Jane Butt’s 1834 Letter Links MAHA to Medical Populism — SkimNews
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- Jane Butt reported in her Sept. 23, 1834 letter that measles had sickened her own child and 36 others in Broughton; some developed severe lung inflammation, and all 37 recovered.
- Morison’s pills were given by Butt to sick children, women and newborns—including up to six doses at once to a toddler under 2—and credited with all 37 recoveries without a comparison group; most children with measles in 1834 survived with or without the pills.
- Medical Dissenter published Butt’s letter, and its Strand office was an official London depot for Morison’s pills by 1837; the journal also mocked Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccination as 'vaccinic mania.'
- United States recorded more than 4,500 measles cases in 2026, the most since 1991. Measles-vaccine coverage fell to 92.4%, a record 4.2% of kindergartners were exempt from at least one required vaccine last school year, and Pennsylvania reported six associated deaths, though federal health officials disputed the tally.
- Pierre Louis also counted patients, asking what happened to comparable people treated differently; his numbers challenged bloodletting for pneumonia, a comparison Butt’s recovery tally never made.
- Measles vaccine provides the protection Butt wrongly attributed to Morison’s pills, but it was tested in ways her remedy never was; Downs says parents who refuse it make her evidentiary mistake in reverse.
- MAHA’s medical populism is rooted partly in grievances over medical authority’s dismissal of women, and Downs argues that Jane Butt’s 1834 letter shows the rebellion is not new; Politico characterizes MAHA as made up largely of women who followed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into the MAGA fold.
Why it matters: With more than 4,500 U.S. measles cases in 2026 and measles-vaccine coverage down to 92.4%—below the level needed to keep outbreaks from spreading—parents who reject vaccination invert Jane Butt’s evidentiary mistake and expose children to harm. Her 37 recoveries cannot establish causation; the vaccine was tested in ways her pills never were.
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