Analysis of Employees of the Austrian Railway Company during the Smallpox Outbreak of 1873
1 media/Screen Shot 2020-02-27 at 5.11.25 PM_thumb.png 2020-02-27T22:13:23+00:00 Mary Mahoney ca438d2b6629f18e0407b5b2f43783336d4dc10a 1 3 Dr. Leander Joseph Keller plain 2020-02-27T22:15:01+00:00 Mary Mahoney ca438d2b6629f18e0407b5b2f43783336d4dc10aThis page is referenced by:
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Information is not objective – Can we be inoculated against bad arguments?
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Those both in favor of vaccination and against it attempted to convince the public of their beliefs using comparable methods; statistics, appeals to emotion (personal anecdotes, etc.), and weighted and falsified evidence. These tactics demonstrate the ways both sides used disinformation to make its case in the court of public opinion.
Statistics
Those opposed to vaccination wanted to demonstrate that it could not prevent smallpox-related deaths. One physician, Dr. Leander Joseph Keller, published a 1873 study of workers on the Austrian State Railway in which he used falsified statistics to suggest that those who had been vaccinated died of smallpox at higher rates. (Williams 241-242)
Appeals to Emotion
In 1906, anti-vaccine activist Lora Little published case histories of children reputed to have died from vaccination. Entitled Crimes of the Cowpox Ring: Some Moving Pictures Thrown on the Dead Wall of Official Silence, it used appeals to emotion and mostly anecdotal evidence, including the story of her own son’s death, to convince the public of the danger of vaccination. Appeals to emotion remain prevalent in public appeals by opponents to vaccination (Willrich 267).
Falsified Evidence
As historian Gareth Williams notes in Angel of Death: The Story of Smallpox, the British began a vaccination campaign in India in 1802. In order to gain acceptance of vaccination, the British had to overcome Brahmin veneration of cows that would prohibit their use of cow products, even for medical purposes. To do so, they produced a Sanskrit manuscript showing Brahmin knowledge and acceptance of vaccination using fluid from cowpox blisters. However, this manuscript was a total fake. The document was forged by an expert in Sanskrit literature named Mr. Ellis, who created the fake in a hotel room in Madras using artificially aged paper. (Williams 211-212)
