In the mid-18th century, an epidemic of vampirism swept through the Austrian monarchy. Dozens or even hundreds of people claimed that the dead had risen from their graves and harmed them. There were thousands of testimonies about it. This led to disputes, as the educated upper classes dismissed it as a folk superstition, while the lower classes felt betrayed.
However, some educated people also believed in vampires. For instance, Karl Ferdinand Schertz, the Bishop of Olomouc’s councilor, wrote a treatise entitled Magia Posthuma, in which he discusses vampires in detail and does not question their existence.
Empress Maria Theresia therefore commissioned Gerard van Swieten, her court physician and an enlightened Dutch scientist and biologist, to investigate the matter. He devoted several months to the task, and even centuries later, we can still sense the ignorance of an enlightened scholar investigating popular beliefs. In any case, the result was a report stating that it was all just the superstitions of uneducated people, and that there was a natural explanation for everything.
The Empress immediately banned the exhumation and mutilation of dead bodies, ordering local officials and clergy to dispel vampire superstitions. And there was peace.
Incidentally, van Swieten also advocated vaccination. Again, seemingly against popular common sense. Why should a person have something injected into their body when they are not sick?
Imagine how things might have turned out back then if social media had existed and if it had been possible to make a career out of fighting to protect people from vampires.