From a doomed church, a 136-year-old story of vaccine mandates and resistance
CBC
A 136-year-old piece of newsprint discovered under unusual circumstances highlights public health challenges that have been renewed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The clipping details a push to get Montreal school children vaccinated against smallpox at a time when vaccine mandates were sparking violent riots, despite the disease killing thousands in Quebec.
The page from the now-defunct Montreal Herald is believed to have been printed in August 1885. It was found while crews were demolishing the St. Clement's Catholic Church in the southwestern New Brunswick village of McAdam last December, said Dave Essensa, who worked as project manager on the demolition.
The single sheet of newsprint was discoloured with age and burnt around the edges when it was found on the wet, slushy ground.
It might have been overlooked entirely if Dale Nason, the worker who found it, hadn't read the timely headline: "Vaccination for school children."
"The word 'vaccination' caught his eye," said Essensa, speaking to CBC's Harry Forestell.
"And he brought it over to a construction trailer that we had set up here on the site and more or less looked at me and he said, 'What do you think of that?'"
Essensa said he brought the piece of newsprint home that night to give it a closer look.
The publication date had been lost, and the weathered text of the story was hard to read.
However, by drawing on a few key details, Essensa said he determined the story must have been about the push to vaccinate school children against smallpox during Montreal's devastating outbreak in 1885.
"The article speaks of a doctor [Louis] Laberge as being the chief medical health officer for the City of Montreal," said Essensa.
"A bit of internet searching and referencing some articles … that spoke to a smallpox epidemic in the province of Quebec in 1885."
The smallpox outbreak of 1885 killed 3,259 people in Montreal alone and 5,964 across Quebec.
During the outbreak, violent riots broke out in the streets of Montreal by groups opposed to the city's vaccination campaign, according to Jonathan M. Berman's When antivaccine sentiment turned violent: the Montréal Vaccine Riot of 1885, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.