Edsel Ford had Diego Rivera paint 27 Detroit Industry murals in the former garden court of Detroit Institute of Arts. On the north wall, the chief, central, and largest was autoworkers making the V-8 engines. In the upper right corner was a much smaller mural. This was the one, in which, part of respectable Detroit was in an uproar.
One of the raging issues in the United States to-day is vaccination for the corona virus. Currently, the US is number 1 in having the disease--MAGA. Physicians, scientists, and reporters have termed the present crisis as the "epidemic of the unvaccinated"--MAGA.
Fearful, frightened, superstitious, ignorant, and stupid people have been against vaccinations before. Small pox was a deadly [30%], and disfiguring, and often blinding disease. It was with mankind before civilisation, and killed countless millions. By the late 18th century, it was known that people who worked with cows, and horses did not get small pox. In 1796 Edward Jenner put the theory into scientific practice. His inoculations, he called vaccines [vacca=cow].
In 1902 Cambridge Massachusetts had small pox, and the city had a mandatory vaccination campaign. Henning Jacobson refused. In 1905 Supreme Court ruled that compulsory laws were allowable to prevent communicable diseases.
My parents had three small pox inoculation scars on their upper arm. For years i could see a small scar on my upper arm. The World Health Organisation declared small pox eradicated in 1980. I had to get vaccinated for several diseases to enter school. I caught chicken pox, measles, and German measles in the first three years of school. Those vaccines were not readily available then. Those experiences were terrible. I wish those vaccines had been available then!
Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928. It was not publicly available until after WWII. The big push for quantity was to be ready for D-Day invasion. I received penicillin, and was very happy to get it.
Rivera was the pre-eminent Mexican muralist. He was also a communist, and atheist. He had several Christian given names—Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao. He may have not believed, but he was familiar with imagery.
Rivera saw other factories besides the Ford Rouge plant. He went to the Parke-Davis drug makers. Scientists were working on vaccines for polio, and other things in the early 1930s. Polio (or a polio like disease) struck Franklin Roosevelt. Thanks to Jonas Salk's work (and others), we do not have polio as a worry. Elvis Presley received his vaccination at the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.
Rivera has Three Wise Men in a laboratory, he had faith in medical science. Animals were sourced for medicines, and they were in the stable that the Holy Family lodged. A doctor, and nurse (Jean Harlow), and vaccinated child are another triad in the mural.
When the murals were open to the public on 21 March 1933 there was controversy. Detroit had three dailies, and they were not pleased. A councilman wanted them painted over. Some religious figures considered the work sacrilegious. Father Coughlin was not happy.
Since then, some people have seen a positive religious allusion. The Magi, the Three Kings, give gifts to children on Epiphany. This has been noted by the current museum director [click].
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