About 25 per cent of the Saskatchewan population refuses to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The anti-vaccine movement is as old as vaccines themselves. Vaccine reluctance is often associated with religious beliefs.
My old friend, historian Patrick Folks of Lion’s Head, Ont., sent me a wonderful article that confirms the repetitive nature of history.
In the early 19th century an effort was made to vaccinate people in Upper Canada (Ontario) against smallpox. The Oct. 13, 1841 issue of the Christian Guardian, a Wesleyan Methodist weekly newspaper, published in Toronto, carried this story about vaccinations.
“Methodism Contagious"
“A lady belonging to the Church of England lately refused to have her child inoculated with vaccine virus taken from a Methodist child. She said she would not allow her children to be made (into) Methodists.”
