New Mexico

On Sunday, liberal columnist and news writer Algernon D’Ammassa of the Las Cruces Sun-News appeared to praise Deming, New Mexico’s forcible vaccination in the 19th century during the smallpox outbreak.

In a column titled “How forced vaccinations and a brothel fought smallpox in Deming, New Mexico,” he drew similarities between the present-day COVID-19 pandemic with that of smallpox, citing a historian, C.A. “Gus” Gustafson, who said “door-to-door smallpox vaccinations were free to the public, ‘voluntary to most but forcefully to the reticent.’”

He said, “These men are not here to discuss constitutional theory or jurisprudence, nor to explore community ethics. They are here to inoculate you against a deadly contagious disease.” 

“Smallpox, eradicated by 1980 thanks to a global vaccination effort yet preserved in frozen vials around the world, laughs at COVID-19. Caused by the variola virus, it is highly contagious, producing dangerous fevers and lesions, often stealing one’s eyesight,” writes D’Amassa.

He says that “By the time smallpox arrived in Deming late in 1916, the U.S. Supreme Court had already ruled in favor of compulsory vaccinations in the interest of public health,” but noted how the COVID-19 disease is much less deadly than smallpox was in those days.

D’Amassa cites a Boston Globe report from that era which wrote, “writhing, cursing, struggling tramps … held down in their cots, one big policeman sitting on their legs, and another on their heads, while the third held the arms, bared for the doctors.”

“Deming seems to have gone even further than mandatory vaccinations. Physician Pinkney Minor Steed, who led the vaccination effort, also commandeered the brothel on San Carlos Street north of the railroad tracks, by Gustafson’s account, after the local hospital was overrun,” he continued.

D’Amassa wrote that since forcible inoculation, “we are in a different time both medically and legally,” where he happily got his COVID-19 vaccine, which has had many clinical reactions, by choice at the Deming Walmart.

“Instead of introducing a pathogen into my body — which troubles many vaccine resisters — this one instructed my body to create a spiky protein similar to SARS-CoV-2 so my body could practice how to kill it. This is why I experienced a mild fever and fatigue the following day,” he wrote.

He then said, “The vaccine is free and the state is imploring, not forcing, people to take it…. we are having arguments over how much we should accommodate healthy adults who refuse to be vaccinated.”

The COVID-19 vaccine is still in its infancy, currently in an experimental stage based on “emergency use authorization” by the FDA. In contrast, smallpox was active for centuries, with the first vaccine originating in 1796 and the world fighting the disease completely by 1980–184 years later. 

D’Amassa appears to glorify the medical practice of forced injection in the 19th century, trying to push the point that people were being forced to have a shot because it was “a deadly contagious disease.” He then tries to lump in the COVID-19 vaccine with his personal experience by downplaying the side effects of the vaccine while promoting the fact that it is not being “forced” on Americans.

However, even right here in New Mexico, workers have been allegedly forced to take the jab in many government agencies. In one case, a Doña Ana County Detention Center officer, Isaac Legaretta, sued his managers, claiming they threatened he would be fired if he did not take the COVID-19 vaccine. This is the first forcible vaccination lawsuit in the nation.

On Friday, Joe Biden announced he “may order all U.S. military forces to receive the coronavirus vaccine at a time of troubling voluntary acceptance rates among some troops.” 

The glorification of forced vaccination in the past by D’Amassa and the pending litigation regarding such a practice today could very well scare people into taking the COVID-19 vaccine in fear of government retaliation.

NBC News did a piece on Americans that may be forced to get the vaccine: