A sensible vaccination policy

The costs of providing free vaccines are way lower than the costs of a freewheeling epidemic

Smallpox, cholera, polio, typhoid, yellow fever, rubella, tuberculosis — I’ve been inoculated against all. The smallpox scratch patch was an annual affair. So was the “TABC” injection that prevented cholera and two types of typhoid.

TABC was terrible. The target arm felt like it had nails driven into it for two days. Both vaccines were administered free in schools. Indeed, the jabs were coercive, or at least it felt that way. The municipality sent teams around, parents signed a consent form (which we tried to conceal) and we lined up for “punishment”.

It worked. Indians above 40 have the infant smallpox scar