Dödligt virus från Kina orsakar panik (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19)

COMPULSORY INOCULATION AGAINST SPANISH INFLUENZA BY FRANCIS TEMPLE GREY, SURGEON-LIEUTENANT. ROYAL NAVY; O.C. SAMOA RELIEF EXPEDITION, 1918.

My experience in the South Sea Islands so impressed me with the value of antipneumostreptococcal inoculation as a prophylactic against Spanish influenza that on my return in February, 1919, to Australia (where the scourge had already got a hold in Melbourne, but had so far been kept out of
Sydney) I urged the importance of making it compulsory. But outside the Service nothing happened. The following preliminary communication submitted early in March to a semi-scientific periodical was published six
weeks afterwards. " The vaccine prepared by the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories has in my hands achieved results which are nothing short of miraculous. As a result of my experience, I urge compulsory inoculation on the first signs of the appearance of epidemic influenza in any community as the one efficient means of tackling the scourge; inoculation to be repeated every month or six weeks. I claim that this measure will (1) decrease enormously the incidence of the disease; (2) mitigate its severity; (3) reduce the mortality to a low figure. The following evidence in support of my recommendation is, to say the least of it, impressive. (1) The entire ship’s company of the man-o’-war which took my expedition to the islands were inoculated. Com-munication with the shore at the various ports was, as far as possible, avoided, but this ideal was not entirely attained. Not one case developed. (2) Every member of my expedition was inoculated at least four times in three months. Not a single case developed, although the risk of infection was no small one, when it is remembered that in Samoa alone one-fifth of the entire population was wiped out by the scourge. Two officers had an illness of four to five days not as severe as the so-called influenza of normal times.

(3) An interesting experiment to test the efficacy of the vaccine was provided by the Governor of American Samoa,, I who sent, against the wishes of British Samoa, 40 natives from Pago Pago (a clean port) to Apia during the progress of the epidemic. These were isolated, inoculated, and not released until judged to be in a positive phase. Not one contracted the disease, and the Secretary of Native Affairs,who knew their names and villages, reported all clear after a lapse of one month.(4) Ship’s company and passengers of the steamer which brought the expedition from Suva to Sydney were inoculated without exception. We anchored in quarantine in Sydney, and on the second day a case was taken ashore. We remained on board, quarantined another week. Although the ship was very overcrowded not another case developed.(5) The naval depot at Williamst own contains a floating population of about 500, half of whom live on shore, and I the rest, of course, have a fair amount of shore leave. All hands have been inoculated twice in the last three months. There have been only 15 cases, all mild except two,and no deaths [endast en del av artikeln]

Compulsory Inoculation Against Spanish Influenza (The Lancet volume 194, issue 5011) (1919) - Francis Temple Grey