Tennessee, so it is said, once was a leader in the country for vaccinating children. Now it is on the other end.
What happened?
The Tennessee General Assembly, according to the Tennessee Lookout, enacted the state’s first vaccine requirements for kindergartners entering school in 1967.
That same year, Dr. M.M. Young, the director of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department, had good news to share, according to newspaper archives. Not one case of polio, diphtheria or smallpox had been reported in Hamilton County in 1966. However, the county had seen cases of tetanus, whooping cough and measles, all of which were now preventable diseases through vaccines.
In 1969, the local health department could state that for the first time in the agency’s history, no case of red measles occurred in the county in 1968. Only one case of tetanus was reported. Cases of whooping cough were reported lower.