In October of 1898, physicians in Laredo, Texas began treating what they thought to be an outbreak of chicken pox. With the death of a child they realized that the disease was smallpox. Three months later more than 100 cases of smallpox were recorded in Laredo.
The State Health Officer recommended house-to-house vaccination, fumigation or destruction of personal effects and establishment of a quarantine house.
A poorer section of town was targeted, but the residents began resisting the vaccination and fumigation efforts. At last a detachment of Texas Rangers arrived in Laredo to ensure that regulations were followed. Not a good choice, as it turned out. Latin Americans on the Border hated Texas Rangers, who broke down doors and forced vaccinations, fumigations, and removal of persons to the quarantine house. One police officer was hit by a stone; another got a shotgun blast to his leg.
Ranger Captain Rogers too a squad in to the barrio in search of a cache of ammunition. At the house of one Agapito Herrera resistance came to a head. Herrera tried talking with Captain Rogers. Then a boy appeared in the doorway and shouted, “Ya.” Gunfire broke out. Herrera wounded Rogers in the shoulder. Other Rangers immediately shot Herrera. One Ranger walked across to where Herrera lay and fired two bullets into his head. The gunfire erupted into a riot. The Rangers retreated to Market Square and called on a nearby US Cavalry Squad to help.
The epidemic raged for the next two months with many children dying, but then slowed. By May 1 the quarantine was lifted.
Texas suffered from other tropical diseases during that century. Yellow Fever along coastal areas, cases of dengue, and malaria declined by the 1930s. More recent diseases such as influenza, polio, and St. Louis Encephalitis took their places.
I’m indebted to the Handbook of Texas Online for bringing the smallpox epidemic to my attention.
Yes, that's the way to solve medical problems---with guns!
Who is this TV star, Paige? I'm not familiar with that story.
Posted by: Janice Pulliam | October 13, 2019 at 10:56 AM
I prefer to get my medical information through science, but I guess some like to use celebrities as their authorities.
Posted by: Lesley A. Diehl | October 07, 2019 at 01:23 PM
Amazing! And When you consider that at two different points in the middle ages, plague wiped out over half the population of Europe; and that smallpox was used as a biological weapon against Native Americans...and all it takes is a rabid poorly educated "TV star" to make false, unproven claims, and people are willing to risk their children's lives. We practice herd immunity, which protects those few who truly would be at risk of vaccination. Get your flu shots! Thanks, Dac for this wonderful platform!
Posted by: Paige Cummings | October 07, 2019 at 08:46 AM
Wow. That's the wild, wild west!
Even today, we have resistance to vaccination of children to protect against infectious diseases - based on a report that was never peer-reviewed and has been shown to be invalid.
Posted by: Stephen Baird | October 06, 2019 at 01:25 PM