COMMENT | Should we force Malaysians to take vaccines?

COMMENT | The first known anti-vaxxer was a pastor in the United States. Bearded, stern-looking, and dignified, Henning Jacobson’s portraits hang in the homes of anti-vaxxers today, far outstripping his reputation as a founder of an immigrant church of poor labourers.

Cambridge, Massachusetts was the epicentre of the deadliest disease known in history in the 17th century: smallpox. The city has made vaccination mandatory, and they went door to door to persuade people to vaccinate – not unlike what we have today.

When they reached Jacobson’s door, he refused vaccination and said that nobody could tell him what to put in his body.

Jacobson had reasons to fear. The vaccination mandate was implemented like a dark operation. The government would send a team of vaccinators – like SWOT teams – into small districts in the middle of the night, inspect their arms for vaccine scars; if there were none, the vaccinators would inject the needle into their arms.

People were afraid. They were “jumping out of windows and...