Miracle in Tonga (USPHS, 1965)

This film tells the story of a group of doctors who went to the South Pacific islands of Tonga to immunize people against smallpox, using an experimental vaccination device. The narrator, one of the doctors, gives a brief history of Tonga, explaining that the small population is peaceful, isolated, and has no history of smallpox. He then explains the new jet injection gun, operated by foot pedal, which is much cheaper and more efficient than standard vaccination methods. Doctors first vaccinate the royal family which sets an example for the rest of the population, who willingly accept the vaccinations and are pleasantly surprised by the relatively painless process. After vaccinating everyone on the main island, the doctors take fishing boats out to the smaller surrounding islands to vaccinate others. The doctors visit all of the patients two weeks later to test the results, which are satisfactory. The narrator notes that together, America and Tonga had taken an important step to promote the health of the world.
Produced by United States Public Health Service.
Learn more about this film and search its transcript at NLM Digital Collections: resource.nlm.nih.gov/7800975A
Learn more about the National Library of Medicine's historical audiovisuals program at: www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/collectio...
#medicalhistory #immunizations #southpacific #tongan

[@1969moni]

I was In that line when I was a kid. It was a very hot day. Great memories of old Tonga.

[@Subfightr]

Wow. That's amazing. Thanks for sharing

[@sepetipalei2071]

love my Tongan people we are the most loving people in this world because for some reason all we do is smile when times is hard nd we help others even doe we are poor, Otua mo Tonga ko hoku tofi'a

[@crystal3674]

Love This.

[@keasitakaupongi7111]

Thank you for sharing this lovely video of my beloved country Tonga.

[@falapiliki]

Keasi sio Kia papa oku asi he video dont you reckon??

[@malmotumotu5218]

Keasi,ha kei fo’i pehe ai?😂😂😂

[@KingafaCocker]

Taimi fakaofa ia ki he kakai Tonga...thank you for sharing history of Tonga...now days heart disease kills more Tongans than smallpox

[@rapman5363]

Tonga....home of The Wolfgramm family!! They became musicians and performers in USA under the name The Jets. They saw mainstream success in the 1980’s and were always touting the beauty and friendly people of Tonga.. The Jets performed a concert for the people of Tonga 🇹🇴 in 1986

[@AloitalauKawasaki]

❤Miracle in 🇹🇴 ❤❤❤History in the making ❤

[@vinifunaki5305]

Still have my scar and I wear them proud. Hhiiiihiiiiii. Blessings indeed to have been a part of this experiment or not. But I’m happy our King cared enough to go seek help for his people. Thank you America.

[@BudsRitova]

Nice story. Thank you

[@williamtupou2303]

I remember this and few faces are still vivid in my mind, though a lot youthful. great work but we all had that sore on the upper arm & still confused why? Viliami Tupou

[@feleti1000]

This brings back memories of my childhood.

[@malia5365]

Is it just me or does Tonga look far better back then.. it looks so westernised..

[@uboii]

Malia Fauula pretty sure it looked even better before the interactive involvement from the white folk

[@Hardlabor1978]

Westernize ho mahi.

[@Hanz-tf3gs]

@@Hardlabor1978 lol

[@kitetama13]

Love my people! the greatest loving people on the planet!

[@kosipelitalia1811]

I remember being a part of that.

[@palavilalamafi2893]

This was a blood sucker i still have a scar in my arm from this it didnt heal until 8 weeks still remember

[@tonganqueenb5517]

I love that song in the credits.

[@mrskauvaka]

Interesting. Did they not change the needle between patients back then?

[@faafetaisaelua6407]

mrskauvaka I8M

[@truesolution6069]

Sometimes they burnt needle on the flames, so what happened inject burn, inject burn ..... Some times use alcohol to sterilize the needle. hhh Of course it's a miracle.

[@thealatini8665]

If you watch the entire video it tells you how it was sterilized

[@sarah2.017]

Most of the doses were given with a compressed air gun.

