A Victorian Anti-Vaxxer Riot
Dr. Ross peddled conspiracies about the medical establishment’s greed, exaggerated vaccine risks, and cherry picked “evidence”. He also made up sensationalist lies. They included false claims that officials invaded women’s bedrooms to tie them and their children down and forcibly vaccinate them. His efforts triggered a violent anti-vaccine riot. Montreal’s Board of Health estimated that there were 2000 smallpox cases in the city by September 2nd, 1885.
Within a few weeks, the numbers doubled to more than 4000. So the authorities took sterner measures. They included the forcible removal of people from crowded housing – mostly in poor neighborhoods, such as predominately French-Canadian ones in the city’s east side – where isolation was impossible. On September 28th, vaccination was made mandatory.
That triggered “a howling mob“, primed for weeks and whipped into a frenzy by publications such as The Anti-Vaccinator. They surrounded the Board of Health’s East End Branch Office, and destroyed it. Police tried to intervene, but were routed and chased away by the mob. The anti-vaxxer crowd then rampaged through the city, smashed the windows of pharmacies that sold the smallpox vaccine, and vandalized the homes of health officials.
The Central Police Station’s windows were broken, and the chief of police was stabbed and pelted with stones. Rioters fired at the cops, who armed themselves with rifles and bayonets, and fired above the rioters’ heads. Policemen finally clubbed the mob until it dispersed into small groups. They continued the violent assaults and destruction of property around Montreal. Eventually, 1400 soldiers were summoned to patrol the city and prevent a recurrence, and health workers were issued revolvers.
