{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T13:24:18Z","timestamp":1787318658280,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"American Public Health Association","issue":"6","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Am J Public Health"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In 1813, the American government passed An Act to Encourage Vaccination, the first federal endorsement of a medical practice in American history. The law tasked a federal agent with maintaining a supply of the smallpox vaccine and distributing it nationwide. James Smith, a well-respected physician and proponent of vaccination, was appointed as vaccine agent. Smith was skeptical of claims that only well-trained physicians should be allowed to perform vaccination; he felt it was a simple procedure that should be available to all American citizens. In 1822, he made a tragic error that caused several deaths and left him vulnerable to criticism from political opponents and his medical peers. This ended Smith\u2019s professional career and led to the repeal of the act itself. In this article, we use the rise and fall of James Smith to provide a historical perspective on contemporary debates surrounding delayed vaccination schedules. We explain how physicians\u2014in the 19th century and today\u2014have worked to build public trust in vaccination in an American culture suspicious of medical expertise.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2105\/ajph.2018.304348","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,9]],"date-time":"2018-05-09T16:12:22Z","timestamp":1525882342000},"page":"741-747","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Mistrust in Medicine: The Rise and Fall of America\u2019s First Vaccine Institute"],"prefix":"10.2105","volume":"108","author":[{"given":"Tess","family":"Lanzarotta","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Tess Lanzarotta and Marco A. Ramos are with the Program for the History of Science and Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marco A.","family":"Ramos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tess Lanzarotta and Marco A. Ramos are with the Program for the History of Science and Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"844","reference":[{"key":"bib1","volume-title":"The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child","author":"Sears R. W.","year":"2011"},{"key":"bib5","author":"Belluz J.","journal-title":"Vox"},{"key":"bib6","author":"Lipson P.","journal-title":"Forbes"},{"key":"bib7","unstructured":"\u201cDr. Bob Sears, Critic of Vaccine Laws, Could Lose License After Exempting Toddler,\u201d Los Angeles Times, September 8, 2016,http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-oc-vaccine-doctor-20160908-snap-story.html(accessed April 3, 2018)."},{"key":"bib9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"E. Conis, Vaccine Nation: America\u2019s Changing Relationship With Immunization (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2015), 102.","DOI":"10.7208\/chicago\/9780226923772.001.0001"},{"key":"bib14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"D. R. Hopkins, The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 267.","DOI":"10.7208\/chicago\/9780226189529.001.0001"},{"key":"bib16","first-page":"240","volume-title":"Medical Fringe and Medical Orthodoxy, 1750\u20131850","author":"Warner J. H.","year":"1987"},{"key":"bib17","volume-title":"The Formation of the American Medical Profession: The Role of Institutions, 1780\u20131860","author":"Kett J. F.","year":"1968"},{"key":"bib18","unstructured":"W. J. Bell, Jr. The Colonial Physician & Other Essays (New York, NY: Science History Publications, 1975), 132."},{"key":"bib20","unstructured":"\u201cTo the Citizens of Baltimore and Vicinity,\u201d The Republican, April 3, 1802."},{"key":"bib24","volume-title":"The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition","author":"Stagg J. C. A.","year":"2010"},{"key":"bib25","volume-title":"The Tyranny of Printers: Newspapers Politics in the Early American Republic","author":"For instance","year":"2002"},{"key":"bib26","author":"For example","journal-title":"Salem Gazette"},{"key":"bib27","unstructured":"\u201cVaccination,\u201d Louisville Public Advertiser, November 17, 1819."},{"key":"bib28","volume-title":"The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition","author":"Stagg J. C. A.","year":"2010"},{"key":"bib29","first-page":"100","journal-title":"Vaccine Inquirer; Or, Miscellaneous Collections Relative to Vaccination"},{"key":"bib30","first-page":"286","journal-title":"Vaccine Inquirer; Or, Miscellaneous Collections Relative to Vaccination"},{"key":"bib33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.9783\/9781512800500"},{"key":"bib34","unstructured":"B. Waterhouse, A Prospect of Exterminating the Small Pox PART II (Cambridge, MA: Published for the Author at the University Press by William Hilliard, 1802), 9."},{"key":"bib47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"J. H. Warner, The Therapeutic Perspective: Medical Practice, Knowledge, and Identity in America, 1820\u20131885 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), 38.","DOI":"10.1515\/9781400864638"},{"key":"bib48","unstructured":"J. C. Whorton, Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002), 34\u201335; Kett, Formation of the American Medical Profession, 107\u2013116."},{"key":"bib50","unstructured":"Annals of Congress\n                      , 17th Cong, 1st Sess, 1638."},{"key":"bib52","first-page":"151","journal-title":"Vaccine Inquirer; Or, Miscellaneous Collections Relative to Vaccination"},{"key":"bib56","unstructured":"\u201cVaccine Agency,\u201d Niles Weekly Register, April 27, 1822."},{"key":"bib58","unstructured":"N. Potter, A Memoir on Contagion, More Especially as It Respects the Yellow Fever: Read in Conversation of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, on the 3d of June, 1817 (Baltimore, MD: E. J. Cole, 1818), 114."},{"key":"bib62","unstructured":"\u201cLetter From Dr. Smith to Dr. Waterhouse,\u201d Vaccine Inquirer; Or, Miscellaneous Collections Relative to Vaccination5, February 1, 1822):220."}],"container-title":["American Journal of Public Health"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/ajph.aphapublications.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.2105\/AJPH.2018.304348","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,9]],"date-time":"2022-05-09T19:23:04Z","timestamp":1652124184000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/ajph.aphapublications.org\/doi\/full\/10.2105\/AJPH.2018.304348"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,6]]},"references-count":26,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,6]]}},"alternative-id":["10.2105\/AJPH.2018.304348"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2105\/ajph.2018.304348","relation":{},"ISSN":["0090-0036","1541-0048"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0090-0036","type":"print"},{"value":"1541-0048","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,6]]}}}