Alfred Russel Wallace and his defense of the anti-vaccination movement

Alfred Russel Wallace, who must be considered a co-author, along with Charles Darwin, on the theory of evolution by natural selectionhe was a great naturalist and biological theorist. In addition, Wallace was concerned about the serious problems of social inequality in the Victorian era in which he lived, and was vital to the socio-economic system of the United Kingdom in the 19th century. On the side of his biography, he was a researcher of spiritual philosophy (spirituality was of interest to science at that time) and, little discussed, he supported the anti-vaccination movement of his time. from a rational and scientific standpoint.

The social murder

To better understand your situation, it is useful to compare some of your concerns with your worries Federico Engels. It is unlikely that Engels and Wallace knew each other personally, but they agreed on some ideas from different perspectives.

Engels, in his work The position of the working class in England of 1845 (original in German, translated into English in 1885), records the poverty and high mortality of Manchester’s industrial workers. Something that was already pointed out by other authors such as Robert Southey in the Letters from England (1807). From Engels analysis came the concept social suicide (social murder), who described the living conditions that led to premature death. Social genocide has only recently been introduced into the academic conceptual framework of the social sciences.

Alfred Russel Wallace shared with Engels a concern about social inequality and the unhealthy living conditions of the English lower classes, something he knew intimately due to his humble origins. In addition, smallpox spread among these social classes.

Vaccination in poverty

The debate over mandatory smallpox vaccination It emerged in the context of lack of hygiene, malnutrition and misery that affected a significant part of the population.

in his book The Amazing Age (1899)Wallace spends 112 pages exploring the history of smallpox and vaccination; a review of the validity of mortality statistics in England and other countries, and an analysis of special cases such as the results of vaccination in the army. Wallace insists on something essential in the scientific field: that data will not be accepted without verification.

But there was a problem: it was still not possible to classify the two endpoints used by Wallace, death without vaccination and treatment or prevention with it, and to include intermediate cases in the statistics.

One of the biggest problems in the debate was the interpretation of the time series of the evolution of the disease. Depending on how the data was organized (by days, weeks, months, etc.), conclusions about the effectiveness of the vaccine could change, leading to challenging interpretations.

Smallpox was a highly contagious disease which killed at least 30% of those contracted. After widespread vaccination over a period of more than a century, The WHO declared it eliminated in 1980.

The statistical difference

We had to wait until the beginning of the 20th century, when they were introduced chi-square test by Karl Pearsonto be able to assess significantly whether there was a statistical difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated in acquiring immunity or mortality from smallpox.

This progress, together with greater rigor in data collection, made it possible to demonstrate the effectiveness of the vaccine against its potential adverse effects, thus discrediting arguments based on individual experiences. (such as the popular “I know someone who…”).

In a time of extreme social inequality, with dubious medical practices such as prescribing tobacco sniffing for lung diseases (which Wallace personally experienced) and unhealthy living conditions in many cities, data was difficult get clean enough to isolate the effectiveness of the vaccine. from effects associated with other diseases.

Searching for scientific proofs

Alfred Russel Wallace was a multifaceted figure of scientific spirit. If there were times when he made a mistake, it was largely due to the lack of hard data or sufficient evidence available at his time. However, in the areas where he had more solid knowledge, he was very successful.

Wallace’s involvement in the anti-vaccination movement was always motivated by his search for scientific certainty based on data and rigorous analysis, within the context of the social injustices of the time. his

Covid-19 vaccine data

The recent Covid-19 epidemic has shown that anti-vaccinationists continue to use arguments from the Victorian era, the times of Wallace, when the evidence was still fragmentary and difficult to assess.

Today, after almost four years of use of the vaccine, it is now possible to access confirmed data. Covid-19 vaccines reduce risk of infection by more than 50% and hospitalization by more than 90%. Unvaccinated adults are 97 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than vaccinated adults. The current scientific evidence is so overwhelming that about 80% of the world’s population accepts vaccines bona fide.

The group of deniers, followers of conspiracy theories or skeptics as a group is left. Your position is taken at your own and your children’s risk.

Alfred Russel Wallace sought authentic data at a time when it was impossible to obtain. Today the data is already extensive and robust. The vaccine eliminated smallpox and there is no doubt about it. Although there will always be a doubter for a doubter’s sake.