The New Smallpox: An Epidemic of Words?

Abstract

Through rhetorical analysis this study examines the recent discursive practices in our country about smallpox vaccinations. Michel Foucault maintains that no analysis is complete without contextualizing and historicizing the discourse we hope to understand. Smallpox vaccinations have a four-hundred-year-old history, and the insights gained from such historic studies can teach us much about our present course. Recent studies, including a Harvard survey, help us contextualize the present discourse. By comparing present and past practices, we gain a perspective that gives us predictive power as well as a concrete plan for the future in this time of bioterrorist threats.