Here’s What A Depression-Era Cartoonist Had To Say About The Anti-Vaccination Movement

Need proof that the anti-vaccination movement is hardly a new phenomenon? Behold:

(Photo: Imgur)

The comic above was posted to Reddit today with the caption, “History repeats itself. Anti-vac comic from the 1940s.” According to an older post on Super I.T.C.H, a blog devoted to comic history, the illustration comes from a 1930 cartoon booklet titled “Health in Pictures.”

A commenter on the same thread pointed to another cartoon by satirist James Gillray, this one dating back to the early 19th century. In it, British citizens receiving a cowpox inoculation in 1802 can be seen panicking about the vaccine’s rumored effects (allegedly reported by opponents of the vaccination), namely that individuals were developing bovine features.

(Photo: Wiki)

Yes, vaccination hysteria is at least two centuries old.

Now, compare these to the types of cartoons popping up in The New Yorker just this week.

Happy 2015.