What did the Founding Fathers think about vaccines?
While some folks like to claim that the Founding Fathers would have been against vaccines, most experts think that claim is nonsense.
What we know is that the seven key Founding Fathers, which include:
- John Adams – was innoculated against smallpox (before Jenner‘s vaccine was available), as were his wife and children
- Benjamin Franklin – was vaccinated and regretted not vaccinating his own son, who died of smallpox
- Alexander Hamilton – supported George Washington’s plan to inoculate the Continental Army against smallpox
- John Jay – having a brother and sister that were both blinded by natural smallpox infections, you would expect that he would be in favor of vaccinations and he did indeed inoculate his own children Maria, Nancy and Sally Jay against smallpox
- Thomas Jefferson – conducted his own smallpox vaccine trials
- James Madison – signed the Vaccine Act of 1813 – An Act to encourage Vaccination.
- George Washington – had smallpox and later mandated that every soldier in the Continental Army had to be inoculated against smallpox
Without speculating on what they would have thought of today’s immunization schedules and anti-vaccine movements, it is safe to say that they supported the use of the vaccines that were available to them at the time to protect themselves and their families.