[@analutu3386]

wow this is the time my pops was born 😍❤️🇹🇴

[@tanielapikula517]

Was in elemenntry school in Haalalo got the smallbox shot, good jtimes, thanks for ther memorries,thats real Tonga!!!!

[@emaangelopule7537]

This is really cuuuteee!!

[@sionepalemani5296]

I remember this, , I was still at Primary School. The whole school were closed because we were all sick. I still have the mark on my shoulder. It started swollen and became a sore like a boil. Some other people were worse and seemed there were no cure for it. My mom used to heat a nonu leave on the fire and put the leave on top of the sore, and told me to go swim in the sea to clean the sore, and then she put another nonu leave on it, and slowly cure it.

[@mrj.kottari8453]

@@sionepalemani5296 Vaccines back then weren't as "sophisticated" with the way they work in your body as they are now, and they often caused local nasty infection in the needle wound. My mum (born in 1956) still has small round scar in her arm from a vaccination (most likely smallpox) she got when she was 3yo. The scar came from an infection similar to what you described. The symptoms of illness back then came from the immunologic reaction as your body was fighting a "weakened" strain of the virus you were vaccinated against. That's how the old-generation vaccines were built, they consisted of weakened form of the virus to wake bodily immunity to create antibodies against the virus. (Modern vaccines consist of virus protein particles and the following immunoglobulinic reaction that follows is much weaker)

[@rflewis7490]

@@sionepalemani5296 the mark was called a 'take'. It was due to the vaccine and showed that it was working. People without a 'take' would be vaccinated again if possible

[@vjfiefia7833]

So we were test rats...lol

[@luielisinapopo]

i remember this so well. not only the smallpox shot but they draw blood from every kids at school. why don't you talk about those blood being drawn .just for a little toy to exercise your hand before you die from amount blood being drawn.

[@nuulitafuna1565]

How in the world is this,becomes a miracle in TONGA?....

[@duketuke77]

It helped stop people from dying of smallpox. Same as the measles outbreak, lots of infants in Tonga has had a measles vaccination and why no deaths have been reported.

[@respecteffect1202]

don't forget the atomic bomb America dropped in the Marshall islands, natives there are still affected by the blast till this very day.

[@mrj.kottari8453]

I saw a documentary about 2 months ago... horrible. And now the concrete cover on the radioactive waste pit is cracking open because sea level has risen and radiation levels are again rising up 😱

[@tammystewart10]

@@mrj.kottari8453 😳😳

[@theotherside4367]

mau fuu palangi fai huhu hae aki ha kaui manioke

[@Hanz-tf3gs]

😂😂😂😂

[@matovicmmilan]

Why didn't the Americans experiment with those 50 times variation in the amount of the active vaccine & diluent and the safety of the vaccination gun on their own American children? Also the Americans didn't want to inform the people that they would be subjected to experimentation on their own bodies and that they have right to refuse such an act?

[@melefinau8362]

Kaufusi

[@mrskauvaka]

"Experimental"?? yikes

[@MalafuHustleTV]

That's all I heard too! 🤬

[@rflewis7490]

@@MalafuHustleTV the vaccine was being used around the world by then, had in fact been used since 1796 almost 200 years before. The vaccine gun that could use a diluted version of the vaccine to reach more people was new..

[@respecteffect1202]

what the hell did these palangis do?

[@jaqenhghar2970]

I refuse to call white people palangi. They did not come from the sky, and they are not gods. It is a disgrace. But to answer your question, these so call vaccines are sometimes laden with mercury and other cancer-causing carcinogens. Sipi (mutton flaps) and Mui pīpī (turkey tails) are one of the least nutritious parts of both the sheep and turkey. But they are cheap and are one of the major foods imported to Tonga. Tongans need to learn to live off the FREE and life-giving koloa of the fonua and moana, just like our ancestors did. Eating things like the moa, the kuku, the paka, the ika, the limu, the 'ufi, the talo, the lesi, the mango, the jiaine. Stop buying cheap foreign shit like mutton flaps which is nothing but disgusting fat, fishes from fish farms like tilapia that live off the shit and waste of other tilapia both dead and alive, kapa pulu which contains sodium nitrate (a known carcinogen), sodas which contains high levels of sugar, mo e ha fua me'a 'oku kovi ki he 'atamai mo e jino. Stop eating dogs and horses. These are man's greatest friends. They provide us loyalty and transportation.

