Vaccines and school… a ‘historic’ obligation

Cyclically, for some years now, the controversy about compulsory vaccines has held sway in public opinion, reinforced in times of Covid – 19. Many claim that vaccines were never compulsory in schools before the second half of the 20th century. Archival documentation can help us shed light on this issue.

Thanks to the archival fonds of the Collegio S. Francesco Saverio in Livorno, the same college attended by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, we can have some useful data precisely on the subject of compulsory vaccines.

The fund consists of more than three thousand personal files of all the students enrolled there, from the opening of the school in 1924 until its closure in the 1960s.

The personal files contain diplomas, report cards, sometimes letters sent by the family to the school. There were many pupils who enrolled at the school in the first years after it opened, coming from other Livorno or national schools.

There is always a note in the pupil’s file, relating to the transfer of the pupil, listing the documents required for his or her enrolment, including: the baptism certificate – as it was a religious school – previous school reports and vaccinations. For almost all of them, the same list also appears on the title page of the file.

It was not only an obligation in force in the early years of fascism, as certificates of children vaccinated well before 1922 show.

In fact, children from other institutions showed that they had all already been vaccinated.

If we move to Rome, however, at the Convitto dei Nobili, we discover from the register of boarders that there was a note on the vaccinations of the pupils, since 1826, through the testimony given by the parents or a certificate presented to the Rector, while of some it is specified that they had survived smallpox or that they had been inoculated and the names of the doctors who signed the certificates are shown from 1840 onwards, in the photo the register in which the column with the data on vaccinations is visible.

In the Jesuit schools, the health of the children was always ensured, even in the years before the spread of vaccines.

All boarding schools had an infirmary, with the possibility of promptly isolating patients with fast-spreading and particularly feared viruses: scarlet fever or measles, for example.

In addition, there were examination and first aid rooms, also equipped for specific examinations such as the dentist’s room.

The brother nurses, who were often present in Jesuit colleges, took care of both the brethren and the sick students, having a small, well-stocked pharmacy at home.

The boarding schools had their own doctor, but in the event of serious illnesses or injuries, the pupils were transported to the nearest hospital and their families were called in.

Further research in school funds, not only of the Society of Jesus, could offer interesting insights into the history of vaccination and health care in school age in the 20th century.

Maria Macchi

Photograph shows a detail of the register of boarders in Rome and the certificates of the Livorno College.