How to End Vaccine Mandates—A History Lesson

ADELANTO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 23: A sign reads 'End All Mandates' as supporters and truckers gather before a ‘People’s Convoy’ departs for Washington, DC to protest COVID-19 mandates on February 23, 2022 in Adelanto, California. The protestors are calling for a full re-opening of the country and are scheduled to arrive in Washington, DC, on March 5. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Vaccine mandates are nothing new to our nation. Smallpox, which killed around 30 percent of those infected, provided us with valuable lessons in the 1700s, 1862 and again in 1885.

Story at-a-Glance

• If you’re wondering how we’ll ever put an end to these draconian COVID-19 mandates that are destroying lives and sanity across the world, take heart. History can serve us in this regard
• Over 135 years ago, in 1885, England became the host to a massive anti-vaccination movement that ultimately resulted in people overturning the government’s compulsory vaccination rule
• Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in opposition to compulsory smallpox vaccinations. Many were fined and jailed, but in the end, the government relented and abolished the mandate
• The trucker protest in Canada and elsewhere is almost identical to what happened during smallpox vaccination campaigns more than a century ago, when mass protests and peaceful disobedience broke the government’s tyrannical hold
• The Leicester Model was proven successful in the wake of that 1885 anti-vaccination protest and has been standard ever since. By quarantining infected patients and improving public hygiene, smallpox was finally eradicated

If you’re wondering how we’ll ever put an end to these draconian COVID-19 mandates that are destroying lives and sanity across the world, take heart. History can serve us in this regard. The parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic and its countermeasures that of previous smallpox pandemics are fascinating to behold, and therein we can also find the answer to our current predicament.