by Morley Evans
Factors besides vaccines and other pharmaceutical products are responsible for the dramatic decrease in mortality we have enjoyed in the developed world. These include improved housing; abundant wholesome food; cheap and fast transportation; sanitation; lightning-fast, low-cost, global, communication; pure water and fresh air; plastic; and refrigeration. These are all the result of wealth created and generally available to most people in the incredibly complex web of modern industrial civilization. Electricity, not oil, could be the most critical component of contemporary society. Medicine is far down the list — not at the top. - ed
EDIT
Hi Morley,
I believe that vaccines are one of the greatest medical achievements of the past century. Polio and smallpox are excellent examples. I have seen far too many kids die from easily preventable diseases in 3rd world countries over the past 40 years.
Mike.
I think that people exhibit adaptation to changes in their environments. People make those changes constantly.
Dr Kass (an American) was looking at falling mortality in children in England and Wales from the mid-nineteen century to the mid-twentieth century. England, Wales, and the United States were very different places at the beginning and end of that period. Dr Kass was telling his colleagues they cannot take all the credit for the declining mortality. He urged them to look for the whole truth. They haven’t done that. They went for the money.
People in Third World countries do not enjoy all the things we do in the developed world. (We have new problems due to the changes we have made.)
Consider this: If for example, Anopheles were eliminated in a certain area, it would be incorrect — and dishonest — for doctors to claim they had eliminated malaria. Draining waterways, eliminating stagnant pools, and spraying oil onto any remaining open water would have solved the problem, not medicine. (DDT was useful before it was banned.) American engineers used such methods to enable them to build the Panama Canal. Malaria, yellow fever and dengue had defeated both the French and the British.
The Americans came to the wrong conclusions too. They were certain the Panama Canal affirmed Manifest Destiny. At least Theodore Roosevelt thought that.
Doctors who treat patients in the Third World and on Indian Reserves and Reservations see people with very different problems from patients in big cities.
Tiny Tim didn’t die because his uncle started taking him outside into fresh air and sunshine. Tim got Vitamin D. I didn’t die after high school because I got fresh air, sunshine and strenuous exercise working up north. That didn’t solve my entire problem, but that solved some of it. Apparently, Tiny Tim was one of many such children in Dickens’ Victorian London.
Best to you and Sati,
- Morley
This is THE TRUTH
What do you believe?
If you hear the term “anti-vaxxer!” in your mind, or feel increased stress, as you begin reading, you are experiencing propaganda fatigue. Read on. Then watch Merchants of Doubt. Recovery is possible. – Ed.
Since 1900, there’s been a 74% decline in mortality rates in developed countries, largely due to a marked decrease in deaths from infectious diseases. How much of this decline was due to vaccines? The history and data provide clear answers that matter greatly in today’s vitriolic debate about vaccines.
Since 1900, the mortality rate in America and other first-world countries have declined by roughly 74%, creating a dramatic improvement in the quality of life and life expectancy for Americans. The simple question: “How did this happen?”Why did the mortality rate decline so precipitously? If you listen to vaccine promoters, the answer is simple: vaccines saved us. What’s crazy about this narrative is how easy it is to disprove, the data is hiding in plain sight. The fact that this easily-proven-false narrative persists, however, tells us a lot about the world we live in, and I hope will encourage parents to reconsider the veracity of many of the narratives they’ve been fed about vaccines, and do their own primary research.
Jabbed: How the Vaccine...
Wilcox, Brett
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1970: Dr Edward H. Kass, standing before his colleagues on October 19.
Harvard’s Dr Edward H. Kass gave a speech to the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America that would likely get him run out of this same profession today. At the time, Dr Kass was actually the President of the organization, which made the things he had to say about vaccines and their impact on the reduction in American mortality rates even more shocking, at least by today’s standards. Forty-eight years after Dr Kass’ speech, vaccines have taken on a mythological status in many corners of our world, hyped up by the people who benefit the most from their use. Of course, vaccines saved the world. Of course, every child should get every vaccine. If you don’t vaccinate, you will enable the return of deadly childhood diseases. If you don’t vaccinate, your child will die. If you question vaccines, even a little, you’re an “anti-vaxxer” who should be shunned and dismissed!
But what if most of the history about the role vaccines played in declining mortality isn’t even true?
In his famous speech, Dr Kass took his infectious disease colleagues to task, warning them that drawing false conclusions about WHY mortality rates had declined so much could cause them to focus on the wrong things. As he explained:
“…we had accepted some half-truths and had stopped searching for the whole truths. The principal half-truths were that medical research had stamped out the great killers of the past —tuberculosis, diphtheria, pneumonia, puerperal sepsis, etc. —and that medical research and our superior system of medical care were major factors extending life expectancy, thus providing the American people with the highest level of health available in the world. That these are half-truths is known but is perhaps not as well known as it should be.”
Dr Kass then shared some eye-opening charts with his colleagues. I’m trying to imagine a President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America sharing one of these charts today at a meeting of public health officials. I picture someone turning the power off for the room where he’s presenting and the speaker getting tackled and carried off the stage…here’s the first example of a chart Dr Kass shared in 1970 (See charts above):
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