They assured New Yorkers that a delay of a few days or more represented “no health hazard” (5). Table of Contents – Volume 10, Number 5—May 2004. The occasional case of smallpox had been seen in the area for decades since the last big outbreak in 1875, which had killed 2,000 New Yorkers. The city swiftly swung into full crisis mode. Am J Public Health 1947;37: 1376-1384. In April 1947, New York City faced an epidemic crisis. New York City vaccinated more than 6 million against smallpox in less than a month in 1947, averting a potentially huge outbreak. Vaccine side effects, which dominate coverage of today’s vaccination program, were seldom discussed in 1947. There was an unexpected error. Physicians chided on smallpox aid. Eugene LaBar, a rug importer arriving from Mexico, had arrived in the city, bringing with him the deadly smallpox virus. Be Safe. Get Vaccinated!”. Contrast New York’s response to smallpox in 1947 to what Milwaukee did with an outbreak there in 1894. In the 1947 campaign, trouble began on April 16, when (no longer on page 1), the Times announced, “Vaccinations Stop; Drug Supply Gone; Thousands Turned Away” (5). The smallpox vaccine available at the time could trigger rare but dangerous side effects, especially in people with weakened immune systems or particular skin conditions. ... Cardiac deaths after a mass … Continued complaints about side effects were dismissed as minor nuisances by Dr. Weinstein, who again advised those whose arm ached that they only needed to place an icebag in the armpit for relief. In others, the immunity wore off. The New York Times. The same NYCBOH strain was used in 1947 to vaccinate approximately six million New York City (NYC) residents (80% of the population) during a 4-week period (April 4-May 2) after a smallpox outbreak. In contrast, the Army and Navy had given almost 800,000 doses, and the city’s public health laboratories had made another 400,000. Smallpox in city, inoculation urged. Most New Yorkers had been inoculated against smallpox. To determine whether vaccination increased cardiac death, we reviewed NYC death certificates for comparable periods in 1946 and 1948 (N = 81,529) and calculated adjusted relative death rates for the postvaccination period. To determine whether vaccination increased cardiac death, we reviewed NYC death certificates for comparable periods in 1946, 1947, and 1948 (N = 81,529) and calculated adjusted relative death rates for the postvaccination period. “Never before had so many people been vaccinated in such a city and on such short notice.”. At 2 p.m. that day, Dr. Weinstein held a news conference, urging all city dwellers to get vaccinated immediately, even if they had been inoculated as children. The New York Times. Reflections on New York City's 1947 Smallpox Vaccination Program and Its 1976 Swine Influenza Immunization Program. This may not be the complete list of references from this article. CDC twenty four seven. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website. In 1947. He became ill, was hospitalized, and, after his death, found to have had smallpox. Based on an actual case in 1946 - a smallpox scare in which millions of New Yorkers received free vaccinations - The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) is a fictionalized dramatization of that incident that stars Evelyn Keyes as Sheila Bennet, a modern day "Typhoid Mary" who contracts smallpox in Cuba while serving as a courier for Matt (Charles Korvin), her no-good musician boyfriend, in a stolen … Police, fire, and health departments, and hospitals were mobilized to provide additional space for the effort. Am J Public Health Nations Health. With the cooperation of Mayor William O’Dwyer, Dr. Weinstein secured 250,000 units from the naval medical supply depot in Brooklyn. In less than a month, more than 6 million people have been vaccinated in New York. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Re-vaccinations were necessary, he said, in case people had lost immunity. He was a child on the Lower East Side when a smallpox outbreak brought the city to its knees in the early 1900s, killing 720 New Yorkers in a two-year period. That's what happened the last time smallpox was seen in New York City, in 1947. Smallpox, 1947: The city-wide success story After a man who traveled by bus from Mexico City to New York City in 1947 was hospitalized and died of smallpox, the city embarked on a vaccination spree so successful that it's now the stuff of infectious disease lore. In Real Life, the index case was not a smuggler but a regular tourist, did not get infected in Cuba but in Mexico, and was not the subject of a contact-tracing manhunt but was rather admitted to hospital before the outbreak really began. The New York Times. Saving Lives, Protecting People, *Infectious Disease Service, New York, New York, USA, The 1947 Smallpox Vaccination Campaign in New York City, Revisited, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Sepkowitz KA. The deadly disease arrives in New York by bus. The New York Times. Although the numbers are plausible, these data reflect the difficulties intrinsic to managing such a massive program. The skin is not even broken by the needle. Whatever occurred, understanding the specifics of “the great vaccination miracle” of 1947 is important for maintaining equilibrium during our current smallpox vaccination program and any future programs directed at now-unanticipated infections. NEW YORK (CNN) --It was 1947 when the United States last fought a war against the biological enemy smallpox. There were 12 cases of smallpox. The vaccine rollout was remarkably swift and uncomplicated. 