscientious objector" is a product of the anti-vaccine movement.
After years of riots and fierce opposition to government-mandated vaccinations, the British Vaccination Act of 1898 was passed. This act bowed to pressure by the anti-vaccine movement by removing the criminal penalties associated with not having one's children vaccinated, provided parents got a certificate of exemption that claimed they objected to vaccines as a matter of conscience. Thus was born the legal concept of a conscientious objector.
5- One scientist developed most of the vaccines in use todayThe last thing you didn't know about vaccination is that one man is responsible for most of them, and there's a great chance you've never heard of him.
American microbiologist Maurice Hilleman, whose name is virtually unknown to most of the public, is responsible for having developed about three dozen vaccines during his amazing career, including eight of the 10 currently mandated vaccines. On his death in 2005, outlets including the Washington Post didn't hesitate to credit Hilleman with having "saved more lives than any scientist in the past century.”