“Summary
The rapid growth of large cities during the 19th century generated favorable conditions for the spread of infectious diseases. Filthy streets, inadequate sewage treatment, poor living conditions, lack of fresh, healthy and varied food, a general unawareness of the role of hygiene in curbing the spread of infectious disease–all of these degraded city residents’ overall health and weakened their immunity to infectious disease.
Epidemics that hit urban populations in the mid-19th century were followed by civil reforms aimed at improving living conditions and public health. Centralized sewage management systems began to appear in the last third of the century. Improvements were made to the supply of drinking water, and running water was gradually introduced into homes.
At the same time, the nutritional content of the food city residents ate improved dramatically due to new technologies in transportation that enabled delivery of fresh food from afar throughout the year. Following the great discoveries of microbiology in the late 19th century, the role of hygiene in preventing the spread of disease became widely recognized.
This newly formed awareness, along with a gradual improvement in living conditions (more spacious living, better storage of food at home, etc.) also contributed to reduction of infectious disease morbidity.
These improvements in living conditions led to a dramatic decrease in infectious disease mortality between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries, as well as a sharp decline in morbidity to the point that some were virtually eliminated.
Effective medical drugs and vaccines, however, only became available in the 1930s and 1940s, after most of the reduction in infectious disease mortality had already been realized.
Historically, vaccination contributed marginally to reductions in the mortality of a small number of diseases, which were trending downward anyway in a decline that would probably have continued (albeit at a slower pace) even without vaccines.
In terms of reducing morbidity, vaccines have made a more significant, though not major, contribution.
Incidence of some of the worst diseases of the 19th century has declined greatly, and some have disappeared altogether, for reasons unrelated to vaccines.
Incidence of several major diseases (specifically, diphtheria, pertussis, and measles) greatly decreased thanks to vaccines that were introduced in the mid-20th century.
Concurrent with the gradual disappearance of the intimidating infectious diseases of the past, chronic illnesses began appearing in the industrialized countries of the 20th century at ever-increasing rates.
A consistent rise in the incidence of chronic illness in children has been documented in the United States since 1960, and continues to this day, with chronic conditions that were once rare becoming alarmingly common.
In the 21st century, when one in 12 American children is disabled by chronic illness, and one in 4 takes medication for a chronic condition (with similar numbers reported in other Western countries), the “silent epidemic” has become a major threat to children’s health and a huge burden on the economy.
Although they are well aware that the bulk of the reduction in the burden of infectious disease cannot be attributed to vaccines, and that extensive research literature and rock-solid scientific evidence have proven that fact, health authorities around the world continue to promote the largely false “vaccines eradicated the great diseases of yore” myth.
At the same time, they feed the public another misleading myth–“our health has never been better”–while ignoring the surge of chronic morbidity that has plagued the Western world since at least the mid-20th century.
This huge wave of morbidity continues to gain momentum even now, physically disabling an ever-increasing proportion of the population, especially children, and rendering them dependent on medication for daily functioning.
The same medical establishment that takes (largely undeserved) credit for the successful battle against infectious disease should rightfully assume responsibility for its five decades of failure to curb, or even slow, the spread of chronic disease in the children of industrialized nations.”
— Turtles All The Way Down: Vaccine Science and Myth by Anonymous
https://a.co/ika5kp9”
Published by Children’s Health Defence
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Author: brianpeckford
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