26. Although now mythological, a review of the events of April 1947, from copies of The New York Times (1,2), tells of a more recognizably human response: pushing, jawing, deceit, shortages, surpluses, and perhaps a unusual way of counting vaccinees. Please use the form below to submit correspondence to the authors or contact them at the following address: Kent A. Sepkowitz, Infectious Disease Service Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA; fax: 212-717-3021. Of the 1.2 million doses distributed to date, 42,000 had been supplied by private laboratories, far short of the promised number. Not just New York City’s, but the entire country’s sense of confidence that it can handle a major rapid vaccination or pill distribution campaign leans very heavily on the apocryphal vaccine campaign of April 1947. Sometimes a soreness develops in the armpit. In April 1947, during a smallpox outbreak in New York City (NYC), >6,000,000 people were vaccinated. Imperato PJ. On Good Friday, April 4, some startling lab results reached Dr. Weinstein: An American businessman who arrived in New York from Mexico City by bus had tested positive for smallpox. Comment submitted successfully, thank you for your feedback. CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website. A businessman from Mexico visiting New York City was found to be infected with the disease. In some cases, the vaccine didn’t take. Israel Weinstein (May 26, 1893 – May 25, 1975) was an American physician and bacteriologist, best known for his work in public health in New York City, especially during the 1947 New York City smallpox outbreak as the Commissioner of Health of the City of New York from March 13, 1946 to November 3, 1947 under Mayor William O'Dwyer. He purchased an additional two million from private manufacturers, and then he ordered more. His decision was hardly without risk. [PMC free article] Articles from Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine are provided here courtesy of Royal Society of Medicine Press. Emerg Infect Dis. In some cases, the vaccine didn’t take. They’d been told the inoculation would protect them for life — but there was no guarantee. New York City vaccinated six million people in less than a month. The claim of 5 or 6 million vaccinations administered cannot be reconciled against the daily tally reported in the Times. The New York Times. Now, volunteers are given several informational lectures and a protracted individual interview to discuss lingering questions, and they are required to sign a document confirming adequate comprehension and acceptance of the risks. More than six million people were vaccinated in three weeks in New York City in 1947. But the municipal stockpile contained nowhere near enough vaccine for all of the city’s 7.8 million residents. If only one of them had smallpox, even among a vaccinated population, the resulting outbreak could be devastating. The same NYCBOH strain was used in 1947 to vaccinate approximately six million New York City (NYC) residents (80% of the population) during a 4-week period (April 4--May 2) after a smallpox outbreak (Figure 1). Mayor William O’Dwyer urged all 7.8 million New York residents to receive the vaccine, and he rolled up his sleeve and was vaccinated by Dr. Weinstein. On April 4, Israel Weinstein, the New York City Health Commissioner, urged all New Yorkers who had not been vaccinated since childhood to receive another vaccination. The discrepancy may simply be a case of not adding columns of numbers in a systematic way; the fuzzy numbers do have a certain appeal to the modern, more cynical reader. And not against coronavirus, but against smallpox. The 1947 Smallpox Vaccination Campaign in New York City, Revisited. Officials scurried to vaccinate people wherever smallpox surfaced. In April 1947, during a smallpox outbreak in New York City (NYC), more than 6 million people were vaccinated. The final tally was 12 infections and two deaths. Sheila Bennet returns to New York from Cuba carrying $40,000 worth of smuggled diamonds - and smallpox, which could start a devastating epidemic in the unprotected city. Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website. After spending days gearing up citizens to receive the vaccine quickly, the mayor and Dr. Weinstein now had to downplay the urgency of receiving vaccination. In April 1947, New York City’s health commissioner, Israel Weinstein, had been on the job 10 months. Dr. Weinstein assured residents, “Vaccination is painless. An Outbreak of Smallpox in New York City. Later that year, he summed up the case in The American Journal of Public Health. Formats: Summary | Second smallpox death spurs vaccination. In March 1947, a patient who had recently visited Mexico traveled by bus to New York City. Irons JV, Sullivan TD, Cook EBM, Cox GW, Hale RA. To detect any increase in cardiac, atherosclerotic, or all-cause deaths, New York City health officials recently examined death certificates dating from March through June of 1946, 1947, and 1948, according to the MMWR article. In 1947, most New Yorkers had been inoculated against smallpox. Public health authorities in Westchester County chided local physicians for charging $35 per vaccine (7), and a 29-year-old woman, dressed up as a nurse, vaccinated 500 people with water to impress her “man companion” until she was sent to the Bellevue psychiatric ward for evaluation (8). In March 1947, a businessman traveling from Mexico City to Maine made a stopover in New York. 1947 Nov; 37 (11):1376–1384. Weinstein I. In March 1947, a patient who had recently visited Mexico traveled by bus to New York City. By early April, Israel Weinstein, the city health commissioner at the time, began to urge New Yorkers who hadn’t been vaccinated as children to get vaccinated. Half million were vaccinated in day. If one assumes that day-to-day numbers reported in the newspaper were roughly accurate, a simple calculation places the number of vaccinees closer to 2.5 million, far short of the announced total. He had 780,000 doses flown in from military bases in California and Missouri. He stumbled off a bus, complaining of fever and a headache, and soon died in a Midtown Hospital, but not before he had infected a dozen passers-by. And he began a tracing program to locate and vaccinate anyone exposed. The deadly disease was defeated almost instantly. The occasional case of smallpox had been seen in the area for decades since the last big outbreak in 1875, which had killed 2,000 New Yorkers. The New York Times. “In a period of less