Status: 02/10/2021 2 p.m.
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1947: Smallpox spreads in New York. To combat them, the metropolis is launching one of the largest vaccination campaigns to date. A success that cannot be easily repeated against the corona pandemic.
From Peter Mücke,
ARD-Studio New York
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The life-threatening illness arrives in New York by bus. In March 1947, a US businessman made a stopover in the city on his way from Mexico City to Maine. He feels uncomfortable, but still does sightseeing – and then collapses.
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Ten days later he dies in a New York hospital. It takes until the beginning of April until it is clear that the man died of smallpox.
Up to 400 million dead in the 20th century
The then New York Health Commissioner, Israel Weinstein, did not hesitate long. There have since been more cases in the city. Weinstein decided to vaccinate the entire population of New York City, reports Charles DiMaggio, professor of population health at New York University.
Smallpox is one of the most serious infectious diseases for humans. Two out of ten cases are fatal, the others threaten blindness, paralysis and brain damage. Up to 400 million people died of smallpox in the 20th century.
One of the largest vaccination campaigns in history
By 1947, most New Yorkers were actually vaccinated against the disease. But the outbreak shows: That is not enough.
And so begins one of the biggest vaccination campaigns of all time, organized mainly through calls on the radio. “The only thing you can do to protect people from the ravages of the disease is to vaccinate them,” Weinstein said to New Yorkers.
Vaccine doses from all over the United States are brought to New York. Pharmaceutical companies are ramping up their production. Children are vaccinated right away at school, and vaccination centers are improvised for adults all over town, even in all police stations.
All New Yorkers have the option to get vaccinated. Free. Even US President Harry S. Truman rolls up his shirt sleeves in a publicly effective way when visiting New York. “Be Sure. Be Safe. Get Vaccinated”, it says on posters all over the city: “Be safe. Be safe. Get vaccinated.”
And people follow the call. 6.35 million people can be vaccinated in less than a month. At the beginning of May Weinstein announced: The danger is over.
“We were good at vaccinating people back then”
The 1947 New York vaccination campaign was the last major smallpox campaign of its kind in the United States. How successful it was also shows that afterwards there was never again the need for such a large vaccination program, says health scientist DiMaggio. Not only he is impressed by the determination of those responsible at the time and the impact of the action:
We were good at vaccinating people back then. We had the skills to organize such health campaigns. And people were open to such programs. All of this is different in the USA today: Health has been privatized more and more.
According to DiMaggio, there are also shortcomings in public health care: In some places only a handful of people are in the health authorities.
Privatization of the health system is now taking its toll
And that’s exactly what is taking its toll now. For the corona vaccinations, the cities and municipalities in the USA are dependent on private clinic operators and drugstore chains, who are repeatedly overwhelmed with logistics.
In addition, there is widespread distrust among the population. Depending on the survey, up to 40 percent of Americans say they do not want to be vaccinated. The main problem, however, is the erosion of the public health system, says DiMaggio:
It was almost like a war: in 1947 we had a whole army of people who could march off immediately. Today we have to rebuild this army – as best as we can in the fight against Corona.
Lessons from the past? How New York vaccinated 6 million people against smallpox
Peter Mücke, ARD New York, February 10, 2021 12:38 p.m.
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