vaccination

North Dakota’s Nonpartisan League is remembered for the populist surge in state politics a century ago. Among the most well-known of the League’s legacy are the state-owned Bank of North Dakota and the State Mill and Elevator, overseen by the Industrial Commission. The League-controlled Legislature also passed a law banning vaccination mandates, which stood for more than 50 years.

Polio vaccinations were in full swing in the summer of 1955 in North Dakota. A team led by Dr. Jonas Salk at the University of Pittsburgh developed the vaccine after years of philanthropy through the March of Dimes. Polio was the most dreaded disease of its time, and could paralyze and even kill children. The public welcomed Salk’s vaccine with open arms.

Yesterday we heard how the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk’s team arrived in North Dakota. On this date in 1955, North Dakota held its first…

Back in the 50s, there was a terrible virus. Only the atomic bomb was feared more. Thousands of people fell ill. Many died. Children were especially vulnerable. And the public held out hope for a vaccine to conquer the disease.

To stop an epidemic of smallpox in 1899, the Grand Forks Board of Health ordered all schoolchildren to be vaccinated at the city’s expense and ordered all…

The history of smallpox in North Dakota spans centuries. The terrible disease devastated the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people in 1781. Years later, in…

North Dakota has a long history of vaccinations, from smallpox to polio. Smallpox was a terrible, contagious disease that could leave people scarred and…

James Robinson was eccentric North Dakota Supreme Court justice who opposed vaccinations. He also peddled booze as a cure during the 1918 flu pandemic.…

North Dakota’s Legislature passed a law in 1975 that increased requirements for school immunizations. Parents had to provide proof their children had…

Epidemics of diphtheria, smallpox, scarlet fever and other diseases struck schools, churches and families throughout North Dakota more than a century ago.…