The Miracle Of Vaccines

The new Trump administration seems to be heading full steam into bringing America back to a time of yearly epidemics. You could frame it as “Childhood in the time of Measles.”

Many people now in their 50s and early to mid-60s can’t remember what it was like not to be vaccinated from childhood diseases. I was a kid before there were vaccines. The big four diseases that almost every kid had to suffer, and some were hospitalized and even died when they caught them, were Measles, Mumps, Chickenpox, and Rubella or German Measles.

Once you survived the first three, you were protected against a re-occurrence. That is not true for Rubella. I had it twice as a kid. It was no fun either time.

For me, the Mumps was the worst. I had it on both sides, and I was sick for a month with a high fever, swollen glands, no appetite, and for most of the time I was sleeping because I couldn’t stay awake.

Those were universal childhood diseases. But a more frightening one was the scourge known as polio or infantile paralysis. I remember when the vaccine first came out, I stood in line at a New York City Health Clinic with my grandfather and younger brother to become immunized. I had a second booster vaccine later.

Every kid was waiting in line to be saved from the “Iron Lung” that our parents feared for us. It wasn’t that long since the most famous person to have had the disease, FDR, had occupied the White House. In 1952, there were over 3000 deaths in outbreaks. There were several polio epidemics right through to when the vaccine began giving broad immunity.

When I was in elementary school, I can’t remember anyone with autism. Those who were diagnosed with some mental and/or physical difference were either in a separate school or a different class almost hidden away. They were not mainstreamed into the system as most students are today.

The kids that were classified “slow learners” received more help but stayed with the main group. By the time that they were in middle school, those kids were being pushed to a vocational track. I don’t think you can compare the diagnostic skills of the1950s and 1960s to those available today. Therefore, it is easier to find the problem in more children that would have gone undiagnosed in the past.

Did Covid push us to a new anti-science backlash. Yes, it did. It was a completely new disease that society was too cautious about in hindsight. But remember over one million Americans died of the disease. It has become much less virulent in the intervening years as the virus has mutated. The difference between the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic and yearly influenza now.

Florida ended up getting it right especially after the vaccine was introduced. Allowing businesses and schools to open proved to be the correct call. But having an abundance of caution until the vaccine was available was not the wrong option either.

I have never had Covid. My wife has had it twice. Funny that my children never caught it either, yet both their spouses have. My former wife, their mother has had Covid so if there is any immunity it must be on my side. I think it is just the luck of the draw. Though I have been vaccinated against the virus receiving the shot several times.

I lived through those childhood diseases. I was terribly sick for some and just uncomfortable for others. By the time those vaccines came out (except for polio), I had immunity because I had the diseases. A schoolmate or two did die during outbreaks.

What no one discusses is that schools were closed to keep the diseases from spreading. Even if they did not close for every one of those disease outbreaks, anyone that had it missed two weeks of school at least.

The notion that if a child has a vaccine, he can “catch” autism is a theory that has been debunked many times. I do know that having polio would be devastating for anyone who catches it. Just ask Mitch McConnell who to this day shows the effects.

At the turn of the 20th century, life expectancy was about 48 years. In 2020, it was 79. Most of that was due to advances in medicine, especially public health. Do we really want to live fewer years? Are debunked claims going to guide us.