BARBARIC SCENE ACCURATE ["John Adams" miniseries]

Fredericksburg.com ^ | 3-19-08 | JIM HALL

[Pharmboy]

HBO miniseries on "John Adams" demonstrates early form of vaccination for smallpox

For many who watched Sunday night's airing of "John Adams," the new HBO series, one scene seemed almost barbaric:

A doctor makes incisions with a lancet in the arms of Abigail Adams and her children and places smallpox material directly into the wounds.

Abigail Adams believed that you could protect healthy people by injecting them with a deadly disease. Wouldn't that be just as dangerous as hanging around with the infected soldiers shown in the movie?

No, Abigail knew what she was doing when she insisted that her family be inoculated. One of the children developed a severe case of smallpox, but Abigail and the other children developed mild cases. All survived the treatment and the epidemic.

The technique in the miniseries was known as variolation, an early form of vaccination. It was based on the same principle: Introduce a sample or weakened form of a virus into the body and you can fool the immune system into action.

The body produces antibodies to attack the invader.

"Those antibodies are protective," said Dr. Paul A. Fiore, a Fredericksburg infectious disease expert.

The antibodies not only battle the virus but also hang around afterwards to protect against future attacks.

Adams could have known about variolation. The technique was at least a hundred years old by the time of the Revolutionary War.

Lady Mary Wortley Montague, the wife of a British ambassador, is said to have brought the treatment back to England in the early 1700s after seeing it in what is now Turkey.

Twenty years after the Revolution, Edward Jenner, an English country doctor, noticed that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox, a mild form of smallpox, did not get smallpox. He guessed correctly that they had developed an immunity.

Jenner tested his theory by injecting a young boy in the village with cowpox, and then later with smallpox. The boy did not get sick.

Smallpox killed countless people in Adams' time. As late as the 20th century, it was responsible for 300 million deaths.

Today, thanks to a worldwide vaccination program, smallpox is gone. The last recorded case was in Somalia in 1977. The World Health Organization declared it eradicated in 1980.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	I had a cowpox reaction to a childhood vaccine. But anyway, thanks Pharmboy. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[RushLake]

When I was in elementary school in the mid-50s they were always lining us up for some type of vaccination. Polio, measles, smallpox. I recall getting some type of form of variolation for one of the diseases in much the same manner as described in this article. Might have been smallpox. Most of us got a mild form of the "infection", a scab at the "wound" site that we were cautioned to let naturally fall off. "Today, thanks to a worldwide vaccination program, smallpox is gone. The last recorded case was in Somalia in 1977." Just about had malaria whipped too until Raunchel Carson published her anti-humankind screed about 30 years ago.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I thought that Mather and Dr. Zabdiel Boylston were proponents of inoculation; opponents of it, including James Franklin, Ben’s brother, pretty much tried to run the two of them out of town, because they considered inoculation poisoning.

[mollynme]

I received one of those, too. I still have a small round scar on my left upper arm though it has stretched out some over the years.

[thesearethetimes...]

“When I saw the title I thought it was the scene I have read about of some bureaucratic getting tar and feathered.”

Add me to that list. That scene totally changed my erroneous conception of what it meant to be “tarred and feathered”... I had not realized that it was in fact, a fatal punishment :|

tatt

[thesearethetimes...]

I do so love FreeRepublic. I learn so many interesting things, and then go on to learn even more if I decide to do a little more digging ; }

Thank you :)

tatt

[purpleraine]

There was a book about small pox in America about three years ago. The author said that the inoculations may have been the most strategic decision Washington made. The Brits had introduced the pox in blankets to Indians and were believed to be condsidering it for the “traitor.”

[EveningStar]

When I was a kid, a friend of mine had chicken pox. His face was covered with red spots. From the neck down he was covered with feathers.

[dhot]

groann

[Fledermaus]

Sunny and in the sixties...storms passed us by.

[The_Reader_David]

You are correct. Mather was in favor of the earlier practice of innoculation with smallpox.

[eeevil conservative]

how many parts are ther to this miniseries?

[Pharmboy]

Seven

[Trajan88]

This scene in the mini-series was brutal... I assume the "source" of the Pox (person lying in the cart) was on his death bed?

[drcatwoman]

I googled tar and feathering after watching that scene, and apparently it wasn’t always fatal. Even the guy who go tarred and feathered at the Boston Tea Party - John Malcolm - survived. Hard to believe though. It certainly looked like it would kill someone.

[rednesss]

"Add me to that list. That scene totally changed my erroneous conception of what it meant to be “tarred and feathered”... I had not realized that it was in fact, a fatal punishment :|"

Good, perhaps it served as a warning not to become an authoritarian prick. A good many of our current politicians could use the treatment.

[Deathtomarxists]

Knewa missionary who was tarred in india. He survived but had a long recovery. Just started watching john adams miniseries on hbo. Everyone on freerepublic should make it their june 2014 viewing special so we will be primed for independence day.

[GeronL]

Defunding HBO would be a great tribute to mankind