COVID in 2021

On February 27, I got the first of the two Coronavirus vaccines. It happened suddenly. I was “pre-registered” with the heath department and expected to have to wait for a few more weeks or even months. On February 25, a short email came that read:

Dear PAULA WHITACRE,

DISREGARD THIS MESSAGE IF you have already received your first dose, or if you already have an appointment to receive your first dose. [as if!]

Thank you for your interest in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The next step in the process is to schedule your first dose appointment. Please click here to schedule your appointment or visit https://alx-armor.herokuapp.com and enter the token: XXXXXX.

The registration link and token are unique to you. If you share your token or link, you will not be able to schedule your appointment. Please note: the scheduler may load slowly due to high demand. If there are no available clinics, please try again at a later time.

If you have any questions about this email or the COVID-19 vaccine, please call the Alexandria Health Department COVID-19 Hotline

Sincerely,

Alexandria Health Department 

When I clicked the link, I had the choice of 3 dates and 2 10-minute time blocs. I picked the earliest.

And so I joined the (according to the Washington Post) 49.4 million people who have received at least one dose, about 2.3 million in Virginia (according to the Virginia Department of Health), as of March 1.

As I looked at the large and impressive set-up in the parking lot and gym at George Washington Middle School, I felt, to be corny, that I was seeing America at its best. Scores of volunteers and health workers directed we “vaccinatees” to enter the building safely, go to one of about 100 tables set up in the gym, then sit for 15 minutes afterwards. Extra walk-down-memory-lane bonus: One of my sons attended this middle school and both played youth basketball in the gym where I received my shot. The woman who vaccinated me said she was a retired nurse; when I said how great this all was, she immediately suggested I volunteer for the Medical Reserve Corps. (And I will once I am immunized.)

Smallpox in the 1860s

Making my inevitable pivot to the 19th century, I thought about vaccinations in Civil War Alexandria. Many infectious diseases circulated (typhoid, measles, yellow fever to name a few that are vaccinated against today, as well as dysentery and malaria), but only smallpox had a vaccine. It was developed in the 1700s although not widely used in the mid-1800s since smallpox was not prevalent.

But when thousands of people came together from different places for the first time, smallpox re-emerged. Quarantine of those already infected and vaccinations were the two courses of action. According to the National Museum for Civil War Medicine, “the best and purest source for vaccine was from cows or calves. The crust from the cowpox pustules were used as the source of the virus. The pressing demands of war often led authorities to institute programs that obtained the scabs from vaccinated humans.”and you get frequent mentions in the paper like this:

Alexandria Gazette, December 4, 1862

The “contrabands” were the Blacks who had come across Union lines to escape slavery. And while it is true that smallpox spread in their crowded living conditions, white residents and soldiers also had periodic upticks of the disease. Even President Lincoln is said to have had a mild case when he gave the Gettysburg Address in November 1863.

The vaccinations—

Alexandria Gazette, February 4, 1863

And when the Military Governor of Union-occupied Alexandria wanted a more concerted push:

Alexandria Gazette, January 8, 1864

As the dates of news items above indicate (1862, 1864, 1864), smallpox ebbed and flowed in Alexandria throughout the war. Vaccinations were locally produced concoctions. On November 18, 1862, shortly after arriving from Rochester, New York, relief worker Julia Wilbur wrote in her diary

Called at Prince St. Hospital to get vaccinated, but Dr. Bigelow had no virus today.

But a few weeks later, on December 11

Mrs. Winsor vaccinated me today. Small pox is spreading among whites as well as colored.

And this may ring a bell as the country tries to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine. A few days after Gen. Slough’s push in the Alexandria Gazette, she wrote on January 11, 1864:

People ordered to come here to be vaccinated, but Dr. Bigelow has been away all day & people have waited here all day for him. Want of management somewhere.