Vaccines are helping drive down disease rates:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

[hedgehog]

1. Any idea of the source - it's a great poster!

the pre-vaccination rates for congenital rubella and tetanus look low to me. I went to school with kids who were exposed to rubella in the womb.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I found it on Facebook. I'll check to see if there's a source.

I thought it was a great poster too!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Here's the source:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2013/02/19/a-graphic-that-drives-home-how-vaccines-have-changed-our-world/

[longship]

4. Smallpox is gone. Polio could be next.

Nobody will ever suffer from smallpox again. That can happen with polio, too. And it's within reach if the knuckleheads stop claiming that the vaccinations are a US plot to sterilize the populace.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. I could not believe that there are people claiming the vaccine will sterilize others. WTF?

[longship]

11. Religious leaders in Africa are telling their flocks this.

Both Moslem and Christian clergy. Meanwhile, the people fighting the battle against polio are really hard pressed to eradicate it.

I was born in 1948 and I remember polio in elementary school in Detroit. There were kids with crutches and leg braces. I remember getting the Salk vaccine. The first one was a jab, the others were oral, a red sugar cube. Everybody got them.

One wonders if the US populace still has herd immunity to polio given that an outbreak may be only an international airline flight away.

[trof]

21. And someday, maybe, cancer?

One can hope.

[longship]

24. I sincerely doubt that cancer has A cure.

Cancer is not a single thing. It is many things. There is not a single cure for all cancer. Those who claim there is... cough! Hulda Clark are selling snake oil. Of course, Clark's claims to have the cure did not stop her from dying of... cough! ... cancer, which she left untreated. That's right. Hulda Clark, PhD ND (Not a Doctor) claimed all cancer was caused by... You guessed it! liver flukes!

These guys:


Apparently Clark's cure didn't work too well, her body undoubtedly riddled with those parasitic worms. Or, she had cancer and her so-called cure still didn't work.

Must've been a fluke? I doubt it. Probably it was just quackery.

[Posteritatis]

29. Cancer is only slightly less of a big tent than, say, "injury" is

There's dozens to hundreds of different types, which affect the host in different ways and for different reasons. It's definitely one of those things that has to get knocked down one or two types at a time, which has largely been how it's been going for the last few decades.

People who talk about knowing "the" cure for cancer are, without exception, lying.

[Posteritatis]

28. It's frustrating how incredibly close we keep getting with polio

That could have been gone - kaput, extinct, not a problem anymore - about ten years ago, and instead it's still hitting thousands, because of ridiculous paranoia in the affected areas which is being encouraged by people on this side of the pond. Its' tragic.

[WCGreen]

5. Good info, Miss Peggy

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Thank you, Chris...

[GoneOffShore]

6. Thank you for posting, Peggy!

Herd immunity is the thing. And vaccines are the way to make it happen.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Herd immunity is wonderful!

Thank you, my dear GoneOffShore...

[central scrutinizer]

10. We are too far removed from how things used to be

I went to a family reunion a few years ago and different branches of the family shared their family trees leading back to our common ancestor. Back in the 1800s, some of the families lost several children, probably to childhood diseases. The most extreme case - 9 children, only two lived past age 14, with several dying in their first two years of life. If that same kind of mortality was still happening, there would be a national effort that would dwarf the race to the moon and the Manhattan project combined. But now, some airhead celebrity who "knows" that vaccines cause autism drowns out mountains of scientific evidence.

[Zoeisright]

12. Yep. Public health successes breed complacency. And ignorance.

People don't know what horrible things those diseases can do because they don't see the effects anymore. But if the anti-vaccers have their way, death and crippling conditions will return as the complications from measles, mumps, etc. start becoming more common.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. I'm afraid you may be right.

Celebrities have all the answers, doncha know?

I wish there were some way we could drown them out.

[MineralMan]

14. We live in amazing times.

I had all of the childhood diseases except diphtheria and polio. Now, almost all kids in the US can forget about them. Science is a wonderful thing!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

15. We do, don't we?

In spite of all the troubles, and there are many, we still have much to be glad about.

Vaccines are one of the wonderful things.

[mountain grammy]

16. Thank you for this valuable information.

I have a cousin who argues continually against vaccines. I will send her this, but what I argue is our own history. As a kid, I remember my mom not letting us go to public swimming pools in the summer, she was terrified of polio because people, kids, actually got the disease. Then it was gone..
When my mom was a kid, she got smallpox and survived with just a few scars. Many people died from smallpox. Then it was gone..
I got measles as a kid and then contracted scarlet fever, I almost died. Many people died from complications of me
measles. Then it was gone..
I think this witch hunt against vaccines is foolish and wrong. You're post backs me up.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

18. I hope this will help, my dear mountain granny!

Have a look at post #3--the link for the chart shows more detail.

[mountain grammy]

27. Thanks, I did and will pass it on.

[kairos12]

17. Great Info

I get tired of the low information celebrity medical opinions reducing the rates of vaccination in our country.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. Thank you, my dear kairos12! I get tired of those foolish opinions too.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. K&R

[Ohio Joe]

22. K&R

Good stuff Peggy

[CaliforniaPeggy]

23. Thanks, Joe! Great to see you, sweetie!

[SoCalDem]

25. My aunt , born in 1906, had diptheria, measles, rubella, undulant fever

influenza (the 1918 variety) and whooping cough.. She was one tough old bird... survived them all..

[CaliforniaPeggy]

26. Wow, she was tough, my dear SoCalDem!

Most of us would rather have the vaccines!

Thanks for sharing her history...

[Posteritatis]

30. The pre-vaccine measles and varicella figures are astonishing.

I knew those were deadly far more often back in the past, but wow.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

32. Those numbers surprised me too...

[Livluvgrow]

31. shhhhhhh

lets keep this on the down low if repubes get wind of this they are liable to try and put a halt to it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

33. Maybe the Republicans are the ones behind the vaccine=autism lies?

Very Belated Welcome to DU, Livluvgrow!