Real history: Vaccines not responsible for halting infectious diseases of 20th century

Thursday, November 08, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: vaccines, infectious disease, 20th century

(NaturalNews) A common misconception about vaccines purports that they are the primary reason why infectious disease rates saw a rapid and steady decline throughout the early-to-mid 20th century. But an honest look at the figures reveals that diseases like polio, typhoid, measles, and tuberculosis were already in significant decline long before vaccines were ever even invented, this being the result of improved hygiene and diet.

Data compiled by the National Health Federation (NHF), and relayed by Cynthia A. Janak of RenewAmerica.com, tells the real story about how virtually every major infectious disease of the 20th century was already on its way out long before its associated vaccine came onto the scene. This fact is clearly illustrated in these powerful visual graphs created by NHF that contain vital statistics from official U.S. public health records.

As you will notice in the first graph, mortality rates from diphtheria, for instance, had already dropped by more than half before a vaccine for the infectious bacterial disease was introduced in 1920. The same can be seen for both whooping cough (pertussis) and measles as well, the vaccines for which emerged in the mid-1940s and 1963, respectively.

Some infectious disease vaccines actually triggered more disease deaths

Another important piece of information regarding vaccines is that some of them appear to have actually triggered a spike in mortality rates following their initial release. Just after the diphtheria vaccine's release in 1920, for instance, there was actually a spike in death cases from the disease, followed by the continued decline that had already been taking place before the vaccine's release. A similar spike was seen following the release of the whooping cough vaccine as well.

"Most people believe that victory over the infectious diseases of the last century came with the invention of immunizations. In fact, cholera, typhoid, tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough, etc., were in decline before vaccines for them became available -- the result of better methods of sanitation, sewage disposal, and distribution of food and water," writes Dr. Andrew Weil in his book Health and Healing.

Typhoid fever is an excellent illustration of this crucial fact, as the disease almost completely disappeared in the 40 years between 1920 and 1960 without ever even having had an associated vaccine. Likewise, scarlet fever followed a similar pattern of natural eradication without ever having had an associated vaccine, as you will observe in these compelling graphs.

So the next time somebody tries to guilt-trip you into accepting pro-vaccine dogma on the premise that vaccines have saved the world from infectious disease, simply refer them to actual historical data, which clearly shows that this is simply not the case. Exposing the truth may not be popular with the vaccine industry and its corporate-political allies, which profit heavily from the "vaccines ended infectious disease" myth, but it could help save you and your loved ones from needless vaccine injuries.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.healthsentinel.com

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/janak/071110

http://www.vaclib.org/sites/debate/web1.html