[@mrj.kottari8453]

@@jaqenhghar2970 Ay! That was a good speech 👏🏼 I didn't know "palangi" means "god"... I thought it means something like 'people from far away' 😯

[@jaqenhghar2970]

@@mrj.kottari8453 I meant that when the white man came, our ancestors thought they came from the sky and thought they were as gods.

[@mrj.kottari8453]

@@jaqenhghar2970 Oh... That explains. White man is more like "god of destruction" 😑

[@thetruthhurtz8891]

@@jaqenhghar2970 Ma'a lahi

[@TheresOnly2gender777]

The good old days when Tongans working hard & being friendly peaceful to others. Nowadays everyone is Toxic 😓

[@italyblue9387]

Lol dd the king actually get his or did he pretend to trick his people🤔

[@teidrrew]

Some of the comments need to listen to the video. They came as a response to the request of the late King to protect his people. We are all the result of this.

[@kurtbrandso2087]

Just what I was looking for. A glimpse of Tonga and their peoples during a time when My mum would have been a little child growing up> In my opinion, this particular case of mass vaccination didn't have a sinister element to it, although we cannot rule it out one hundred percent? The CIA was conduction MK-Ultra on it's own people around the same time as this film was taken. The US government has also been involved with injecting diseases to people in Guatemala under the guise of the World Health Program during the 50's. I do think the the USA's involvement in the World Health initiatives has by far been a positive one, from River fly blindness in Africa to Polio eradication across the Globe> Interesting time of 1965, the USA is making a case for full ground troops to go to Vietnam and some happy Islanders are in the midst of the first wave of considerable numbers to leave for New Zealand, Hawaii, US mainland, and small small trickling into Australia as well. My great Uncle leaves for Hawaii around this time only to find himself a few years later fighting in the terrible war in Vietnam.

[@ujai6978]

look behind the curtain - that’s the point. “order out of chaos” peace comes wen there’s a problem and having a resolution behind - it’s a hidden agenda.

[@msquaresa]

Mahalo kuo taimi pe ke 'aa hake 'ae Tonga ki he ngaahi loi moe fa'ufa'u 'ae kau papalangi kuo uesia ai ho tau kovi ai hotau kakai he ngaahi 'aho ni.

[@msquaresa]

+Awake Now Mahalo kuo taimi pe ke 'aa hake 'ae Tonga ki he ngaahi loi moe fa'ufa'u 'ae kau papalangi kuo hoko 'o uesia kovi ai hotau kakai he ngaahi 'aho ni.

[@tenifa8479]

'ee mo'oni lahi, pehee koe lahi e sio tv

[@mataelengu746]

malo pe kuo tau kei hao mai meihe palangi

[@msquaresa]

Pehee, tuku pe faito'o mo e me'akai 'ae palangi ke ne fk'aonga'i ka tau foki pe 'o kai 'etau me'atonga 'i Tonga ni 'a ee ne mo'ui lelei ai 'etau fanga Kui he kuonga ke ee.

[@dennisbrown9151]

oka pau oku mou loto pehe pea mou foki katoa me ihe fonua oe papalangi kau vale kai ta'e tuku popou'i kai ta'e

[@scottyfisiihoi5718]

They show the king getting immunized but it was only water 💧 so it could encourage his people to get immunized first so he could wait and see if there were any complications first . He didn't get immunized until all the trials were complete and was safe for him and the rest of the royal family to be immunized. He fooled his people which was quite clever 😏 Malo koia pe

[@tonganqueenb5517]

How is that clever? It is calculated and evil to use your own people as guinea pigs. He was a pretty useless King as well.