Epidemie vaccinatie en regelgeving in rechtshistorisch perspectief: De koepokinenting in de kolonie Curaçao in de eerste helft van de negentiende eeuw

In Curaçao, a Dutch colony in the West Indies consisting of six islands, smallpox was prevalent in 1815, 1827–1828, 1844, 1852 and 1862. In the early 19th century, smallpox ordinances were issued by the colonial government on two occasions: first in 1819 when vaccines arrived on the island; a second series of ordinances followed in 1827–1828. These were aimed at combating a major epidemic. Raising public awareness of vaccination around 1820 was a battle of scientific knowledge against bias. There were publicity campaigns in the newspapers to promote vaccination and there was a lively exchange of information between the different islands of the Caribbean and the mainland about the spread of the disease. A few years later, during the smallpox epidemic of 1827, quarantine obligations and the mandatory registration of vaccinated residents were introduced. This project with a legal historical perspective investigates the development and interaction among the smallpox epidemic, the distribution of vaccines against this disease, and the regulations established by the colonial government on the Dutch Leeward Islands in the first half of the 19th century. The government’s response to smallpox during that period resembles in many ways the hastily formulated policy on the recent COVID-19 epidemic. Not much was new in the whole arsenal of policy choices presented and discussed in the year 2020–2021. Partly due to limitations associated with COVID, the research was conducted largely based on electronic sources, using several digitized 19th-century newspapers and other digitally accessible sources.