than a month, 6,350,000 people were vaccinated in New York City,” he wrote. Smallpox scare soon dissipated. Not today, but in 1947. The New York Times. Two days later, epidemiologic investigation indicated that all patients with diagnosed cases were related and that, in all likelihood, the outbreak had been successfully halted through tracing the movements of the various patients and vaccinating anyone who had contact with them, so-called “ring” vaccination (4). This advice is simple compared to the depth and breadth of information given today to a potential vaccinee. Sepkowitz KA. Smallpox began to make a resurgence in New York City in March 1947, when a man who had traveled from Mexico became sick and died from the disease. Curb of smallpox a ‘miracle,’ says city health commissioner. During the first week, surprisingly little public attention was captured (Times articles typically were brief and confined to page 21). A man caught the disease in Mexico, came to New York, and infected 12 people. No increases in cardiac deaths were observed. On April 21, a grand total of 3.45 million recipients were reported; the next day, after noting that only 200,000 additional persons had received vaccine, the total became 4.4 million (9). According to Dr. David Oshinsky, a professor of medicine at N.Y.U. Despite this halt of the outbreak, the city pushed forward. By city estimate, >600,000 persons had received vaccine in the first week. 2004;10(5):960-961. https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1005.030973. During the shortage, the Times noted, “hundreds of eager men, women, and children queued up at Bellevue Hospital at dawn, although vaccinations were not scheduled to begin until 10 a.m. At some stations, the crowds did not take kindly to the news that the doctors had run out of vaccine and the police had a little difficulty dispersing a crowd of several hundred” outside one vaccine station (5). A 1947 outbreak in New York City, traced back to a traveler from Mexico, resulted in a frantic effort to vaccinate 6 million people in four weeks. Message not sent. Not only could the announcement cause mass hysteria, but vaccines then were not tested the way they are today. Children being vaccinated for smallpox at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1947. He became ill, was hospitalized, and, after his death, found to have had smallpox. In this April 14, 1947 file photo, a long line winds toward the entrance to Morrisania Hospital in the Bronx borough of New York, where doctors are inoculating against smallpox. Yet, as described above, there may be much less to the miracle than met the eye. In April 1947, during a smallpox outbreak in New York City (NYC), more than 6 million people were vaccinated. An outbreak of smallpox in New York City. Vaccinations stop; drug supply gone. However, in 1947, a second case and then a third appeared and concern gathered. The story hit page 1 on April 13 (3), after a second person died from the disease. The program worked at the outset. Free vaccine clinics were established throughout the city, and doses were given to private physicians for administration. In early May, Dr. Weinstein announced that the danger had passed. (2004). With little warning, and at the height of the program, the vaccine supply vanished, something that was never explained. As the crisis slowly lessened, doctors were recruited at US$8 (US$64 in today’s market) for a 3-hour session (or US$24 for all day; US$192 in today’s market) to administer vaccine, but few volunteered. In April 1947, during a smallpox outbreak in New York City (NYC), more than 6 million people were vaccinated. Very Loosely Based on a True Story: There really was an outbreak of smallpox in New York City in 1947, but the specifics have been radically altered for the movie. A virulent outbreak of smallpox in New York City in 1947 surprised everyone and inspired a new method to improve the vaccine. In a series of daily radio addresses, Dr. Weinstein focused on transparency and a consistent message. Langone Health, Dr. Weinstein acted in line with the scientific knowledge of the era and made the right move. If the arm becomes very sore, apply an icebag” (4). In two days, New Yorkers would be gathering for the city’s annual Easter Parade. You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link. J Community Health. The vaccine, he said, was free, and there was, in his words, “absolutely no excuse for anyone to remain unprotected.” In a calm, clear voice, he promoted the rallying cry that would appear on posters throughout the city: “Be Sure. 2015 Jun;40(3):581-96. doi: 10.1007/s10900-015-0020-6. In April 1947, New York City’s health commissioner, Israel Weinstein, had been on the job 10 months. On April 17, the situation brightened, when more than a million doses arrived from private laboratories, and 500,000 persons were vaccinated (6). Sepkowitz, K. A. The New York Times. The 1947 Smallpox Vaccination Campaign in New York City, Revisited. The New York Times. The campaign to “Be sure, be safe, get vaccinated!” had proven successful. About 6.4 million New York City residents 80% of the city's population were vaccinated in April and May of 1947 in response to a smallpox outbreak. One more smallpox case found; lone source of infection traced. They’d been told the inoculation would protect them for life — but there was no guarantee. Crossref; Web of Science; Medline; Google Scholar. The 1947 Smallpox Vaccination Campaign in New York City, Revisited. To determine whether smallpox vaccination increased the risk for cardiac death in 1947, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) analyzed data from NYC death certificates … Within a week, the program had wound down and been proclaimed “a miracle” (2) by all involved. To the Editor: In 1947, millions of New Yorkers received smallpox vaccinations, an accomplishment still appropriately held up as an example of public health planing and mobilization. Physicians explain vaccination reaction, Weinstein urges all to be immunized.

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