On February 5, 1777, George Washington issued an order for all troops to be inoculated against smallpox.  He feared that the deadly disease raging through his troops was a worse threat than the British.  In Washington's time, the only way to protect against smallpox was variolation, a procedure involving obtaining smallpox scabs from those sick with the disease, making a small cut into a healthy person's arm, and then inserting the scab into that cut.

Most variolated people would get a mild form of smallpox and become immune, although a certain percentage would get full-blown smallpox.  Smallpox is a dreadful disease, killing many of the people it infects and leaving the survivors disfigured for life.  Its 30% mortality rate justified Washington's drastic order.

COVID is another story.  It has a survival rate between 97% and 99.75%.  With that survival rate, there is no reasonable way to claim that it's serious enough to warrant the government mandating vaccination on the population.  Nevertheless, Joe Biden seems determined to do just that and to use the full power of his office to force unwilling Americans to submit to experimental mRNA gene therapy.

Americans are fighting back.  Florida governor Ron DeSantis opposes vaccine mandates and has flatly stated that Biden's attempts to mandate vaccination are unconstitutional.  California parents demonstrated statewide against vaccine mandates for schools.  Thousands of workers across the country are choosing job loss over vaccination.  Thousands of Kaiser Permanente employees have refused vaccination and been suspended.  Twenty-four states are threatening to sue the administration.  Southwest Airlines caved on its threat to put unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave.  Business groups met with White House officials to ask for a delay of the vaccine mandate.

Are all these people anti-vaxxers who want their fellow citizens to die of COVID?  Hardly.  Most people are not opposed to vaccination.  Vaccines are known to be safe and effective against many diseases.  In America and the West generally, vaccines have eradicated measles and polio, while smallpox has been entirely eradicated.

However, mRNA vaccines are a new technology.  There is no long-term data on possible side effects.  Some people may choose to take these vaccines.  Others are not willing to be experimented on or to have their children subjected to gene therapy experimentation.  Washington was willing to order inoculation against smallpox, and his troops submitted because smallpox is a shattering disease that kills large numbers of people.  For the vast majority, COVID is only the sniffles.  Experimental gene therapy should not be forced on people to avoid the sniffles.  It seems that more and more people are willing to fight for that cause.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of Future Slave, a story about a 21st century black teenager who goes back in time and finds himself a slave in the old south.

Image: Vaccine (cropped) by Artem Podrez.

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